Analysis: Fed to the Wolves - On Kya: Dark Lineage

Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, these represent possibility the best platformer titles for the Ps2. Each one has a different take on the genre and I assume each one of you that had a Ps2 knows what I'm talking about. Today I'm going to talk about another platformer on the Ps2 which is just as good as these and that most of you have probably never played.

Kya: Dark Lineage or KDL was released on the PS2 in 2003 in the US by Eden Games. This was surprisingly the first of this genre from the developers. KDL follows Kya who after discovering a strange rune in her house gets transported to another world and is called upon to save it. There are two main species of creatures, Nativs and Wolfen; the Nativs are the general populace of furry creatures and they are being attacked by the Wolfen. The Wolfen are Nativs transformed into Wolfen by the big bad guy and Kya must exorcise the Wolfen to save everyone. Yes the story was not going to win any awards but like any good platformer the game play is where Kya has it.

As I mentioned at the start, the best platformers for the PS2 each took a unique take on the genre and ran with it. Jax went gritty and cinematic, Ratchet added unique weaponry and run and gun and Sly put stealth. Kya started out like most platformers, you have a hub world that takes you to each area of the game and you will unlock new gear to backtrack to go for 100%. Once you get past the intro you'll find that Kya has a few tricks up her sleeve and that Kya is actually a 3d brawler stealth platformer game.

First is stealth, it turns out that wolfs do more than claw and bite, they take firearm training. Kya will run into armed enemies who if they see her they will gun her down. Gun fire also pushes Kya back preventing a brute force strategy of running at the enemy. Most of the time enemies are set up on encampments requiring the player to take the long way around to reach the guards. If Kya can get close enough to a gun wielding enemy chances are she can take them in a fight as all the gun wielding Wolfen are the weakest class (more on that later). Further in you'll run into puzzles revolving around finding a way to disable the guards in areas that you can't reach. Next up, what you do when you can reach your enemies.

For once in a platformer title the protagonist has more in the range of attacking then just pressing one button over again. KDL has an engrossing combat system to go with the running and jumping. Kya can attack with punches, kicks as well as grab attacks with combos and new moves are unlocked through upgrades. Combat feels very visceral as enemies fly backwards from strong attacks and you can watch enemies reel back from taking blows. Combat also takes an interesting turn as the enemies are actually smart enough to block. The more you use the same attacks or combos on an enemy the quicker they will learn that attack and block more nullifying the attack, this requires you to change up your attacks.

If I remember right there are three classes of wolfen to deal with: scrawny, muscular and elite. Scrawny wolfen are also the only ones who wield guns and fall fairly quick to a few good combos. Muscular do more damage and are more proactive at counter attacks. Finally elite guys can teleport, do the most damage and are the fastest to figure out your combos. What makes the combat work is that button mashing is punished requiring the player to learn these combos which are nowhere near as complex as the ones you see in fighting games but still engrossing enough. Now being sneaky and kicking ass is important but the platforming of KDL really ties everything together.

KDL throws in a lot of platforming staples along with a few new tricks. Perilous climbs and jumps are all over the place along with classic platforming challenges, such as jumping to moving platforms, race across dangerous sections to an oasis and other ones. KDL also throws in some special sections, such as navigating a hot air dirigible through a cavern. Two of my favorites would be the air gliding and animal riding areas. One of the species of animals in the world is these ostrich type creatures that run faster and jump farther than Kya. Besides the standard jump across long distance sections there are some that require you to catch up to a moving vehicle and jump off the creature to the vehicle and these sections are just awesome. I wish that there were more parts like this as the sections were well done.

Air gliding which comes into play more often involves Kya using pockets of air to glide around areas and avoid spikes and such. These sections serve as a great break between the platforming, stealth and fighting sections while still providing a challenge. Once again it's that time for me to take off my rose tinted glasses and look at where KDL slips up.

The difficulty level of KDL stays firmly on the tough end of the scale, fortunately it came out around the time that platformers were moving away from lives and continues so you don't need to worry about repeating levels after you die. However there are several sections that do focus on trial and error as one goof up can kill you.

I remember one part near the end that has you racing up a cavern while lava is filling up, if you don't do things perfectly you'll get caught in the lava. As mentioned earlier you have to exorcise the wolfen to turn them back into nativs. There is a set # of wolfen in the game and to get %100 you have free them all, the problem is that if a wolfen dies by bottomless pits they are gone unless you kill yourself. While not a game breaker it does feel counterproductive to have to suicide to complete the game.

Last issue is a collective assortment of rough patches in the game, such as invisible walls glitches, camera awkwardness and such. Still with these issues I enjoyed KDL to the point that I went through and got 100% for it. Sadly we did not see a sequel even though the game hints heavily at continuing the storyline during the ending. In my opinion a several things affected the success of KDL.

First marketing was almost nonexistent; I barely remember seeing anything advertising the game other then reviews. Speaking of which reviews of the game did mark the game down for appearing in an over saturated market. The PS2 had a lot of platformers on it from great to poor and with so many games in the genre it was hard to tell the diamonds in the rough.

The sad part is that KDL like Jax, Sly and Ratchet did do something unique for the genre. The combat and stealth elements were not seen in that manner from other platformers and KDL was caught in that awkward phase as the genre started to change. The platformer genre as a whole was moving more into action adventure with less focus on lives and level progression and more to larger open areas.

I would have loved to see a refined sequel to KDL as the other great platformers really didn't come into their own until their second or third titles in the series. Fortunately Eden Games is still around, having worked on the latest Alone in the Dark game but I still hope that we could see a sequel or even a spiritual one.

Josh