Indian mythology is endlessly fascinating, so it’s great to find a game like Raji made by a team with a real passion to explore it.
It offers a window into Indian culture, but perhaps more importantly does it by offering an experience that is – by and large – a joy to play.
Nominally a 3D adventure title where you play as the titular Raji, you attempt to rescue your brother Golu and many other young children from the clutches of demonic hordes. You are then effectively chosen by the gods to be the sole defender of the human race. As you do.
The game sees you exploring a range of environments inspired by Indian mythology. There’s open areas which see you performing some seemingly impossible jumps, and tighter interior areas – boasting some memorable medieval architecture – that see you battle enemies using a range of attacks.
There’s a lot of combat in Raji too, and in the early stages of the game you have to take in a lot of different instructions on how to pull off various moves and combos.
Some of these attacks ask you to press just one button, whereas others ask you to use your surrounding environment to jump down and create mini seismic waves to push back enemies.
The combat never fully relies on button mashing, and although you can use that tactic early on you’ll find it tougher and tougher to progress through the latter stages f you don’t learn some of the more complex manoeuvres.
It’s credit to developer Nodding Heads Games that you’ll want to do this though, largely due to the extra elements added to make it more than just ‘beat enemy, move on.’
You have finishing moves which restore your health for instance, and many enemies require you to use long-range rather than melee attacks. You’ll have to adjust and adapt your tactics on the fly.
Then there’s the platforming, which is fairly basic in comparison to the combat – but benefits from some sensational looking locales and backdrops. On occasion you’ll struggle to see what jump you should be making due to the camera, but generally it’s fairly easy to know where you should be going.
Other than this there are puzzle sections which require you to rotate objects into the correct order so they create a picture of monument, which then progresses the story.
And ultimately it’s the story that’s Raji’s greatest selling point. There’s an impressive knowledge of how to weave a narrative via just the environment here – there’s a pleasing lack of cutscenes throughout, and those that are present only add to the story. Which is how it should be.
Raji is not a long game but offers up a experience that delves into a culture that’s truly unique and entertaining.
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