Happily, in between being pinned down by near-invincible mercenaries, the game gives you room to breathe and a chance to savour the gorgeous environments with plenty of platforming-based puzzles. One section had us clambering and swinging our way across a cliff's sheer face using only rickety ledges and vines, with plenty of vertigo-inducing camera angles and the twinkling, inviting sea below.
Another area called Tower Climb required us to, um, climb a tower to retrieve a key from a skeleton. Getting to the top obviously wasn't as simple as clambering straight up - instead we had to follow a convoluted platforming path that involved leaping across pillars, destroying a wall to create a new walkway, navigating crumbling ledges and shimmying around the outside of the tower to an open window.
Above: We're particularly interested in the skeleton-hogtying minigame
The climbing and exploration is tremendous fun, if not exactly anything Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia haven't covered, and thanks to the L2 "look" option that allows Drake to turn his head towards something significant, it's relatively easy to work out where you're meant to go and how you're supposed to get there.
Stellar Blade director "grew up too poor to afford" a PS1, but when he finally got one in college, Ridge Racer and Final Fantasy inspired him to make games
Oh, that's why the Stellar Blade devs were terrified by demo players: one fan's spent "about 60 hours" maxing Eve's skill tree before the action RPG is even out
