Essentially an Action Adventure with RPG-lite overtones, Folklore doesn't sound like it would inspire a mad dash down to the local games emporium. To its credit, it manages to hook the player as much with a well crafted story as the interesting game design decisions.

Folklore concerns itself with two characters, Ellen and Keates, who are both drawn to the fictional Irish town of Doolin for very different reasons. Ellen, who having received a letter from her supposedly dead mother, comes to look for her aforementioned parent, while Keates is a sarcastic, somewhat jaded writer for a paranormal magazine who comes to investigate the other-worldly goings on in Doolin after receiving a mysterious phone call regarding the town.

Much like the twin characters at the heart of the story, Doolin also has duality very much at its core. During the day, the town's inhabitants recant tales of murders committed in the town, and always usually with an air of mystery surrounding the heart of the matter, which in turn leads to anguish at the unresolved issues concerning them. By night, the faeries of the Netherworld stake their claim to the town, inhabiting the bars and locations in all their colourful and varied glory as the player tries to marry up the two distinctive parts of the story by following clues from both.

The story itself is presented in a mixture of styles. The first is reminiscent of a graphic novel, as dialogue bubbles appear above the heads of static characters, as the camera zooms across them, almost like a reader glancing across a page before turning over. It's a bold move considering most titles would be reliant on CGI to display the narrative, but Folklore carries it off with aplomb. Mixed in with this is the odd in-game engine CG, but most of the time this is limited to showing off the game in all its glory and rightly so. The marriage of the two works well and is always handled carefully and effectively.

If anything, it's striking to see themes such as death and grief in games that aren't dealt with in a superficial, or worse, ham-fisted manner. While dialogue is slightly patchy, with dodgy accents coming to the fore, it's certainly a cut above the usual dross gamers have foisted upon them. While both Ellen and Keates could never be called terribly original, as they seem rather typecast in how they are presented, they are engaging characters and the player will empathise with one or the other for the duration of the game.

At the beginning of the game, the player can choose to venture forth as either Ellen or Keates, and will be forced to swap between them both during the different chapters to further the story. Truth be told, there isn't a great deal of difference between the two, bar cosmetic appearance. Both are equally matched as the player guides them through the different chapters, with no one character losing or gaining any different abilities during their progress. The reason for this is the acquisition of faeries, or folk which are used as weapons in the Netherworld's various locations.

Every time a faery is defeated, their essence can be captured by following on-screen prompts in which way to pull the SIXAXIS, as their life force (or id) is removed from them. Once successfully in the player's grasp, they can be used in combat by assigning them to one of the four face buttons on the controller. As the game progresses, a bewildering and diverse selection of folk can be acquired, demonstrating the level of depth the player can bring to the combat, with many options provided for dealing with different enemy classes. Each of these in turn boasts many different abilities, with firm favourites being established early on.

For all the variations on offer, every time the player wants to change their selection of captured faeries, there is a massive pause in action as another is dialled into the combat setup. This proves jarring and will niggle at the player as they battle the frustration caused by the pause in action, which never becomes anything less than annoying.

Each excursion into the various realms of the Netherworld, disposing of faeries ultimately leads to a battle with that particular realm’s boss, or “Folk Lore”. These battles can be long drawn out affairs which test the player's ability to have gathered up, distributed and correctly assembled the right kind of creatures to use in defeating each particular lore. While tactics threaten to break out on occasions, there isn't anything here that will test the average gamer; merely the illusion is created to help accentuate proceedings.

The level of attention afforded to not only the Folk Lore but also the incidental faeries et al is unique and helps to maintain the interest throughout. There is no copy-and-paste, identikit monster`s roll call in Folklore and it benefits greatly because of this.

While the look of the game is clearly beautiful, Folklore manages to raise itself to another level with some truly stunning art direction and it's how this is executed that manages to leave players spellbound. At each location, from war-torn realms, saturated in ruin and destruction, to guiding either Ellen or Keates through a wonderful field of flowers, as pollen blows through the air, the game serves up a feast for the eyes.

While it won't take long to finish the game, and bar one or two extras there isn't much in the way of replay value, while it lasts, Folklore is a bedazzling, enchanting title. If its minor flaws can be tolerated, there's a sumptuous little game lurking within with nary a giant enemy crab in sight.