I had the opportunity to try Alientrap developer’s latest game called Apotheon. Their new IP is a quick and fun game, and great for a few minutes of rest. Not to mention it looks really great, and is a side scrolling hack and slash game that takes place in the Greek mythos.

A decade ago these types of games were dominated by Metroid and Castlevania, so Apotheon will not be unfamiliar in terms of gameplay. The story is that a Greek warrior, Nikandreos goes to the city of Dion which is plagued by famine and war. Zeus has returned and leaves the city to its demise. Of course as a hero Nikandreos does not want to leave it without a say in the matter, so he and Hera devise a plan. To climb Mount Olympus, and to steal the power of Zeus and to rule all. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

By Zeus!

After the intro the decision is in our hands, we’ll have to travel to different lands, and cities to reclaim the items that provide us with Godly powers. We’ll have to visit each and every one of them, and to try and get the items. These can be done with tricks, brute force, tactics and lies.

The one who defeats the Gods.

The main battles are very different from each other. All of the battles have original challenges, and in fact some will be thought without a sword. When battling against Athena, there will be deadly traps all over her lair. We might not enjoy all of these types of puzzles as these also have their frustrating parts. One thing is for sure, we get to experience the good and the bad side of this game before reaching the final battle.

Do you like the sword or the spear?

Luckily the combat system is really neat, and has a wide range of weaponry at our disposal: Swords, Spears, Bows, and a lot of other historical weapons can be held by our hero. Plus their use is also realistic, for example using a long spear in close quarters is not too effective, but a short sword will be in that type of situation.

It’s deadly up close, but we’ll be just waving at our enemies if we try to use it for enemies that are not near us. These small details make the combat especially fun. There is a problem that some of the weapons are not too effective such as the bear trap, I’m not even sure why that is in the game.

The Dark Myths

The lack of leveling up your character is a bit of a downer. A game with such a great title, and backstory should have more depth to it than a simple hack and slash. This is not a big feature, but it would have been fitting especially due to the unique nature of the story. Instead we’ll have to run around in different levels where there are a lot of collectible items. I had only one problem with this, that when I opened a box that contained an item, at times the game just froze. I don’t know if this only happened to me or was it a general bug, so that’s why I’m being cautious at the time of writing this review. My advice is to save as often as possible until a fix comes out.

This is great

The entire concept and style of the game is excellent. The sound effects were made by Marios Aristopoulos who spiced up the background music with war drums and calm themes. The look of the game is marvelous, and use the typical Greek style to their advantage especially the background colour palettes, which will change on certain levels and boss battles.

Apotheon is not perfect but I consider it to be a well put together new and fresh IP. A few crashes should be expected, and the graphical bugs can be annoying at times, but the platforming and combat will squash any inconveniences the game might throw at us. Also who doesn’t love Greek Mythology ?

-Malachit-

Editor: Alientrap

Developer: Alientrap

Genres: beat-em-up, action, platformer

Publication: 4 February 2015