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Sudeki Review - Xbox

Sudeki is a tale that builds around you. As you fight through the foes, your quests will become more interesting and elevated. You can follow through the main quest, or you can look around for alternate quests, but usually to complete side quests you'll have to be past a certain part of the main story. With the gorgeous characters, brilliant animation, and excellent environments with an intriguing storyline, does Sudeki have what it takes to get you to buy it before Fable is released? Microsoft are willing to think so.

The intro FMV tells a story in harmony with the start of the Lord of the Rings tale, and sets up for a very interesting beginning to the game. Once you select 'new game', you'll be taken on the flight of a bunch of birds through the castle where you find Tal sleeping, much like the beginning of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In fact, he lives in just one room, and it's a circle - sound familiar? This is where the story of Sudeki begins. Not soon into the story, you already see yourself training with other swordsmen to impress a guest to the barracks. You soon learn that you must pay attention to a little bar down the bottom left of the screen which tells you when to attack an opponent for a perfect move. It is here that lies the heart of Sudeki and all that can be enjoyed from its simplicity.

Gameplay

Straight after you perform a couple of moves to show you know how to control the character, you can exit training and enter the world of Sudeki. It briefly explains the 'safe haven' spots where you can save the game, and the different shops around town and then sets you off to do what you please. The general, Arlo, tells you that invaders known as Aklorians are due to darken our skies soon and we must prepare for an attack, but apart from that you're free to do whatever you want for the time being.

Your first task in Sudeki is to find a map of the wilderness, and it's definitely not the hardest thing you'll come across in Sudeki, but that's enough talk about the story. As you've probably guessed, Sudeki is an RPG (role playing game), and quite an interesting one too. When you interact with characters it's very similar to Star Wars: KOTOR, and the upcoming Fable and Jade Empire. You can select what to say to them, but there are a limited number of things to say. Fortunately though, you can skip their speeches and browse through the subtitles before continuing on your journey. No laggy lengthy pointless cut scenes here. The very fact though that you can interact with virtually anyone at any time creates an awesome experience in the world of Sudeki. Another breath-taking part of (continued next page)