Once upon a time, there was a PS3 exclusive called Sorcery. It looked like the kind of high-definition motion-control game that would pull in gamers skeptical of what Sony's Move controller could do. It even got nominated as one of the best games Kotaku saw at last year's E3. Yet, it suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. Just as mysteriously, it blinked back into existence last week, at press demos held by Sony in New York City. So how does the second coming of Sorcery feel? Pretty damned good.
In the video above—filmed and narrated by Stephen Totilo—I'm taking Sorcery through its paces during a level about 20% through the game. You'll notice that the apprentice protagonist looks older than he originally did in those old demo videos. Sony aged him up to ramp up the dangers he'll face and to tweak the chemistry between him and the sorcerer's cat familiar who'll be your in-game companion.
What I like most about my time with Sorcery was how I could quickly mix-and-match spells that had both offensive and defensive abilities. I also liked how the same motion yielded different attacks depending on what spell mode I was in. One thing to note is that Sony say you'll absolutely need a Move controller to play the game. PS3 owners can use a DualShock 3 gamepad instead of a Navigational controller to move around but they'll still need a glowing Move wand to lob spells around.
Using the Nav and Move combo got feeling natural very quickly and what you see in the video above came after an introductory ten minutes of learning the game's fundamentals. If things hold to what I've played, Sorcery could be the game to remind Move owners that they've got their very own, very cool magic wand in their own living rooms.