Apotheon

Apotheon is a visually gorgous game, the "greek pottery" art style is an absolute joy to watch, even when the animations seem a bit "stiffen". This unique decision gave the game a really nice appeal and it make it really unique. The sound design is serviceable and the background music swing from the soothing atmosphere of the main hubs to the combat pacing without a hitch. The gameplay is where things gets a bit complicated. The boss fights are extremely cool, each and every god surrender his/hers power after a different trial and all of these are extremely well designed and thematically appropriate. I would have been easy to just create a series of duels against giant humanoid sprites, instead each god and level are unique. They're not all perfect, but the effort is here and it's praiseworthy. Unfortunately the controls aren't on par. The game was clearly designed for a gamepad and playing it with mouse+keyboard isn't ideal. Also, both melee and ranged combat uses the same "aiming" system, which is good for a bow, but doesn't work all that well in melee. In a way it's the opposite problem to another Souls/Metroidvania hybrid, Salt & Sanctuary, where the ranged attacks were ridicolousy hard to aim. Overall, Apotheon is a nice, although painfully short game with a very retro feeling and some really good reasearch work behind it.

As you can see from the screens, this is a beautiful game - fits the aesthetic of the game so well. The big downside: the default controls are unwieldy, and a bug prevented me from rebinding them. This made the game essentially unplayable after a certain point, as you'd expect with any combat focused Metroidvania. My specific issue was rebinding the first Aux Mouse button - it wouldn't take to anything other than Throw (I bind that to jump). Would love to recommend it more, but with a bug like that I can't.

Plot- You are a human warrior who has been abandoned along with his fellow humans to perish and die by the Gods for unknown reasons. It is up to you to invade the Gods domain and seek vengeance and find a way to return humanity back to its triumphant days. With the secret help of Queen Hera (Scheming wife of Zeus), you become a one-man-army against the kingdom of gods and go on a rampage destroying everything that tries to stop from accomplishing your goal to save humanity. Most exciting elements of the game- The massively rewarding Boss battles and soundtrack. From the forests of Artemis, to the dark lair of Apollo, to the underworld of Hades, to the seas of Poseidon, you fight multiple boss battles that are very satisfying and enriching. With each God you kill, you gain their weapons and abilities that play a pivotal role in defeating other bigger more powerful and deadly gods and monsters. Gameplay- The game has a very unique fighting system that is fluid, which makes the game easy to play. Gameplay is very engaging and immersive. Sound- The music is very attractive and the special effects and the soundtrack during boss battles are very “godlike”. Replay Value- I am 50/50 on the replay value. The campaign allows you to fully experience the lore about Greek gods. You don’t miss anything on the first play through. So there is really no need to play it again once you have beaten the game unless you really want too. Graphics- The graphics are well done and the art style resembles ancient color in a modern setting. The characters resemble the figures drawn on Greek pottery. Glaring problems- In some levels, the enemies keep on coming and there is no limit to them. The best thing to do is just reach the finish checkpoint of that level as soon as possible. My opinion- If you want to play a game about slaying Greek Gods in massively epic way then look no further. This game is for you.

Apotheon belongs among the great 2D platforming games, because it does just about everything right. Visually, Apotheon is unique, beautiful, and well-designed for gameplay, which is a rare combination nowadays. The only thing that lacks a little is the design of your own character, but that's probably because Nikandreos "Nicky" Everyman will be obscured behind a shield half the time. Backgrounds are grand and atmospheric, and each new area has its own character and feel. At the same time, they never interfere with the foreground. In a fight, you can focus on combat and movement with no distractions. The auditory bits are great as well. Voice acting ranges from decent to decenter, which is a huge plus for such a story-involved game. The music will catch your ear at some points, but mostly stays out of the limelight. Sounds are your run of the mill standard-issue grunts and screams, but there are special sounds for picking up weapons, weapons hitting, glancing off a shield, or breaking in combat, which make combat much more fluid and natural. It sounds like a little thing, but when you're actually jumping around and lobbing spears at a -REDACTED-, suddenly all these sounds become really important. But you didn't come here to gawk, you came here to fight things. Combat is really enjoyable in this game, even if only having two main modes of fighting (shielded and unshielded) gets a little wearisome. Combat has two learning curves- the usual platforming enemy-pattern learning curve, which you can pick up in an hour or two, and the twitch-reaction to dodge attacks instead of blocking them, which will take a day or so. Thankfully there are graphical cues for everything, from taking a hit, raising your shield, blocking an attack, to using a potion (and your enemies do use potions), which along with the sounds makes fighting very fluid. And the kicker? It's trivially moddable. Now you can give yourself that -REDACTED- from the beginning, and pretend you have a New Game+.

A very satisfying experience. If you love Greek mythology look no further than this game. The main selling point for me was the art style, satisfying combat mechanics and perfect soundtrack, all which contribute to a very immersive and atmospheric game. The story may feel a bit simple, but I found the end incredibly satisfying and melancholic. The only downside I can think of is the slight feeling of grind and repetition in some of the dungeons, but this is far from an issue and doesn’t detract from the overall experience for me - that of a great game.