Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth Review – Slightly Undercooked

Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth Review

If you’ve been looking for a throwback to 90s adventures, you can find it in Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth. Unfortunately, you’ll find a lot of the problems from that era too, like clunky combat or empty environments.

Overall, Warden is indeed reminiscent of games like Banjo-Kazooie or Mario 64. Each area has pickups to collect, which are needed to open doors and continue forward. While other areas of this adventure may be lacking, level design is not. Not only does each zone feel unique, but the pickups are laid out with care. Early on, they lead you through mechanics. Later, they’re spaced out just enough that you feel compelled to collect them all, but not overwhelmed. It might seem arbitrary to some, but this is something that Cardboard Keep absolutely nailed.

Aside from unlocking doors, our hero Tavian will meet two others who can help him on his journey. You can switch between heroes and use their abilities for different situations as they arise. It’s an alright system that offers a good way to keep the gameplay fresh, but I wish more time had instead been spent improving other areas. It does add to the story, but Tavian could have easily just acquired these abilities instead of creating separate models.

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“Although zones do look and feel unique, they’re typically rather bland.”

One fun little bit worth mentioning is the puzzles. Throughout your journey you’ll encounter a bunch of quick puzzles you can complete for rewards. They’re not exactly mandatory, but offer a great way to speed up your progress if you’re clever. It’s a nice way to reward players that like to explore and take everything in.

Although zones do look and feel unique, they’re typically rather bland. The shaders and models that are present are great, but the ground detail is lacking. More small assets like plants, flowers, or vines could have really brought this world to life. As is, the only things keeping it from feeling like a ghost town are the brainless enemies you’ll likely wander into. It’s too bad, the art style in Warden is nice to look at, I just wish there was more of it.

While the level designs might vary, the combat doesn’t. Enemies change slightly as you reach new lands but the song remains the same. Dodge, attack, dodge, attack. Combat is clunky and slow, especially with the heavier weapons. Most enemies die from a few attacks, meaning there’s almost no variety in terms of how each fight will play out.

Contrary to this, the platforming is rather fun. The controls could be tighter, but there were only a few jumps that I felt demanded too close to a perfect jump. Completing lines through zones feels great as you race from pickup to pickup, the tone increasing in pitch as you go. It’s a shame they didn’t have another few months to work on the controls and possibly offer some more challenging sections though.

Nearly everywhere you go, it just feels like you’re here a bit too early. More time to polish would have done a lot of good for Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth. More art, maybe another spirit friend, and better combat could have pushed this game much closer to a “must buy” category. As it is, you’re better off waiting for a sale unless you really dig the art and premise.

***A PC code was provided by the publisher***