XEL Review (PC)

Two robots stand in my way, moving around listlessly while a turret spits fire in my general direction. I dodge, slash at both the enemies that can move, and dodge again to stay out of their reach. One moves faster towards me, so I finish him and pick up some gear. The turret hits once but I am close enough to move towards it and take it down. The remaining robot poses no problem and drops the health I need to be back up at full. I use a chrono pillar to save, before moving towards the next area, which is probably the last one before I have to face a boss. I’ll probably die a few times before I learn its patterns but then it’s only a matter of using my tools wisely before I defeat another robotic monstrosity.

XEL was developed by Tiny Roar and published by Assemble Entertainment. I played it using Steam on the PC and it can also be bought on the Nintendo Switch. The title delivers a classic take on action and exploration, with Zelda offering the most famous example.

The basic setup is familiar: our heroine crash lands on a new planet, her memory is gone, but she does find a cute robot companion. She goes exploring to find out more about the world, meeting robots and humans that fight against them. The world-building aims for whimsy but despite all the bright colors it mostly feels flat. I never felt any connection to the amnesiac protagonist or that robot sidekick.

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Gameplay in XEL is also instantly familiar: exploration mixed with combat, all seen from an isometric point of view. It will be quickly obvious that there’s no player-controlled jump, which means you have to trust the game that it makes the hero leap at the appropriate moment. But there’s an energy-constrained dodge, crucial for avoiding damage.

And players quickly get access to a sword, fast and very good for dealing with basic enemies, and a shield, linked to the stamina system. Using these tools gamers will move across the levels, deal with opponents, gather crafting ingredients and trinkets, and finally, come face to face with a boss. Make sure to save at all the bright pink pillars.

Our heroine also gets access to time cores, allowing her to move to the world's distant past. This is an interesting idea, used to add more variety to the puzzles, but there’s never an effort to make it the core of gameplay or to explore all the fun ways in which it can break levels. Gadgets, crafting, and other open-world action-adventure concepts are all present in XEL. The levels are mostly linear, with some shortcuts that open up as needed. The combat and exploration work well, even if they offer nothing that feels transformational.

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And then there are the glitches. After one roll my character got stuck in the scenery and I had to reload and play through a 15-minute-long segment again. The character does not automatically draw in everything enemies drop, which leads to extra running around. Descriptions for items pop up apparently randomly. The hitbox for the protagonist is a little bigger than she appears, which leads to unfair hits. Characters that are supposed to follow her do not, but their dialogue continues to play, sometimes out of order.

XEL is entirely average in all the presentation categories. The levels are decent, but the world is uninspired. The main character is a cliché and the cutscenes are adequate without impressing in any way. Normal enemies lack any interesting characteristics and even the bosses are just collections of attack patterns. There was a lot of room to innovate or try something different, but the developers chose the safe path. The voice acting is weak, especially when the characters are trying to be a little edgy or express emotion, and the soundtrack remains mostly in the background. I felt no loss when I replaced it with a few podcast episodes.

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The Good

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Conclusion