Ezmore’s Crystals is a game you can play that gives you the same experience as Diablo or other top view clicking games. This time, it’s got a Lego twist to it, with Lego weapons and cosmetics. But other than that, the environment has this low polygonal look to it, and the game has fancy lighting. It has dynamic shadows and lighting, and well lit enough to make it feel like you’re either outside or inside. Not only does this factor help with immersion, but just the quests overall just give you a reason to play a game and go out an explore. Quests are quirky, with interesting characters. And I like how you, the player has this rebellious dialogue where every quest feels like a chore, and you’re mad that you got the responsibility dumped on you.
The level design and scene building are amazing and actually keeps you immersed and has this sense of life to it. All objects are welly placed and designed, and it makes caves feel like actual caves, and creepy forests, well… creepy.
Progression in this game is easily noticeable and when you level up and steamroll a goblin that was destroying you, it feels good and satisfying, it makes you want to keep going. A wide variety of items and customization is very nice as well.
However, sometimes pathfinding is difficult, and some trees or houses could get in the way of you clicking. It would be nice to make objects that interfere with the sightline of your character to just turn transparent and make it see through.
The only problem that could be just our computers, but the game doesn’t really feel welly optimized. Usually, maps are rendered out fully for the player to play in, and that’s why you can tell things run smoother on Studsvile, because it’s quite a small map with not many things to render. If you could make the parts of the map not render when you’re not in that area, that would help a ton. This could ruin the mini-map function, but to be completely honest, I’m not a big fan of mini-maps to begin with. I feel like they just dampen immersion or the need to explore because on that map you can see where you’re going and need to go.
The UI does feel like it works against me sometimes, operating with the inventory feels tight and restricted, there isn’t any item descriptions when you’re buying things, so you don’t know what damage/protection you’re getting out of it, and sometimes it overlaps over each other completely.
Other than that, this game nails the cutscenes and make you feel like you’re not fighting a lowly minion, but a king or someone of high power. The last comment I can give is sound design, the soundtrack is awesome, and it isn’t annoying to listen to all the time, and the sound effects are funny and crisp. I think it’s genuinely a fun game, and the fact it was all developed by one person means a lot, knowing that if a game like this was put into more talented companies and hands, it could make one of the best Lego games out there.
Feeling a strong 8/10 for this one. A game with a lot of thought and effort into it, just has some minor issues that can be fixed.