To begin with, Noah’s Cradle seemed like a fun and exciting game, full to the brim of action and adventure. The space shooter from Circle Entertainment is reminiscent of a an Ace Combat game but a lot more futuristic and simplistic in style. Bursting with a ton of different weapons for your space craft; missiles, torpedoes, high-tech lasers and gatling guns you’ll instantly enjoy this hit, all the while bringing a new and exciting aspect to the orbital dogfights above the mysterious gas giant planet.
After playing the game for a while, the novelty of the spacey dogfights and the huge array of weapons quickly wears thin in the overall game, but that’s not to say it’s not still enjoyable. During the game the levels only increase in difficulty and no format, meaning that you have to make sure that you have the right weapon loadout otherwise there’s no chance of beating the stage and it’s an almost instant fail, causing the game to become pretty frustrating. But with a brilliant range of modifications that you can apply to your star ship it’s easy enough to find the right loadout for you. Also, each stage is reasonably repetitive because most of the stages are basically all the same. There are some levels that are aimed at destroying variable amounts of enemies, others that reveal a slightly harder enemy (but not quite a boss) and also final levels of each area where you have to destroy an enemy base that all-in-all really isn’t that challenging. In essence there is limited variation in the game and although still enjoyable, the game has slightly let down its audience.
Unfortunately, the controls of this game aren’t the easiest to get on with. The shooting and flying aspects of the game are easily mastered, but to combine that with the throttle toggle and the locking on system, it can easily get a little too complicated. The lock on system in particular is very temperamental and you can potentially spend a few minutes trying to just find the targets on the screen. This, regrettably, makes the game a little less desirable to play. The graphics associated with Noah’s Cradle are fantastic for the 3DS, although that’s a slightly backhanded compliment, but it’s just that they aren’t necessarily known for their great graphics and obviously doesn’t compare to the likes of PS4 or Xbox ONE. The graphics don’t disadvantage the gameplay in anyway, the textures just feel a bit half-arsed.
Noah’s Cradle’s has a reasonably interesting plot; in the distant future, humans have left the planet Earth to avoid extinction, for generations the legend of the great flood that destroyed earth and it’s creatures has been spread among the citizens of the ‘Noah’s Cradle’; the large ship’s name has been passed down among the thousands sent into space on the ship in the hope of finding a new home. One of the multiple Arks that left earth in hopes of survival has eventually reached a large gas plant, giant creatures are found within the atmosphere of this planet, ranging in sizes from several hundred and several thousand kilometres in length. Unfortunately the atmosphere wasn’t the only detriment to The Cradle, and the creatures attacked the cradle as it sloped its way down to the planet below. Ergo the battle of the cradle began. The story is one that has been recently adapted in quite a few films and series, including the Christopher Nolan directed Interstellar (minus the giant creatures). The narrative is relevant and interesting and it was enjoyable in the way that it’s different to many of the other games out these days, it’s not every day you come across a game based around a futuristic vehicular shooter about the survival of the human race and although the narrative is above par, as I’ve mentioned prior to this, the graphics don’t necessarily bring this story to life.
In essence, Noah’s Cradle is a good, albeit average game. The story is interesting and enjoyable and definitely remains lodged in the memory banks of the player – all signs of a good game. But unfortunately, the controls are lacking in refinement and causes the game to fall down short because Noah’s Cradle has little replay or longevity functions and although the game is not always easy the player may find it hard to play it for an extended period of time. The graphics are definitely on the high standard when it comes to 3DS’s and it comes across whilst playing the game, but doesn’t help towards the enjoyment of the game.
Overall I think that it is a great game that anyone should be happy to play, even though in some aspects it can let the player down, you’ll definitely get a few hours of fun out of it.
REVIEW CODE: A FREE Nintendo 3DS code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.
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