The much-touted graphics aren’t a lot to talk about either. THQ’s
Summoner was the first game to really show that anti-aliasing could
be done on the PS2 with some effort. Yes, it is anti-aliased…but
that doesn’t really matter when every other facet of the graphics
is marred with significant problems. While the textures on different
characters are very sharp and detailed, the characters themselves
are made up of very few polygons and have significant "blockiness"
problems. Not only that, but Summoner’s characters have the
weirdest faces I have ever seen in my life. Instead of eyes they
have hollow sockets, and their skin color is more puke-green than
flesh colored.
The environments are another significant example of how Volition
simply got too ambitious with Summoner. Credit must be given to
Volition for the sheer amount of detail they packed into each
environment. In fact, it’s so much detail that I could easily find
myself totally immersed in the game despite the gameplay problems…if
it wasn’t for the dire consequences these environments face as a
result. There is significant slowdown to be found in larger
environments, and at times the pop-up is simply horrible and
reminiscent of Daytona USA on the Saturn. For example, when I first
entered the town of Lenele I saw a huge shadow over the city. I was
very intrigued by this shadow, because I didn’t know what kind of
ill will it may hold for my quest. As I got closer to it though, I
realized that it was just the castle walls forming before my eyes
that I was seeing. What’s really funny is that I’ve actually
read other reviews of Summoner that point out the exact same scene
where that reviewer had the same thought. That kind of thing wasn’t
even acceptable on the original PlayStation, much less the
PlayStation 2.
That’s not even mentioning the horrible map with blocks for
towns (honestly, Beyond the Beyond’s map looked better), extremely
plain buildings in some places, and numerous other graphical flaws.
At times the game can be extremely pretty; the actual summoning
looks good and some of the smaller environments don’t have the
same pop-up and slowdown problems. These instances don't occur
nearly often enough to overshadow the other graphic flaws
though. It’s clear that Summoner began
its life as a PC title (where much more RAM is available to combat
the slowdown and pop-up), and was never properly trimmed down to fit
the PS2's limitations.
The sound department in Summoner is merely average. The music is
decent, but doesn’t really give you the type of motivation and
excitement found in the music of other RPGs. The sound effects are
also pretty average overall. And that's really about it
sound-wise...it's just "blah".
I could go on and on, but there’s really no need to beat this
dead horse. Summoner
is a clear example of how not to bring a PC-style RPG to a console.
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