Eternity: The Last Unicorn PlayStation 4 Review

“Eternity: The Last Unicorn”, is an action RPG with a very attractive premise, but whose execution is far from perfect. Brazilian developer Void Studios has engaged in an ambitious project but ended up biting more than it can chew.

 

Eternity: The Last Unicorn sends players to the land of Alfheim, on a journey in search of immortality. In this mystical land, you come to learn about four unicorns of which only one remains alive, being kept prisoner by a group of witches.  The elves have lost their immortality, which is somewhat unexpected in high fantasy, although not unseen. Luckily, the protagonist, a forest fairy named Aurehen, seems to have the key to returning their lost power to them. With a very attractive premise and a well-recreated Nordic setting, the game starts promising high doses of epicness. Players are told little at first but know what to do thanks to the words of the downcast Goddess Marea. But while the story seems interesting enough to make you want to play, it’s not long until everything goes downhill.

Poor dialogue and a fast-paced narrative lead to the plot becoming very predictable. Even for a ten-to-fifteen-hours Action RPG, the narrative iss rather bland and unpolished.
 

 

Eternity: The Last Unicorn is simply a bad game, failing when it comes to basic aspects of the genre like gameplay, immersion and narrative. Moreso, the game is also technically deficient, its poor performance giving the constant impression of playing in slow motion. Trying to play above the 30 FPS threshold, something that should not a problem for the current generation, becomes almost impossible. Alongside this, Eternity has delay in terms of command inputs that make the experience even more frustrating. Finally, the bestiary is scarce and feels unoriginal despite using elements from Norse mythology, and the combat system is flat and tasteless. Attacks suffer from input lag and the available options are unimaginative, with very few options to choose from.

A deeper analysis of this game reflects more deficiencies in game design, which translates into a rather bleak gameplay proposition. Elaborate worldbuilding and multiple layer storylines are not on the menu, as it fails heavily by delivering a mostly linear adventure. To add to this, the studio opted for a strange visual system close to the classic fixed cameras, just when we thought we had the means to get past these annoyances of the past, as the newest version of Resident Evil 2 showed flawlessly. This results in lack of visibility at times and, when your game has actions elements, it can be very impractical. If we add this to the already long list of sins the game commits, it becomes almost unplayable.

 

Not only are battles affected by the game's technical woes,  which occur relatively frequently, they also feel practically the same, being plagued by repetition. Luckily, the final bosses are a breath of fresh air and pose different challenges, offering a slightly more rewarding experience than everything else, forcing players to study the movement patterns of the enemy and find the ideal moment to launch an attack.

Even if the game would run smoothly in glorious 4K at 60 FPS, it still would miss the mark by a lot. The journey is diminished by excessive linearity, the absence of decisions and their lack of worthwhile consequences and outcomes. These, alongside the little to no customization of the playable character and underwhelmping equipment turn this Action RPG into a hot mess. There is a lot of action, yes, but, given the flaws mentioned above, it ends up being a curse rather than something attractive.

 

It is very hard to say anything good about “Eternity: The Last Unicorn” let alone recommend it to someone, in good faith. The market is flooded with a lot of better options to choose from, and the key differentiators are not even that impressive for us to bypass the plethora of flaws this game presents.

Sarwar Ron, NoobFeed
Twitter