Summoner is the first PS2 game featuring a Full Scene Anti-Antialiasing. The high-resolution graphics are simply excellent, and everything runs smoothly at 30 fps. In the game there are no pre-rendered CG movies; all is done in real time exploiting the graphic engine. In this way the style of the cutscenes fits perfectly into the game. The cities, the forests, the dungeons, the temples of Orenia and Medeva are some of the most gigantic three-dimensional environments ever seen in a game. Weather effects like snow and rain creates a strong atmosphere. Many of the places you can see playing Summoner, thanks to their magnificence and wealth of details, are simply pure art.
The main characters, even if they embody the stereotypes of the fantasy genre and are far away from the wonderful characterization of Final Fantasy's heroes, have been created with a beautiful sharp-edged style that reminded me Vagrant Story (this game has surely inspired Volition developers in the development of Summoner).
The level of detail is good. Some enemies look extremely beautiful and the creatures invoked by Joseph, similar to Final Fantasy's summon creatures (also called Guardian Forces in Final Fantasy VIII), are marvellous: each is built with about two thousand polygons. The animation of these creatures is worth of a next generation game; the movements of a monster like the Minotaur are really terrifying. Anyhow, in Summoner, besides the awful loading times, there are many draw-in problems and bad, annoying clipping problems. It seems like the game developers didn't have the time to solve these issues.
Overall, Summoner graphics show great style and originality. The environments are wonderful and only a group of great artists could have conceived many of the places you will see playing Summoner. Volition's courage in being the first to implement Full Scene Anti-Aliasing is something that must be rewarded. It's thanks to people like Summoner's developer that we will see something new during the next years.
