There's just one kind of healing item and one kind of armor repair item (with multiple rarities), and they work fast, meaning that if you can escape a fight, you may be able to fully reset before dashing back in. Ranged weapons are reloaded with the same consumables that repair worn-out melee weapons, and they're common. The loot-gathering part of Naraka is pleasantly simple, which encourages getting into fights rather than skulking around looking for better stuff. You'll probably never be stuck with a weapon you don't like, though, unless you're in a dire situation. It's effective against players who are looking at their inventory, but not a videogame weapon I find interesting. One advantage it offers is a bit of zoom when you aim down sights, but its straight-flying bullets move too slow to reliably hit leaping, grappling enemies. The musket behaves like a bolt-action rifle and similarly feels out of place. The pistol can be charged to fire multiple shots at once (you know, like you do with pistols), and that adds a little risk and tension, but the chunky bullet spread is unsatisfying in a game full of fast, lithe characters. The firearms, a pistol and a musket, haven't been much of a factor for me. What a relief it is to be able to move freely, double jumping, grappling between buildings (and other players) with a hookshot, and climbing trees and towers (you've got all the Assassin's Creed parkour skills). There's also a great, modern-feeling outcome of Naraka's genre inspiration: the absence of fall damage. But there are also beautiful moments when patience and cleverness score the win. Not every fight is cerebral: spamming attacks works sometimes, and that classic fighting game frustration, where you're mashing dodge but your character is being stunned repeatedly by a combo, is well represented. Close-range fights are a test of how much you know about each weapon's attack patterns-there's a katana, greatsword, longsword, dagger, and spear-and whether you can predict when your opponent is going to throw a counterable attack (or if you can take advantage the fact that they're waiting for you to do the same). The animations are fast and weightless, and the timing game is about memorization more than intuition, which feels a little old fashioned.
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