The game clearly takes a fair amount of inspiration from XXL 3, it is made by the same team after all. Several types of Roman legionaries, with several ways to beat them up. The main mechanic is that Asterix and Obelix can grab various items to use as weapons and perform special attacks once the special meter is filled. The story and dialogue are fairly classic Asterix. The usual humor and the premise of the two Gauls traveling to another land to foil the conquest plans of the Romans. The main problem of the game? That is it. That is more or less all there is to the game. It took me little less than four hours to beat the main story of the game. Unless you're a completionist who chases after achievements and wants to get the highest scores at the Roman camps, there is little to no reason to keep playing any more than that. With that in mind, I doubt the game has any appeal to anyone who is not a fan of Asterix to begin with. Furthermore, the game suffers from some technical issues, such as frame rate drops or the characters occassionally getting stuck. And let's be real, 40 euros is quite frankly robbery for a game that feels more like a test run for some mechanics than a full game. Which is why I purchased the game at only 8 euros while it was available at a discount. And if you ask me, so should anyone else who feels like giving the game a try. It is not worth the full price.
Say what you want about MadMind Studio, but I have to give them credit for their honesty. As the store description says, this body paint is unlocked automatically after a relatively short time of playing. Therefore, there's no gameplay reason to buy this one. This DLC is entirely for those who have some extra cash and feel like providing the studio with some additional support.
Now, the bikinis of this DLC don't look particularly fancy. That being said, their gameplay stats are average and they can provide you with some of the spells early, if you don't feel like amassing and spending souls to randomly change the spells repeatedly from the very beginning. However, the real purpose of these swimsuits is that whenever you have any of them equipped and have the settings set to show armor, they replace Vydija's demonic hooves with human legs while also removing her tail and wing stumps. In practice, this means Vydija can now be customized to look fully human, which allows Vydija's bare behind (and the rest of her) to be seen in all her glory in various cutscenes, such as bathing, getting up from the bed, or lying on the beach. Since we're in the subject, the summer update also added themed customizations for Vydija's cave. That one's not part of this DLC, so it won't cost you money, but the customizations must be unlocked with souls.
To whoever reads this. I know that many people despise bringing real life politics and war into video games. Especially the latter. But you should understand the following – MadMind Studio is based in Poland. In other words, they are geographically closer to Ukraine, Russia and the war between the two than most people who know of their games. Therefore, they have more than legitimate reasons for supporting Ukraine. Or better yet, for wanting to see the expansion of Russia stopped sooner rather than later. Doesn't matter if this body paint looks more ridiculous than anything, this is one real life problem that can't and mustn't be ignored. (Even more so, if you're someone living in Finland such as myself). Therefore, I would recommend the following: If you conclude that purchasing all the DLC in addition to the game is far too expensive at the time and feel you could reasonably afford only one, I encourage you to choose this. Slava Ukraini.
