[quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote]
[h1]Overall Rating - Painfully Bad ★☆☆☆☆[/h1]
[h1]First Impressions[/h1]
With a title like The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines (AFT), I'd expect gameplay that'd be less combat-oriented, what with diplomacy being the tools of an ambassador. In this case though, to Hell with that, because you can momentarily pause time. It's true manipulating time is useful for fighting, but many stages don't revolve that much around the central gimmick.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
Interestingly enough, AFT is a twin-stick shooter, and a nice feature is that you always have two weapons handy. Ironically, your classic melee weapons, such as swords or axes, are thrown at enemies, and return like a boomerang. Magic attacks also act as projectiles, but you have limited mana. There's another type of magic you wield, which allows you to temporarily pause time, yet this meter is much smaller than your mana reserves. Although AFT looks like a title that'd include leveling up or RPG elements, that's not the case. As you beat levels, you'll occasionally get a new piece of equipment, but instead of something with outright better stats, they'll have new properties. For instance, being able to charge up the wand so it can hit up to three enemies at once.
Sadly, I wasn't having a bad time playing through the stages. More often than not, my methodical approach was letting me clear every situation on my first attempt. Sometimes, an enemy just beyond the edge of the screen fired at me, but usually if they could fire at me, I could also kill them. Unfortunately, the factor that ruins the experience are the boss fights, because the combat gets thrown out of whack. My guess is that the developers realized things weren't balanced well in a few situations, so they offered assisted difficulty as an option. However, you can't switch back and forth during a playthrough, and when starting a new file, they recommend standard instead, “Don't you believe it!”
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3449190896
[h1]Controls[/h1]
Due to the scaling, even aiming for enemies at a distance isn't too precise or difficult. I certainly missed plenty of shots, but it'd only take minor tweaks to fix my aim, and kill the enemy my next attempt. There are a decent number of inputs to keep in mind with all your abilities, but it's mapped out intelligently, so it isn't too hard to keep track of.
[h1]Story[/h1]
Despite reading everything during the tutorial, I didn't catch that much information about the time lord, the council, my mentor, or all the key factions at play. Reading the optional lore books led to a similar issue, as I just wasn't invested enough to pay attention. Instead of focusing on interesting events, it spends too much time talking about things like one group's deity over another, “They worship nature. I'm sure that'll matter so much when I have to kill their boss.”
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3449190295
[h1]Visuals[/h1]
I feel like I've seen a few games with this visual style, between the medieval setting, and a pixelated basis. Even the flat or bland looking faces from not having enough details to work with seems familiar. That seems to be the trade-off from this style, as the backgrounds look perfectly fine, but it's hard to design NPCs that have any character or distinct features. At least elements like trees are given enough differences from one another it's not merely a repetitive mosaic of identical tiles. Designing enemies so that you can easily distinguish one type against another is also helpful, “Those weaklings can be taken out with a quick swipe. I better retreat against that behemoth though.”
[h1]Sound Design[/h1]
From what I've heard in other action games like this, I'd expect fast-paced tunes, and perhaps aggressive instrumentation backing it up. However, I find the soundtrack for AFT somewhat shy of that mark. If anything, it starts off quite mellow, so much so I might even call it thought-provoking music, as a decent number of the songs have a slower pace, able to calmly fade into the background. Over time, it becomes faster and more dramatic, but they don't necessarily scream combat to me. In my own imagination, it might be part of someone's developing scheme, or an intense argument. Having found the songs on YouTube, I'd actually recommend checking them out if you enjoy instrumental music. Regarding the sound effects, perhaps it's because you throw your weapons, but they don't have the usual strength to their attacks landing as I'm used to.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3449190505
[h1]Pros[/h1]
🌟 With the enemy factions utilizing different environments for their base, it prevents the game from being too one-note. The icy biome makes use of other colors compared to the palette in the forest.
🌟 At any time, you can pause the game to switch out your equipment. Within the same stage, swapping equipment might allow you to handle different situations better.
🌟 Having a food system that lets you hoard it for desperate moments is handy.
[h1]Cons[/h1]
❌ It's hard to tell, but I don't think you have many i-frames. If a few enemies gang up on you, you're as good as dead.
❌ Boss battles aren't well balanced, and are the low point of the game.
❌ The story doesn't hook players well.
[h1]Tips[/h1]
🔍 When you get to later levels in a region, it's not a terrible idea to run around getting an idea of what's around you, and then restarting. There's no penalty for dying, so knowing what's coming up is a worthwhile trade.
🔍 Using the armor that provides four hearts helps significantly, because surviving is all that really matters. Plus, you can save your food by not healing, and making use of the free heal at the portal.
🔍 I rarely ran out of mana, as I wasn't relying that much on my magic attacks. Unless you go ham, you'll likely have plenty to spare, so don't be stingy when you need it.
[h1]Final Thoughts[/h1]
Unbeknownst to me, choosing standard ruined my attempted playthrough of AFT, and it's all due to the priestess boss. Theoretically, all you have to do is activate eight lights at once, and it'll spawn one of three crystals needed to break her armor. No matter how many times I tried to do this, completely ignoring the damage I was taking, I couldn't hit all the targets at once. Even when I'd use the time stop and tried everything imaginable, it wouldn't work properly. This made me feel like I was spinning my wheels, because I swear that all of them had been hit, and should currently be active. If the game disagrees though, it doesn't matter, because I can't even begin fighting this boss. Unfortunately, I didn't get this game directly through Steam, or else I'd be under the two hour limit, and I'd refund it.
[table]
[tr]
[th]PC Specs[/th]
[th]Performance[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080
[/td]
[td]The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - AFT is healthy
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
