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As a fan of Lienzo’s earlier title Mulaka, which may have had its faults but compensated with a distinctive sense of style and flavor, walking in I had high hopes for Aztech. Again, admirably diverging from the norm to emphasize non-traditional culture and inspirations, this tale is told as if the city of Tenochtitlan had continued to grow and flourish into a quasi-futuristic time you see in the game where technology and the power of legends somewhat intersect. Circumstances have put your character in possession of the powerful Lightbringer, which you’ll use to do battle with foes, some of which will be truly formidable in size. The thing is, in principle all of this is cool and has real potential. The issue is in the execution. In terms of both its appearance and general feel of play the game really feels like a resurrected N64-era title, and unfortunately that’s not a compliment. Even if you don’t mind the visuals there’s a real problem with the combat, which is muddled to say the least and in some regards feels almost Quicktime-like in execution, except you’re not even rewarded with cool cinematic action to reward your efforts. There’s obviously heart and style on display here, but there’s just a very rough and, in places, almost unfinished quality to the experience that is rather disappointing.
Justin Nation, Score:Fair [6.0]