Review by: Justin Amirkhani

Despite the fact a long-running and highly profitable video game franchise bears the name of history’s largest pre-Christian empire, very little of the actual Persian mythology has ever made it into a video game. Enter Garshasp, a hero torn from the pages of classic Persian literature dating farther back than 560 BCE, and all-Persian indie developers Dead Mage.

If you’re not immediately familiar with the character, don’t worry, he’s played second fiddle to more famous Persian heroes like Rostam and Kaveh the Blacksmith for millennia. Even in the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), Persia’s most recognized and celebrated compilation of folklore and mythology, Garshasp gets exactly one passing mention amidst its almost 1000 page script. However, despite hiding from the limelight all these years, Garshasp and his tales from much older Zoroastrian texts like the Avesta make for a compelling video game concept.

The character’s primary function in the literature is to slay monsters, almost completely without personality. Coming from a simpler time of storytelling, Garshasp is pretty much an empty shell; there are no complex emotions or motivations like Greek or Norse mythology. This carries over to the game quite clearly; there is zero character development beyond the opening premise. While this might have passed as cohesive storytelling before the number zero was invented, it doesn’t really fly in the modern era. We may joke that Kratos is a one-dimensional Hulk spinoff, but at least he has a defining trait.

Like its empty protagonist the storyline is as classically hollow as it can get. With a pitch-perfect clone of Dennis Hopper (from Gorillaz’ Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head) narrating, we hear the classic hero’s journey colored with mention of various other Persian classics. It does what it can to keep things interesting in this way but because the provided context happens out of scene, it doesn’t add up to much.

Mechanically Garshasp: The Monster Slayer is as rudimentary as you can get, following the standard action-adventure format with no deviation. There’s a light and heavy attack, block and roll. A few special moves break up the monotony of button mashing, but all of this is broken by the fact nearly every basic monster can be defeated with a single grab attack. To make things worse, the hero becomes invincible while performing the move, making it possible to clear rooms full of enemies with no risk at all.

The platforming falls prey to the same no-risk problem. None of the segments are ever challenging enough to warrant real concern, save for the parts where the design breaks and you’ll have to figure out how to get beyond some collision glitches. There are times when wrestling with the game’s Resident Evil-style computer controlled cameras becomes difficult, but it’s unlikely that’s the sort of challenge Dead Mage was aiming for.