Good Concepts Don’t Necessarily Result In Good Games
El Coco is a roguelike developed by Spanish studio RecoTechnology. The player assumes control of a lost soul who must endure a gauntlet of battles against monsters and creatures in order to escape a nightmarescape dreamworld.
Sounds pretty interesting right? It certainly did to me. Unfortunately, El Coco is an example of the fact that good concepts do not necessarily result in good games.
Choosing from one of three weapons, our little lost soul will take on a challenge that those familiar with the genre will be familiar with. Each level consists of a number of floors which must be cleared before culminating in a boss fight at the end. In El Coco the length of each level is determined by a number of candles the player is granted, once those candles are gone, the boss fight begins. Victory in the various floors prior to the boss fight will grant the player a number of upgrades which will power our protagonist up and ensure a smoother ride throughout.
Fun… For The First Fifteen Minutes
It is all pretty standard stuff for a roguelike and I say that as neither praise nor criticism. What lets El Coco down is its mundanity. Simply put, there is not much to see here. The floors in between boss fights will task the player with completing a certain condition before moving on. This could be surviving for a set time period, defeating a mini boss or simply killing all the enemies on a given floor. This is fine for the first ten to fifteen minutes of gameplay, after which a player will realise that they are repeating the same thing again and again.
The same few enemies in the same few stages are encountered repeatedly with only the occasional boss fight to break up the repetition. However, these boss fights are just as unremarkable. Only the final boss provides anything resembling a challenge and even the most inexperienced of gamers will smash their way through him on a first or second attempt.
Gameplay Is A Strength
The gameplay in of itself is a strength. The player can attack with their chosen weapon, dash and use a special power that they pick up along the way. Three things, that’s all there is to it. It may be simple, but it is quite effective. The game is fast paced and smooth to control, on that front, El Coco excels. It is why those first fifteen minutes may convince a player that they are in for a good time. Sadly, there just isn’t enough variety in El Coco to keep a player engaged.
To be fair this is an issue that can affect a lot of roguelikes, and the best of them thrive because they are underpinned by a narrative that elevates the game. We established at the top that El Coco has an intriguing story; our lost soul arrives in the dreamworld without memories and is ensured that he will be given answers by the titular Coco if he can survive the nightmares. The plot lays a great foundation for the game but it is a story that necessitated a game with grander ambitions.
Ultimately, El Coco’s biggest flaw comes down to an issue of budget. RecoTechnology is a small studio, if they were capable of adding more variety to the levels and enemies then they surely would have.
This is no AAA title, just looking at the game will tell you that. For the record, the graphics are adequate, its cutesy artstyle blends well with the wacky narrative, but there is no doubt that they are visuals done on a budget.
No Excuse For Minimal Content
However, there is no excuse for how little content there actually is. El Coco takes a handful of hours to complete and most skilled players will likely complete it in less time than that. A couple of cycles through the floors are all you need to know what to and what upgrades to aim for. With that knowledge a player will be able to conquer El Coco without breaking a sweat.
That is a shame, because it feels like there is potential for a good game in there somewhere, but there is not enough content in El Coco to fulfill it. The game plays like a prototype or a tech demo rather than a fully fledged product in its own right.
Important Links
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/el-coco/9MZ8PTQWFBSH/0010
