Effie was released on PS4 last year in June 2019 and it was a great title that combined classic platforming mechanics into an open-world setting with slight role-playing mechanics as well in the mix. It was developed and published by Inverge Studios and fans and critics equally loved the story of Galand in the beautiful world of Oblena. Effie has finally made its way to PC and this is our review of the PC version of Effie which is in our view, the best platform to experience Effie. Since Effie is an old game, this review will mostly focus on the technical aspects of the PC version and how it compares with the previous PS4 version of the game.
Effie is not at all a complex title rather it is a brilliant throwback to earlier, simpler platformers which we used to love back in PlayStation 1 or PlayStation 2 era. Effie follows the story of Galand who is on a quest to defeat the evil witch Melira who cursed Galand because he was too lazy to fix her broken cart. Story-wise, Effie is not going to win any awards because the plot sounds really childish anyway. Galand is now cursed with old age and he must defeat her to become young again.
You step in the shoes of Galand who is now exploring the world of Oblena and trying to defeat Melira with the help of the Runestone, a powerful weapon gifted by the elder gods. As you play and explore the world of Oblena, you will unlock more and more upgrades for the Runestone which in return, unlocks better attacks and moves for you. The game will greatly remind you of the early days of Ratchet & Clank, Spyro and even Knack. The gameplay mechanics are just top-notch and never cease to remind you of the golden age of animated action-adventure games. You can easily finish Effie in a single day if you want to.
The very first thing I did after booting up Effie was to directly head to the settings and visuals tab because that is what PC games are all about. While not too demanding, Effie is greatly optimized for running well even with max settings in place on older machines. The PC version of Effie comes with all visual tricks PCs can offer which include 4K visuals, unlimited framerate settings and tons of visual details to play around to your liking. After starting the game with all sliders maxed out, I noticed a major improvement over the PS4 version of the title when it came to smoke, particles and the environments.
The PC version looks the best and even with the pretty simple and animated visuals of the game, the PC version packs some great visual fidelity and you will require a decent enough machine to run it all maxed out. This visual fidelity is most prominent in open-areas and even closed areas especially in shadows and draw distance as you are surfing the red plains of Oblena. I mostly played the game with an Xbox One controller but you can also play the game with keyboard and the mouse if you prefer the PC gaming peripherals of choice.
The open-world of Effie looks amazing on PC with better visuals. Although I could not review the game in 4K, everything maxed out at 1080p still really made the game beautiful. After completing the initial area inside the temple, you will finally head outside and then you are on your own to explore the world of Effie and complete the remaining areas to unlock better powers and collect more rune stones scattered around the world. To know more about the lore of the world, you will also collect different collectibles in the game.
Effie plays in 60FPS on a PS4 as well but PC offers unlimited FPS which means that the game can even go higher than 60FPS making the gameplay even smoother. Inverge Studios has done an amazing job in optimizing the title and apart from certain high-activity and visibility areas, my frames were in the high 80s most of the time which made the gameplay even smoother than that of the PS4 version. After playing Effie on PC, the PS4 version feels slow and the animations do not feel as smooth which is one of the biggest plus sides of the PC version of Effie.
While the PC version does not offer anything new when it comes to content, it is certainly better than the PS4 version in many ways. If you’ve already played the PS4 version of Effie, especially on the slim or the earlier generations of the console, you would have noticed some pretty noticeable dips in FPS every now and then. The PC version is free of all those dips if you have a decent system. It also allows you to increase or decrease the visuals for a more customized visual setting so you can easily make the gameplay smoother.
Final Verdict:
Effie is a great title with a simple story and plenty of diverse areas to explore and enemies to kill. It brings back a lot of childhood memories when video games used to be simple and fun. Having played both the PS4 and PC version of Effie, I can say that the PC version is definitely the better looking and the better performing version of the game. It can also be played with a controller so you if you have access to both PS4 and PC, you should definitely opt for the PC version of the game. It offers more visual fidelity, freedom when it comes to controllers and better audio as well. The PS4 version was amazing and we liked it back then however the PC version makes the game even better and we highly recommend it to anyone who still has to play the game or wants to experience it again in better visuals. Highly recommended!
Final Score:9.0/10
