Severed, PS Vita, review: 'An essential purchase for owners of the handheld'

While the big name Sony franchises might have stopped returning the Vita's calls some time ago, the plucky little handheld is still attracting a large contingent of indie developers, offering up an impressive library of titles. Severed is its latest exclusive, a colourful, first-person Fruit Ninja/Zelda hybrid from Drinkbox Studios, makers of acclaimed platformer Guacamelee.

You play as Sasha, a young woman on a quest to find her missing family. Into the dungeons you go, taking out enemies with swipes of your finger. It starts off a gentle pace, with beasties coming at you one at time, but you soon become swamped, and have to fight gangs of enemies at once. This is where the core gameplay lies, managing these encounters and planning which foes to take out first. Although primarily touch based, the controls feel extremely tight and responsive, and it’s rare that a hit doesn’t register when you think it should.

The game continually ramps up its battles, introducing enemy armour, magic and other concepts all designed to make your life more difficult. Luckily, you earn experience and level up Sasha at the same time, affording you new abilities.

The dungeons are stuffed with secrets, some of which you'll need to revisit with new abilities, and you’ll definitely want to. The game doesn’t pull its punches later on, getting downright brutal, and returning for these secrets levels you up further, giving you a slight advantage.

The game builds a vibrant, colourful world with a dark underside. It’s a bizarre place, and you’ll always want to see what’s around the next corner. The Vita may not attract blockbuster titles these days, but with games like Severed that ooze style and originality, it hardly seems to matter. This is an essential purchase for owners of the handheld.