We recently witnessed the end of Heroes of Newerth. For over 12 years, this MOBA from S2 Games had a legion of dedicated fans, but it couldn’t stand up to strong competition from the modern ‘games as a service’ world. However, one of her heroines survived. Aluna, originated in a comic by Colombian actress Paula Garces —who we interviewed a few months ago—, also stars in a game that arrived in 2021 on PC, Nintendo Switch and is finally available for PS4 and Xbox platforms. her name is Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards.
It makes us very happy to talk about video games that represent Latin American culture, especially if they focus on indigenous nations. There are very few of these titles and we need more. Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards it certainly earns points for this aspect, but in this review we are going to see what else it has to offer.
It is difficult to talk about this video game without mentioning its clearest inspiration: Diablo. Like the Blizzard video game series, this is an action RPG with an isometric perspective in which we face hundreds of enemies while collecting new weapons and equipment for the protagonist. As we level up we can create a ‘build’ focused on ranged weapons, melee or magic.
We also have to mention the comic that the game is based on: Aluna’s world. Aluna is the daughter of a Spanish conqueror who, after discovering the powers that a mysterious stone gives her, is accused of witchcraft and her father is kidnapped. This forces her to escape to America where she meets the Tairona tribe, who help her discover her true identity and relationship with the goddess Pachamama.
The game serves as a continuation of that story, with Aluna searching for more pieces of the Pachamama stone to restore her powers before a resurrected Nagaric can obtain them. Comic fans are going to find many characters they already know and a faithful representation of the world they discovered in its pages.
A nivel visual, Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards It’s nothing special in terms of quality, but it has an acceptable character and enemy design. The same can be said of music. It’s good and accompanies the action well, but it doesn’t stand out at all. What is attractive are the animated comics that help narrate the plot.
During the first hours of the game, the gameplay did not convince us very much. This is essentially similar to that of Diablo, but it is not as polished or offers the same depth when it comes to “building” a character. In addition, it has a serious flaw: although it allows you to reset the assignment of experience points to skills, it does not allow you to create default ‘builds’. Initially it seems that we have to completely change the skills if we want to change from a melee weapon to a ranged one, but this is not feasible.
Student it works best when we focus entirely on one of the three available playstyles: melee, ranged, or magic. When you get far enough down one of the skill trees to have a good number of offensive, defensive, and support options, this game really shines. Boss fights or multi-enemy fights where we’re keeping an eye on various skill cooldowns can be very intense and exciting..
Of course, you have to be careful because the difficulty can increase suddenly and brutally. Don’t feel bad if you get stuck in a fight, because at any time you can reduce the difficulty level… or increase it if you want an even greater challenge.
It is a pity that this experience cannot be shared with another person. Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards It is a single player title. This, honestly, is a huge sin in a game of this genre.
That doesn’t mean that Aluna is alone during her adventure. Throughout the 7-9 hours that the game lasts, we are joined by various characters—some familiar from the comics, others new—to fight by our side. They’re useful, but they don’t offer new mechanics or change the way you play. Although you have the option to start a new game in ‘New Game +’, there is no real “postgame” that encourages you to repeat the adventure or search for rare equipment.
But those are not the true flaws of this game, as we find many errors that do not allow you to fully enjoy the experience. The behavior of the enemies is very erratic. There are times when the controls don’t respond as they should and the longer levels get very repetitive. The Spanish localization is embarrassing. We are not saying this just because of a couple of bad translations, but because there are times when the game decides to show the texts in Portuguese instead of in our language. Nor is it spoken in Spanish despite the importance of our culture in its history and the voice acting is not the best, despite the fact that Paula Garcés herself plays Aluna.
If we take into account the relationship of the game with Colombia, it is possible to think that we will see a good representation of our indigenous cultures. Sadly it is not so. Although there are tribes called Tyrone y Jivaros (Shuar) these bear no resemblance to the royal tribes of the same name that inhabit our region. In fact, we see them worshiping Inca and Mesoamerican gods such as Pachamama, Supay, Quetzalcóatl and Camazotz, which have no relation to their actual beliefs
In our interview with Garcés, she explained that she was inspired by the cultures of our region, but never intended to represent the actual tribes. We understand her position, but we see it as a missed opportunity to unveil a real mythology that very few are familiar with.
Despite all this, the game can be enjoyed quite a bit if we are not demanding… but definitely not if we play on PS4. Play Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards in that console it is all an ordeal. During our game we suffered from constant slowdowns and pauses in the action when performing actions as simple as opening chests. Also, it became almost unplayable when there were a lot of enemies and visual effects on screen.
If you are interested in playing Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards, we hope they can do it on Steam. We were also able to test that version and it runs very well on a mid-range computer. We cannot recommend the PS4 version under any circumstances. Your technical problems are too serious.
We will always applaud the arrival of works that represent Latin American culture and history, but we also wish this was a better game. Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards had the potential to be a good alternative to Diablo, but its technical problems and the lack of ambition in its game mechanics prevent it. We also don’t like its poor Spanish localization and the PS4 version performs poorly. Despite that, it can be quite an entertaining experience and if you’re up for it, we highly recommend choosing the Steam version.
Review made with a digital copy of Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards for PS4 provided by Digiart Entertainment.
