Due to some unforeseen schedule issues, we’ll close out the entire XXL series with the latest one, Asterix & Obelix XXXL: The Ram From Hibernia, released in late 2022 by Microids and once again developed by Osome Studio.
This feel immediatly like a continuation of XXL 3, despite the original plot being about a welcome surprise: as in, there is another lone village that has managed to fend off the Roman invasion, outside of Asterix & Obelix’s. It’s not in Gaul, but Hibernia (aka ye olde Ireland), and the trick lies in the titular ram (being also the beloved pet of the Hibernian chieftain) that is able to inspire/enforce armies to fight even when fatigued with its magical horns.
The Romans though managed to capture the ram, which depressed the Hibernian chief and made him unwilling to fend off the invasion, so his daughter comes to ask for the help of the Gaul village, Asterix and Obelix obviously willing and able to go help them flip off Romans abroad…
It’s a cute premise and like the previous games they do get the tone and humour of the series right, its charm and all, but – like this game as a whole – it’s mostly underbaked and short lived, there’s no time to properly develop any of the new characters, as the entire narrative whizzes by too fast.
It feels like them continuing on from XXL 3 because they kept the isometric camera, despite the models being/feeling new, and honestly a bit better, though i’m not a fan of them using the new “3D models” as sprite stand-ins during cutscenes, feels cheap even for these games, and you can tell they cut corners because they also skimped out on fully localizing to the many languages of the countries the comic is popular, so i had to go with the english dub… which is pretty good but it IS Microids being extra cheap, XXL 3 had an italian dub, as did most games of the series localized here before.
Gameplay is also nearly identical, as they kept some required platforming needed to be done by using the dash manouver, since there’s no jump button, but now you can charge the dash in order to do “jumps” and work the puzzles, though they did rework the combat system a bit for the better, by also having a more apt control scheme with a weak & strong attack, a grab to pick up/drop down the many weapons (which have durability), and the energy meter now is tied to performing “ultimate attacks”, that usually require a weapon to be used, unless you manage to fully charge the bar.
it fits better since this is mostly a brawler, as it builds on XXL3 more than anything else, BUT mostly is them rearranging about the furniture, and throwing out the good stuff. Kinda.
XXL 3 didn’t have a real combo system so i can’t say this drops a thing that never existed, but it IS a step back as now there’s no currency nor upgrades of any kind, hence no shops, hence no reason to bother with enemies you’re not forced to fight in order to progress. Good one.
Being able to pick up weapons and items to do some slightly different attacks doesn’t really change anything, as there is no real combo system, you charge the heavy attack and some weapons can break shields but otherwise that’s the same mindless melee as it was in 2002, there’s no real variety to the combat, even more as there are few enemy types overall, and XXXL does remove the side corn and exploration (you can’t even sic Dogmatix on enemies anymore), aggravating things further.
You can launch items and the bouncing ones basically work as a homing Captain America style shield attack with boomerang properties, that is used in the Hibernian Games challenges, but barely, like they had some ideas to use for the puzzles, but even these become repetitive soon enough, the biggest additions in this regard being pressure plates puzzles and musical “simon says”.
New stuff indeed. For 1996.
Also apparently Asterix can grab onto some ledges…. no idea what it means because i never saw this play out or be required, especially so as Asterix is the only one that can “jump dash” further and hence reach some platforms Obelix can’t or cannot stand one due to his weight, but aside from that the character still control the same anyway, still.
There are ideas but feel underbaked and-or barely used, like the titular ram, which will rush into enemies when you launch a small weapon, his horns having guard break properties…. nice idea, but there’s no time for it to be developed, it’s barely used because you get the ram in the penultimate level, one more stage and the game is finished.
Also sounds more like a mechanic made for the dog character, Dogmatix/Idefix, whom apparently has a revive function of sorts to downed/fallen players… not in single player mode.
Speaking of which, this is so obviously designed with multiplayer in mind, as it supports up to 4 players, local co-op only, and you can tell from how many weapons are scattered about the levels, the presence of a scoring system and the roman camp blitzs sessions that end a chapter now having a competitive aspect to them, even if you experience it in single player.
Which i did, with the added “benefit” of often being able to bypass half the steps for the puzzles, as the other IA controlled character will respawn next to you… eventually, sometimes it takes more than usual. Because even with the patches, it can buggy, not as buggy as XXL 3 still is after the patches, but at launch i heard of plenty of crashed, hit detection fucking up, etc..
Even patched, sometimes you can solze a puzzle and have the game forget to pan over and show that doing that unlocked the door, or have the game force you to use ultimates because the game forgot to stop spawning enemies hence if you don’t reduce to 0 the counter in a hurry the game will still spawn 1 more and then 1 more enemy, this happened to me in the Festival’s roman camp challenge, but i’m not entirely sure if the latter is a bug or a deliberate design decision.
Like how you have most stages being totally linear and some being spread out mini-areas that can be confusing to navigate since there’s no map… why even bother since that applies only to one stage, though, and i wanna reiterate it’s short. Embarassingly short.
Even shorter than XXL 3, clocking at about 4 hours. Yeah, it’s technically “for kids” but fuck that stupid line of defense…especially since i’m not sure how many “kids” in 2022 would get the reference of having a Freddy Mercury-look-a-like character called “Radiogagax”.
Not that there is a difficulty setting, or difficulties, plural. Or any real extra.
There are some collectable golden helmets in each stage and medals to get/improve, but it’s astonishingly short, and it’s also easier than previous games, to the point you’ll die mostly of out of waning interest in the repetitive gameplay, and in the last level as they abuse to hell and back the ““escape the undefined scrolling wall of orange before it touches you’ “ sections , and no, they never bother to explain in-game what it’s supposed to be, just a scrolling wall of instadeath, if that doesn’t spell “unfinished game rushed out by the publisher for some cheap moolah”, nothing will.
Also, aside from some trophies, there’s nothing as well, just to hammer home how much of a lousy, uninspired, rushed out of the door before conception project The Ram From Hibernia truly is, even more than XXL 3, which was disappointing and middling, but still somehow better than this, even the cute original plot is too short lived to make anything interesting with its premise.
This is just poor and sloppy, an all around severerly underbaked cash grab for Asterix & Obelix fans, even if you get it for under 20 bucks… you’d wish they kept this one in the oven for at least one more year, they should, because these XXL games just keep getting worse.
Wise Cafe (International) 