Akuji: The Heartless

Overview

Akuji The Heartless is a 3rd person action platformer game developed by Crystal Dynamics for the PlayStation.

The game tells the story of Akuji, a Voodoo priest who is murdered by his brother on his wedding day and cursed to spend eternity in hell. After being contacted by his late wife's soul and told about his brother's actions, Akuji sets out to collect the souls and artifacts of his ancestors to allow him passage out of the underworld.

Shaft actor Richard Roundtree provided the voice for Akuji. Holds a Guinness World Record for being the earliest action-adventure video game to revolve around a black lead character.

Gameplay

Akuji The Heartless mixes influences of previous works from Crystal Dynamics such as Gex and also experiments with more adventure and combat elements. The game features full tridimensional environments to traverse and a variety of collectibles to get. Akuji is armed with wrist-mounted blades and has access to various spells and abilities throughout the game, gaining the power to transform into a panther and performing various moves such as climbing, swinging, rolling and crawling into and out of combat.

The game featured an interesting world set in voodoo mythology and featured 14 levels, 4 bosses, multiple puzzles, and over 30 enemy types.