Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is a debut action RPG game from developer Acme Gamestudio that is published by tinyBuild Games for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Players are invited to don their armor and grab their weapons and set out to an ancient city brimming with mysteries to uncover – provided you can fight your way past a great number of enemies that will be standing in your way.
On your journey, you will meet a cast of highly diverse characters and learn long-forgotten secrets related to the city’s curse. More than that, the choices made in your playthrough will affect how this story plays out and, ultimately, shape the fate of the lost kingdom.
Are you ready to venture to Aphes? This is our Asterigos: Curse of the Stars PC review.
In Asterigos, you play as Hilda – a young, brave warrior of the Northwind Legion led by her father Harold. Due to her brother’s death on the battlefield, Harold tries to keep Hilda away from danger which only makes the young woman more insistent on proving herself to him. That eagerness in turn reflects in her headstrong attitude through the game when she is being treated like a child (which will be happening a lot).
The relationship between the father and daughter has been a bit tense but all is forgotten when the expedition led by Harold to the ancient city of Aphes does not return home when expected. Now, following a mission to get to her comrades, Hilda finds herself inside the mysterious destroyed city – but it is not like anything she could have predicted.
For a thousand years Aphes has been ravaged by a magical curse: Asterigos. While it had turned the inhabitants of the city immortal, like any good curse it came with tremendous consequences: Aphesians thirst for the Stardust that is also used as a type of currency within the confines of the city that they are all but chained to. Other side effects are for you to find out!
Naturally, such conditions led to the formation of a number of factions, each with their own agenda: from making the most out of the unfortunate circumstances to trying to lift the curse and free the city. It is the group that is trying to achieve the latter that offers to help Hilda to find Harold should you be of service to them in turn.
When you make it to the city, you find yourself in the middle of a thousand-years long story of Aphes’ rise and fall. As you progress through the quests, the story of the city and the curse gets explored through the scattered notes found in the world, echoes of the events that you can encounter and more. Additionally, the characters you run into or work with will answer some of your questions, especially after you have proven yourself in their eyes. The conversations related to the main quest are voiced but the extra details are offered in text form only.
You will not miss out on the story by doing just the main quest and only asking the characters about the related matters. However, reading the descriptions of items, hounding NPCs for details, exploring nooks and crannies for extra treasures and puzzles and so forth fills the world with meaningful details. The game will also provide you with a choice of how to proceed in your tasks: attack a boss that has been presented as nothing but a miscreant or try to talk it out as suggested by another character? Do you find that character trustworthy enough to listen to their advice when all the evidence you find points to the man being an irredeemable villain?
It’s an interesting choice to consider, and there is always the next playthrough or New Game+ to try things out in a different way and see where they lead.
Before you start the game, Asterigos will warn you that the best possible experience will be achieved through playing with a controller. However, the game is entirely playable with the mouse and keyboard combo which is exactly what I have used.
Hilda has access to 6 different weapons: sword & shield, daggers, hammer, spear, staff and magical bracelets. You can have any combination of two weapons equipped at the same time: want the reliability of sword and shield with the devastating damage provided by the hammer? Sure! Prefer to rain fire from afar with a staff and then finish the enemy off with quick slashes of your daggers? Can do. Place traps with bracelets and pick off the stragglers with the precision of your spear? Any time.
By default, left mouse button clicks do auto-attacks with the first weapon while the right mouse button clicks let you attack with the second. The switch between the two is incredibly smooth, and overall the dynamic combat makes it feel like Hilda is dancing around her enemies, using dashes to avoid especially dangerous attacks.
Additionally, you have access to the special abilities provided by each weapon (by default Q for the first weapon and E for the second) as well as skills that you unlock while leveling up the talent tree. As far as skills are concerned, you do not have to equip the corresponding weapon to be able to use the skill. For example, even if you have daggers and staff equipped, you can still use 80 energy on Stormbreaker and have Hilda whip out the hammer to crush her enemies.
Speaking of talents, Hilde has access to a huge talent tree that provides her with extra passive (Perks) and active (Skills) bonuses. Some are relatively tame, like last strike in the daggers’ combo doing more damage, while others provide interesting additions to gameplay.
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars lets you swap weapons on the fly so don’t be afraid to experiment around and find what fits your playstyle. If you think you have made a mistake with the talent tree, you can purchase a potion that will let you reset.
As you progress and unlock more skills and perks, the combat in Asterigos becomes more dynamic and engaging. However, even that is not all: at certain points in the game, Hilda will gain access to certain magical enhancements that will boost her attacks with elemental damage. There are four: Astral, Fire, Ice and Thunder. Every enemy has an element that they’re weak to, so swapping to an appropriate enhancement can provide you with quite a boost.
However… While it’s pretty cool to have an extra burn to your attacks, you might want to look out: it is not entirely out of left field to trigger an explosion that will knock you out where normal enemies couldn’t. That certainly didn’t happen to me!
The game features a great variety of enemies, some of which will be opposing you through the entirety of your journey while others are unique and only appear in the respective locations.
The developers boast 22 bosses, out of which about a dozen are the bosses you will meet and fight through the main quest. This is where the combat in Asterigos truly shines: no two main story bosses are alike in their looks, abilities and ways to knock Hilde out.
The additional bosses can’t boast the same variety but they are still quite a lot of fun to challenge… provided you can find them. Asterigos: Curse of the Stars really hates holding your hand when it comes to pointing out where you need (or want) to go. The game has no map or compass to speak of and, while NPCs point out some locations and you will get used to it through trials and errors, sometimes you just want to go to the Bazaar and kill the freshly spawned boss without all the extra running around through the sewers.
The fallen city of stars itself is a gorgeous amalgamation of Roman and Greek mythologies and architectures. Open areas filled with greenery, crumbled walls and streets, gigantic statues and absolutely amazing murals that can steal your breath away.
Hilda’s battle animations are swift, precise and feel impactful when you land a hit on the enemy, with different weapons having different “character”: the hammer is slow but offers the biggest amount of oomph, while the daggers are swift and agile and so is Hilda’s body language when using them.
Sadly, the same cannot be said about the music. The best I can say about the soundtrack is that it is there, but after closing the game I can’t really remember a single tune.
Note: the Steam key was provided for the purposes of this review.
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