ROLE PLAYGROUND | Does Mulaka's mythos make up for it's broken gameplay?
On one hand, it's nice to know some very base knowledge about a new culture - but does the game stack up?
Games often take a lot of liberties when drawing from mythologies: God of War, Dante's Inferno, Assassin's Creed, etc. All of these games took what they wanted from canon and presented a modified and video game-friendly version, goddesses and creatures they barrowed. Mulaka, a new game from small time Mexican indie developer, Lienzo, joins this tradition with their action-platformer, Mulaka.
THE GAME
In Mulaka, you are a Sukururame, a shaman of the Tarahumara people of Mexico. You travel around the various landscapes and have the simple task of helping villagers and seeking help from the gods to prevent the destruction of the world. Throughout, you learn more and more about the Tarahumara people and their beliefs and their myths.
It's a lovely soirée into a culture that I've never learned about - and while I can't speak to its accuracy, it was nice to see that there was effort put into educating the audience as we played.
THE GOOD
The good of Mulaka rests in its design and in the jaunts into the mythology of the Tarahumara people. The world that we're dropped into is a beautifully crafted one - the graphics are a little raw, but that adds a certain air of simplicity that forces to appreciate everything else the game gives you. Not to mention, there's a certain amount of beauty in the wide-open world that run across.
For example, you start in a desert and are tasked with obtaining three magic crystals to open a stone door. To do this, you have to go to three different sections of this vast landscape - and the bare openness of the world doesn't read as boring. This is due to the smattering of enemies and extra bits that are cleverly placed in order to give you just a little something to do outside of your mission.
Then you've got the quirky and, at times, adorable designs of the monsters you fight. You fight scorpions and big skull spiders, and some spirit foxes, and many more - and each design works and has just enough variety to keep you interested.
Plus, you learn about these monsters and how they relate to the Tarahumara people. And when you're not traveling, you are treated to beautiful title cards that give you small, one-sentence facts and tales of the culture. Not to mention, the smattering of NPCs that dot the landscape will sometimes be important people in these myths! It's a fun way to learn some very basic facts about a heretofore not-talked-about culture.
But is it enough to redeem the game's less-than-stellar qualities?