Drawn to Life: Two Realms (PC) Review

Moments after starting the adventure, players are asked to draw the protagonist, aka 'Hero.' Using the pleasantly simple, MS Paint-like UI, it's possible to create all sorts of characters, but whether your imagination brings life to a cute anime girl, or absolute abomination, the end result will always be a weirdly moving puppet, which will look completely out of place within the simple but beautiful pixel-art universe of Drawn to Life: Two Realms. That's quite alright, as that's actually one of the fun parts of this title. Yours truly couldn't stop laughing from seeing his badly-made Doomguy interact with the chibi cast of this cartoony realm - quite fitting, to be frank, as the Hero is actually a silent protagonist.

So, the Hero is drawn. What now? Well, it seems that a certain kind of darkness is threatening the… ok, there's actually no point in delving into the plot at hand. It's an extremely bland, and almost toddler-level simplistic tale of good-vs-evil, that makes Kirby's Adventure look like The Lord of the Rings. This wouldn't be a problem if the many, many dialogue sequences at hand weren't as boring as they are, though. Whether a sign of confidence from the developer for the writing, or just an oversight, there's no skip button, so you are forced to endure a painful amount of sleep-inducing conversations between characters that lack… err, character, and which don't add anything to the story.

Managing to sit through all the talking on offer soon leads to the actual gameplay. A platformer at heart, this has the hero trying to reach the end of some mini-levels that last for about two minutes (tops), while avoiding traps, killing enemies, and collecting money along the way, with which decorative items for the Hero can be bought. These sessions are always a trio of stages, with the objective of each one ranging from simply going towards the exit, killing all foes, or escorting an NPC towards the end. Like with the storyline, however, although certainly not as bland, this won't exactly rock anyone's socks off…

By all means, the best levels are the - less frequent - puzzle-platforming ones, where players need to place enemies, traps, etc, themselves, therefore this is the only place were some grey matter will be required. With that being said, don't expect something noticeably different. Yes, this part is where Two Realms is at its best, but that's not enough to hide the fact that it lacks the necessary depth to remain interesting for long. Even worse, players aren't ever asked to use their digital pens for something else other than the creation of the Hero, as well as some decorative props. In other words, the ability to re-design the main character soon loses its charm, as the actual gameplay is just not that fun.

For the sake of the argument, act like it doesn't really matter that this mostly feels like a proof of concept, instead of a fully realised game, and that the insanely repetitive task of going to A, talking, then doing some platforming before going to B, and doing it all again, isn't that big of a problem. Unfortunately, there are even more issues to talk about. Apart from a general lack of options (like the aforementioned omission of a skip button), or the many 5-10 second-long loading screens (bizarre for such a "lightweight" game), the whole thing has plenty of rough edges.

Levels range from super-easy to annoyingly hard - notice, however, that this isn't really a moan at the difficulty, but at the subpar level design, which combined with the somewhat ropey platforming, as well as the inconsistent hitboxes, lead to lots of aggravation when having to repeat the whole boring ride, just because the 'Hero' was hit by an invisible pixel and fell into the endless pit underneath, or something similar. That's not to say that Drawn to Life: Two Realms is a terrible, broken product. For its cost, however, it's pretty easy to find something far more enjoyable, and most importantly, better polished.