Mula: The Cycle of Shadow Demo

Enjoying a platformer really depends on your ability to withstand a lot of punishment sometimes, because the mechanics are usually pretty fast-paced and challenging. While the combat can be quite tough, there’s also the matter of avoiding traps and various other environmental obstacles that try to kill you. Things get even better with a few role-playing elements added to the mix, such as armors and more powerful weapons.

Mula: The Cycle of Shadow is a 2D platformer with fast-paced mechanics and a lot of combat, in which you control a character able to take on a variety of challenges. The game is designed to be fairly simple at first, but the difficulty level rises as you manage to beat the stages and go further. There’s a lot of running and jumping involved as well, just like in a classic platformer.

Although there is a bit of a narrative running in the background, the truth is that not a lot of emphasis is put on the story. Hence, the main character’s name is Wave, and he is a survivor of a dark invasion that almost destroyed the world. Now, he must somehow prevent another invasion by fighting the evil creatures that try to take over the world, but most of this is presented in short cutscenes and do not interfere with the gameplay too much.

One of the interesting things about Mula: The Cycle of Shadow is the fact that you can find special items that change the way you play your character. There are only three of them, and you randomly obtain one of them for each playthrough. Hence, there’s something to look forward to if you decide to give the game another go, and it’s always nice to overcome the same obstacles using different approaches.

As far as the graphics are concerned, the artwork isn’t bad, but the level design can get a tad repetitive sometimes, which is a bit of a bummer. Seeing the same textures over and over again with no variations in the background makes the exploration feel unrewarding, which is not great news. On the other hand, things are much better when it comes to the enemies and the main character, since they are a lot more detailed.

In the end, there are some interesting ideas here, but Mula: The Cycle of Shadow could use a bit more work in terms of gameplay diversity and artwork. Other than that, the difficulty level scales nicely, so you are in for quite the challenge later on in the game.