0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Akuji the Heartless

         

Akuji the Heartless is a single player action adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive, the game was released in North America on the 31^st of December 1998, and in February of 1999 in Europe, the games director Glen Schofield would later go on to co-direct/produce Dead Space in 2008 as well as several Call of Duty games.

Akuji the Heartless is a fully 3D action adventure with a varied combat system that includes nine different hand to hand combinations to perform on your enemies, through the 14 levels of the game, the game also possesses a varied bunch of enemies for you to take on with 30 in total appearing in the game, with the enemies using an advanced (for the time) AI that allows for a much more varied enemy behaviour, the game also features full motion video as well as voice acting from Richard Roundtree and Petri Hawkins-Byrd.

The game is played in 3^rd person perspective and used the Gex: Enter the Gecko’s game engine, as the player tries to escape the evil underworld Akuji will have to fight his way through the various voodoo priest and monsters that inhabit the underworld, with the creatures each having their own individual purpose and must be used to solve and interact with puzzles, Akuji also has access to different combinations of his claw weapons, as well as being able to use magical spells to aid him in his escape from the underworld.

Akuji is a voodoo shaman an was just about to marry Kesho (voiced by Jamesetta Bunn), his bride is kidnapped and Akuji gets his heart was ripped out and is cursed to wander the underworld,  his would be bride is able to find Akuji in the underworld and informs him that it was his own brother than kidnapped her, and killed and ripped out his heart, Akuji vows revenge on his brother.

In order to escape the underworld Akuji must deliver souls of his own departed ancestors and give them to Baron Samedi, watcher of the underworld, in return Baron Samedi will grant you your wish of revenge and the chance to face your traitorous brother and send him to the underworld, and most importantly you will be reunited with your bride to be.

A good choice of review for this game with a nice spread of review scores as well, as usual we will start with the best, which comes from Playstation Illustrated who scored the game an impressive 92/100 with their review concluding.

Not too bad. Don’t get me wrong, though. It’s not an easy game, just not ridiculously hard. Some enemies are a breeze, while others are quite a bit tougher. One particularly irritating guy is actually just a skeletal trunk who crawls around on hands and knees, chasing you. If he gets close enough - BAM! He’ll smack you with his spinal cord. All at once, cool, hilarious and really demeaning.

German publications Video Games and Mega Fun were the next two highest review scores with the pair scoring the game am 86/100 and an 84/100, Video Games compared the game too MediEval and said Crystal Dynamics have conjured up a scary voodoo atmosphere, in which only MediEvil can compete, they also praised the learning curve of the game.

While Mega Fun praised the excellent controls and level design, they were however critical on the automatic camera and some of the character movements could have been refined but overall the deficiencies can be ignored and the game should not be sniffed at.

Israeli publication Freak were positive on the game in their 84/100 review, with their review concluding

A successful action-adventure game, with a unique atmosphere, that really manages to chirp the player. Smart puzzles and a combination of new elements throughout the game, keep its freshness, from start to finish.

Another German publication Bravo Screenfun compared the game to Crystal Dynamics other big action adventure title Tomb Raider with their review conclusion reading, "Akuji" is not the hoped for top title, but after playing Lara's newest adventure, it is a real alternative in this genre.

There were a few 80/100 ratings for this game coming from Adrenaline Vault, GameGenie and IGN their review conclusions while finding minor issues with the game were overall quite positive, that being said there were several much lower scores for this game, we now head to the bottom of the review scores for Computer and Video Games, yes they have the lowest score for a game yet again, with their review quote saying ronically, it's the heart of the game that's missing, just like Akuji's own disembodied organ. Visually, the game is smart, and the action is smooth and fast. We even like the plot, but running around flicking switched is not our idea of a voodoo fantasy.

Electric Playground were also critical of the game in their 50/100 review, with the pacing of the game one of the major gripes they found with the game, as well as the uncooperative camera, these factors plus the general generic feel of the game make this a very average title, that fails to provide any memorable moments.

GameSpot had the following to say in their 62/100 review, With a modified Gex: Enter the Gecko engine at its core and a loose interpretation of voodoo as its backbone, Crystal Dynamics' Akuji the Heartless is a grim and gritty "full scroller" that dares to defy Spyro the Dragon and the rest of the recent slew of light-hearted 3D platform games for the PlayStation, they also compared the game to being a mix of Todd McFarlane's Spawn and Dante's Inferno.

Game Revolution had positives to say about the game but equally had many criticisms and you probably guessed on, yes the camera again with the review finding the game unplayable at times because of it, while GamePro concludes by saying the game has plenty of style however falls a little short on substance in their 70/100 review they concluded If platform hopping's your lifeblood and the threat of a vexing camera doesn't dissuade you, Akuji's voodoo magic will cast its spell on you. Otherwise, a weekend rental will do the trick.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where if you are looking to trade in your copy of the game you will be looking at $3, if however you are in the market for a copy of the game you are looking at a cost of $8 for a used copy of the game.

Retrogames.co.uk sadly do not stock this title, so we head off to eStarland.com who do stock the game however they are currently out of stock, the usual price for the game when they do have it in stock is between $5.70 and $9.50, they also offer a trade in for the game, they will give you $3.50 for your copy of the game.

Heading to Amazon.com where there is a decent supply of the game available, the cheapest option available at the time of writing this are only acceptable quality copies of the game for about $8, for a used very good quality copy of the game you are looking at a minimum spend of $11.94 once you add in shipping costs, this converts to £9.27 in the UK, in Euro region countries it will cost you €10.17, and in Singapore it will cost you 16.28 Singapore Dollars.

A handful of new copies of the game are available on Amazon.com with prices starting at $29.99 with an additional $3.99 shipping charge, this brings the total to $33.98 for a new copy this converts to 46.32 Singapore Dollars, in the Euro zone counties it will cost you €28.94, and in the UK it will cost £26.39, this is for the cheapest new copy on the market, with prices for a new copy reaching over $40.

Next on to Ebay.com where once again shipping costs are bumping up the prices, where a complete PAL version of the game will cost you $8.21 however once you add in shipping that price goes up to $12.56 this is currently the cheapest copy available on Ebay, the North America versions of the game suffer with massive shipping costs as well even more so than the PAL versions of the game.

Written by

P J Gibbon