POSTED 29/1/14


FOREST LEGENDS: THE CALL OF LOVE

Alawar Entertainment
PS3/PSN (also on PC)

Imagine if Disney remade True Blood...

...but they got the people behind Days of Our Lives to direct it. That’s more or less what lies in store for those entering the pointy clicky world of Forest Legends: The Call of Love.

It’s your total Disney princess backstory of forbidden love, as the daughter of a town next to a forbidden forest’s enforcer falls for forbidden fruit in the form of a werepussy, rather than a werewolf. We can only assume that he makes love to her, like a tiger!

Damn, we said ‘forbidden’ three times in that last paragraph. That should be forbidden.

Anyway, putting aside storylines so well-worn that even Shakespeare would be struggling to stifle a yawn, Forest Legends adds an extra ingredient to the aforementioned pointy clicky mix – an element of hidden objectification. If you’re expecting one of those alarmingly time-sucking diversions bulging with everyday objects secreted sneakily within bigger pictures though you’re on the wrong track, as things definitely plump more for the adventuring angle. But some often challenging puzzles are thrown in as you need to find this, work out where it belongs, stick it there and then continue on. Professor Layton would be jolly chuffed.

While the various vistas you visit can look magnificent, an element of unintentional comedy – well, we think it’s unintentional - bobs up when any character speaks with another. They’re obviously telepathic, as words come with little to no mouthy movement while they just kinda breeze-sway. The often stilted voice acting owes much to daytime soapies, too.

OK, so while the booties of the magnificent Monkey Island series and similar will scarcely be all quaky, there’s still quite some fun to be had here, albeit it fairly brief as it clocks in at just four to five hours, depending upon how quickly you attack it. Like a tiger!

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