Sorcery PS3 Review

Publisher – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe – Developer – The Workshop/Sony Santa Monica – Genre – Action – Players – 1 – Age Rating – 12+ – Other console/handheld formats – N/A

If there’s anything that Sony’s PlayStation Move is capable of mimicking, it’s the magic wand. Move has a shiny light on the top and is long in design, making it feel very much like casting a wand. It goes without saying then, that a game that allows you to chuck magic spells is going to fit Move very well.

The Celtic themed Sorcery is one of the games that Move was seemingly created for, and certainly those who have always wanted to pretend to cast magic spells will be in their element here. But the question is has Sorcery got Move working like a magic wand should do? The motion controller has certainly proven itself to be capable at many things since being released.

The central character is Finn, a teenage sorcerer’s apprentice, who ends up on a quest after his mentor Dash goes away for awhile. Finn is joined by his feline companion Erline. The family friendly characters and humour are likeable enough, and Finn’s roguish nature will certainly be relatable as far as many children are concerned, while it may bring back memories of the childhoods of certain adults.

As soon as Finn gets hold of the magic wand at the outset of the game, you’ll truly feel like the sorcerer’s apprentice that you are supposed to be. The game is played using Move in one hand and a navigation controller or DualShock pad in the other hand for movement. The controls are intuitive enough, and there’s a subtle auto-aim present that helps direct your spells towards enemies, but you never feel as if the game has entirely stolen control away from you. For the most part, your attacks fly in the direction that you want them to, and the control set-up just generally makes a lot of sense.

A simple flick of the wrist will send arcane bolts shooting out of your wand, but you’ll also be gifted with new attacks across the course of the game. Combining all these different attacks and defensive options is also very intuitive, and it does manage to keep the combat feeling relatively fresh, even if things do feel overly repetitive at times – you’ll be casting a lot of magic and defeating a lot of enemies with it over the course of the game.

Move isn’t only used during combat, as you’ll also be making use of Finn’s wand to blow things up, to break doors down, and to rebuild damaged objects and so on. There’s not a single action to be found that badly fails to work, and that’s always something that should be applauded in a game powered by motion sensing.

Another thing that should be applauded is that Sorcery is a rarity – a motion controlled game that isn’t all about throwaway mini games, but that’s not to say that the game is completely sans mini games, although it only features one and it’s just a nice piece of interaction for mixing and creating potions. You’ll be able to buy ingredients with gold earned on your journey. These ingredients can be used to concoct potions, and you’ll use Move to add and stir the ingredients to bring these potions into being. You’ll be able to increase Finn’s health, defence and so on.

Visually, Sorcery does have a certain cartoon charm, although many of the environments are overly bland. Aurally, the music is wonderful and the voice acting certainly does the job, even if Irish voices would have been a lot better suited than American voices.

Sorcery is a smartly made motion controlled experience that finds the ideal level of what makes such a game really work. The controls definitely feel reliable, and, even if the core experience is overly short, repetitive and, in ways, a little bland, it’s just a lot of fun lobbing magic spells at all manner of nasty creatures.

7/10