El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Reviews
A decade later and El Shaddai still has some of the best art design in the business, even if its shallow but enjoyable combat can't match it for variety or imagination.
It's not a game for everyone, but it's one that we'll never get tired of recommending. If El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron HD Remaster manages to "click" for you, you'll never be able to forget this biblical hack and slash.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I can't imagine anybody was clamouring for it, but I'm still happy El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron was ported to PC. It's a shame when games are lost to time, and even though this one has some clunky combat and repetitive gameplay, it's still one of the most artistically inventive and stunningly original games of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era.
A basic port of a cult classic action adventure that's still as visually stunning as ever, but also retains repetitive combat that makes exploration a real chore at times.
If you like weird games, play El Shaddai. If you like games with incredibly creative visuals and great music, play El Shaddai. If you like games where half-naked men beat the crap out of each other for very poorly explained reasons, play El Shaddai. The only reasons you should skip this title are if you hate platforming or you need the plots of your games to actually make sense.
El Shaddai feels genuinely more creative and interesting than a lot of the titles it would consider bedfellows today. It shares a place with the likes of ICO, Nier, and Panzer Dragoon in its arcane design and historically inspired symbolism. Elsewhere, it borrows from the likes of Okami and Mizuguchi's Rez for its abstract, acid-trip beauty. It's true that the combat can become routine, the platforming occasionally frustrate, and some of the boss encounters appear slightly samey, but it runs smoothly and assuredly across 11 visually astounding stages. El Shaddai, more than anything else, is a game of moments, and a lot of them. It's certainly one of the most intriguing titles in the action-adventure, hack-and-slash genre, and deserves the attention this time around that it never achieved on its original release.
If you missed it back in 2011, El Shaddai ASCENSION OF THE METATRON HD Remaster is a second chance to experience a MUST PLAY in gaming.
Embody the wrath of Heaven and bind the fallen angels as you experience cult classic El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron for the first time on PC! Help Enoch on his quest to save humanity and bask in some glorious visuals - even by today's standards.
The bare minimum was done to port El Shaddai: Ascesion of the Metatron over to PC, but 10 years later it's still an incredible journey.
Playing El Shaddai portably feels right. The combat system is easy to get into and not having to deal with any camera system makes this game feel very accessible for action game newcomers. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron HD Remaster is an audio and visual tour de force that you never forget. It makes sense why it was brought back after all these years.
After 10 years it is still fresh-looking third-person action adventure and platformer.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
As this new and improved version shows, El Shaddai ASCENSION OF THE METATRON HD Remaster is still very much a game for a very specific niche. Beautiful visuals and an inventive story can only take you so far; at some point the gameplay needs to be there too, and as you’ll see time and again, that’s not the case here.
El Shaddai ASCENSION OF THE METATRON HD Remaster updates to HD one of the most peculiar titles from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Though the title inspired by Enoch's book isn't immune to occasional performance issues on Switch, this is an excellent reminder that experimentation and establishing connections to art should be more valued in the game industry instead of being left only to indie works. Overall, if you'd like to relive this adventure or to know it personally, Nintendo's console is indeed a good way to do it. It's just better, due to the aging marks, to adjust expectations.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Presenting El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron to a new audience and preserving it for future generations is a great thing, especially considering its cult status. Whether that audience will enjoy it is another matter entirely.
Like the original release, El Shaddai is a great game with constrained potential due to the unfortunate circumstances that may come with game development. The Steam release gives new players a chance to explore what this cult classic is all about while giving old players the opportunity for a replay. This character-driven action game is a really fun time that doesn't overstay its welcome but may make players crave more.
I looked forward to giving an game like El Shaddai a try, but its aged...everything...fails to hold my attention.
While I wouldn’t want to play it time and again, El Shaddai is an experience well worth having. Some of the sights and sounds in this game are so different from anything I’ve ever seen in a game that I can only marvel at them. The gameplay may be simple, but its ever-changing stages keep things fresh long enough for you to reach the end. It isn’t quite a holy experience, but it’s one I won’t soon forget.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is truly a unique game, and despite its bland gameplay, feels like a genuine cult classic.
Its setting and story are basically unheard of in gaming, given how devs are not exactly comfortable tackling Abrahamic religions in this kind of medium. As a concept, it’s fantastic. As an action game, it’s quite shallow.