[h1][i]“Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence.”[/i]
~Sholem Asch[/h1]
Remember [b]FutureWave[/b]? A tiny company that pretty much changed the way we experienced web back in the late 90s and early 2000s? What do you mean you don't? You should be really ashamed of yourself. But OK, let me give you a hint. At the end of the 1996, somewhere around Christmas, their daring technology that aimed to compete with [b]Macromedia[/b]'s [b]Shockwave[/b] that allowed people to access interactive apps and video games right from their browser, was... Well, acquired by [b]Macromedia[/b]. Who renamed it to [b]Macromedia Flash[/b]. Yeah. [i]The[/i] [b]Macromedia Flash[/b]. The one that will later become [b]Adobe Flash[/b].
Don't even try to deny it. You lived back then – you sure remember at least something made with that sh*t. Not only [b]Flash[/b] turned those infamous early websites that relied solely on [b]GIF[/b] animation into a charming futuristic something with animated menus and stuff like that (can't say I miss that, but back in the days it sure looked awesome), it gave us mind-blowing amount of free content. Which, of course, was especially important to kids, who didn't have enough money to buy stuff. Sure, not everybody had [b]Internet[/b] connection back in the days, while prices were rather ugly and most of the time we were asked to pay per megabytes, but that was the beauty of it.
The thing is – [b]Flash[/b] stuff was rather tiny. Yet the selection of content was [i]enormous[/i]. From animated shows (don't forget – [b]YouTube[/b] was not launched until 2005 and did not start getting enough content for quite some time) to video games of all sorts. All in your browser. With a juicy option to download things you like at school and then play 'em offline at home. Like I said, you lived back then? You sure have some good memories about at least something. Personally, I wasted lots and lots of hours of my life on such stuff. No regrets. Thanks to how easy it was to work with the [b]Flash[/b]... Let's just say it was our indie gaming before indie gaming became cool.
So... Yeah. You know where I'm going with this. Despite [b]Age of Games[/b]' claim that this game was released in 2023, [b]Eukarion Tales: Origins[/b] is actually a pretty old game. 13 years old to be precise. Except back in the days it was called either simply [b]Eukarion Tales[/b] or [b]Eukarion Tales: Marcus the Knight[/b]. You can still find it online in that form. And aside from the name change? There's no difference. But wait, wait, what [i]exactly[/i] did we get ourselves here? Let's see.
First of all, as you can easily guess just by looking at screenshots, it's a [b]Diablo[/b] variant. Right after its release, [b]Condor[/b]'s (AKA [b]BLIZZARD North[/b]) take on good ol' [b]Rogue[/b] (remember how [b]Diablo[/b] was meant to be turn-based too?) became more than a game. It became worldwide phenomenon. Everybody (except, maybe, overly religious people) was playing and every publisher wanted their our version. Naturally, with [b]Flash[/b] being all rage about the same time, we've got quite some projects that tried to imitate game that pretty much established a new genre. This here, though, was pretty late to the game (it's actually a quick re-skin of [b]Age of Games[/b]' series called [b]King's Island[/b] that came before it and was around since 2008 if I'm not mistaken). I mean, come on. Nobody cared 'bout [b]Flash[/b] anymore in 2010. Everybody was too busy with [b]World of WarCraft[/b] and even [b]Diablo II[/b] became history. At least when we're talking about single player experience, since it came with a very strong multiplayer, but you know what I mean. Still, maybe [b]Eukarion Tales[/b] is one of those things that appear late, yet give the platform justice? Unfortunately, no.
First of all, it's not like this game is nicely made. Here's an example – when you click “map”, the game opens a tab in your default browser and shows you a page, on which all areas are shown. As screenshots. [i]Ba-dum-tss...[/i] It's not like you'll need those much, since areas here are ridiculously tiny and there's only a few of them in the entire game, but still, it's stupid. Monsters are terribly implemented too. About half your way in, it'll be like the entire area covered in monsters who'll start attacking you all at once. And if you'll quit map and return (may happen by just an occasion)? Those will all be back again.
Did they capture the original feeling, though? I mean, we all know how charming the original [b]Diablo[/b] is. Unfortunately, no. No atmosphere here at all, while story is just a sad joke. You're some dude called [b]Marcus[/b], who wants to become a knight or whatever. In order to do so, he needs to find three keys, open three doors, collect three artifacts and then kill an evil lich dude who wants his blood. For whatever reason. All that is told in a form of overly long “click to skip” dialogues with a single [b]NPC[/b] that'll appear again and again on most of the maps and also serves as a vendor.
No city hub, no optional objectives (you may visit so-called “hidden areas”, though, which aren't hidden at all and look like those dungeon entrances from [b]Diablo II[/b]), no classes to choose from... Talking about classes. Despite not having classes, game still lets you make usual warrior, archer or mage just by distributing the points in a certain way and then buy the right equipment. Is it fun, though? Well... Yes and no. Mostly no, but for a reason. See, there [i]is[/i] a certain amount of addictiveness here, but only because clicking in order to eventually overpower your enemies (there's no level cap in this game) is almost always addictive. The actual thing? It sucks. It's clunky, the [b]UI[/b] and battle mechanics are exactly like what you may expect from [b]Diablo[/b] wannabe on [b]Flash[/b], the balance is not a thing at all, etc, etc, etc.
In other words, what we've got here is a bunch of tiny little screens (16 to be precise, and yes, I've actually counted) with some monsters to kill, some optional dungeons to clear (can be cleared in seconds at some point), some experience to gain and some equipment to buy. Evil mage at the end included. Clearly, since it's 2023 we talking 'bout here, none of this worth your time. Even in 2010 I don't think I'd play this. Probably why I missed this game back in the days. But in 2023? Even though [b]Age of Games[/b] gives this product away for free (in order to promote its sequel, but still), it still doesn't worth it. This here is something to be played somewhere around 2000. At school or college with0 free Internet connection.
Don't get me wrong, though. There [i]are[/i] [b]Flash[/b] games (this here is not even a port and plays through [b]Flash Player[/b]) that still worth returning to. Like [b]COIL[/b], for example (which is also available in [b]Steam[/b] now). This here? Is not one of such games. Tiny, ugly and clunky attempt to imitate something real is not worth wasting your time on in a year, where games like [b]Warzone 2100[/b] are free and even quite recent big games can be acquired for free during the giveaways. [b]Eukarion Tales[/b] is... a shadow. A shadow of times that are long gone. I also don't really appreciate the approach [b]Age of Games[/b] chose with this release. Claiming this here is 2023 product looks scammish enough, while there are also tons of reviews that look paid. I mean, come on! There's a dude who actually praises the story! Good grief... One way or another, you've got the idea. As much as I like the content preservation, some things should stay in their time. And sometimes? Forgetting is a good thing. Dixi.
