Single-player with coop mode is what you can except from Saga of Pandoria. Story-driven as a RPG game should be, here is how it goes. See long time ago, when civilizations were great and world was packed with technology, some scientists looked into legends of a powerful source. To us it is known as MANA, though they called it magic. They found lots of these magical elements and named them Gan, which means life. It did produce and sustain life in the world.

Eight elements of mana weren’t powerful enough to be used as a weapon and their search continued for a long time. Until a young scientist found a different side of magic whose purpose was a total destruction. Even though they tried to control this new magic known as Gan-ti, in our language anti-life, the explosion occurred and Gan-ti started destroying the world. New enemies started appearing and everything is in danger.

To reverse the process and stop these mutants from devastating settlements, you have to restore the mana. New mana tree is needed to bring back the balance. Will you be brave enough to set on a journey through an action packed Saga of Pandoria?

Once the intro was done, I was dropped into a village with nice looking houses and cartoony like characters that were giving me guidance. The game is still in development, so I won’t criticise it much. It was playable and never crashed during my first 3 hours of gameplay. Interacting with objects was easy enough, though it would have been better if there were some markers showing which objects and characters can be interacted with. Now, I’m sure these tiny details will be sorted out pretty soon.

I’m not a skilful gamer, but playing Saga of Pandoria was fun. There are puzzles, fights and character interaction. In some weird way I caught myself thinking of the Hobbit game, although Pandoria was a completely new fantasy world. I guess, it’s just due to my addiction to these genre and the cartoon art style that gives the feel of game being a game. I had fun and that’s all that matters. Soon enough I was stuck with opening some ancient door. That was a puzzle I nailed after several attempts and would like to see some clues in the future.

By using Valve’s Source engine, the game was able to add immersion to a gameplay, such as Depth of Field effect. The world is nicely detailed and developers stated there still some work to do with it. Will be nice to see what final version will look like. Would be good if there was an option to get new character items, like new armour. Team Monkey seems friendly, I bet they will listen to users and adapt a game accordingly.

Cartoon styled graphics were nice, and even animations weren’t dull. Although developers said animations are being revamped at the moment. Even enemies were funny, unlike those scary monsters we are used to see in latest titles. Fighting plants, for example, was hilarious. The game has been inspired by SNES classics and gives that feel all the way.

Audio was OK, except there were no voices. After looking at the game menu, there is a tab for Voices so it will most likely be added in the next few updates. On the other hand, sound effects were realistic. Maybe too much, as I approached chickens they started screaming. But they do that as they are just purely evil animals. Walking through wheat field made a rustling noise and it was kind of surprising to hear how realistic it sounded.

Saga of Pandoria will feature three difficulty levels and 40 levels to enjoy. It was first designed for Xbox 360/Steam Controller, but plays well on PC. There were no problems with controlling my character Cyrus, or progressing through game at all. Enjoyable and entertaining old style RPG that will have you addicted for several hours, comes with unique story and a world that just needs to be explored and saved.

Team Monkey is a group of students and professionals alike who are working on Saga of Pandoria. They are indie developers, though some of them worked on titles such as the Settlers and Crysis. The team has been developing the game for some time now and the only reason why it’s not available yet is because the Greenlight needs to happen. Built upon Valve’s own Source engine, the only way the company will give the full engine license is if Saga of Pandoria gets enough votes. You can lend it your voice on Steam Greenlight page and visit Saga of Pandoria official website to find out more.