If you’ve been a regular reader here on Gamezebo over the past couple of months, then you probably know that I have a real soft spot for those bright and sunny open world platform-adventure games we used to play on the Nintendo 64. Okay, I guess it’s not so much a soft spot as it is a complete obsession for anything that even slightly resembles Banjo Kazooie or Super Mario 64. But in either event, Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim from Ascension Studios is precisely the kind of title that gets me so excited about playing video games.
If you’ve been a regular reader here on Gamezebo over the past couple of months, then you probably know that I have a real soft spot for those bright and sunny open world platform-adventure games we used to play on the Nintendo 64. Okay, I guess it’s not so much a soft spot as it is a complete obsession for anything that even slightly resembles Banjo Kazooie or Super Mario 64. But in either event, Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim from Ascension Studios is precisely the kind of title that gets me so excited about playing video games.
We had selected Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim as one of our Kickstarter picks a few months ago (back when it was simply known as “Project Cornerstone”), and so it’s nice to see how far the game has really come in all of that time. Even the Alpha, “far from finished” gameplay footage of Tyrim in action looks like a real breath of fresh air for the open world genre at large, and so I really can’t wait to see how bright and eye-popping Tyrim’s quaint island world will be once we get closer to the game’s commercial release.
One of my favorite features about the game is still the devilishly clever and awesome use of exploding barrels, in which Tyrim can pick up a barrel, strategically place it behind an unsuspecting enemy, and then draw a line of gunpowder on the ground where he can safely trigger the explosion at a comfortable distance. You’ll also get to experience some more confrontational combat on your quest as well, where a simple but effective shield-blocking mechanic works hand-in-hand with the powerful smacks of Tyrim’s tomahawk-like club.
But of course, Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim wouldn’t be the open world adventure that it is without some classic platforming segements up some rocky jungle cliffs, right? While most of what we’ve seen about the game so far takes place in Tyrim’s home island village, we finally get to see a few of the other locales that will make up the rest of his journey, including some underground caves, where hopping from stone to stone across a stretch of water is just all in a day’s work.
Even though Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim has made all sorts of progress in the last couple of months, the developers say there is still a lot of work ahead before the game’s release in 2014 on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms. I have a feeling that all gamers, young and old, will be singing the song of the little adventurous boy in the Viking helmet come 2014.
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