If for some ridiculous reason you are not familiar with ancient Greek mythology, then I highly recommend addressing this gap in your general education. As a child, I read the book “Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece.” It clearly did not contain details about the promiscuous sex life of the Greek gods and heroes, but the question, “Why was Hercules “married” to Megara, Deianira, Hebe at once?” does come up. This does not consider his regular adventures “to the left” while performing the famous twelve labors. In our latest review, we dive into Greek Mythology as imagined by Darkpoint Studios in Achilles: Legends Untold to see things from a slightly different perspective.
But Ancient Greece was not only famous for Hercules, although he was undoubtedly the most popular of the heroes. Many poets of those times sang the exploits of the demigods, competing with each other in the art of versification. But perhaps the most fundamental of all works is the poem “The Iliad” by the ancient Greek poet-storyteller Homer. This work is considered the oldest surviving monument of ancient Greek literature. It tells about the events of one of the bloody confrontations of those years – the Trojan War.
The Trojan War can be divided into two cycles – a ten-year siege and a sad outcome for the Trojans when the cunning Odysseus devised a plan to penetrate Troy by creating the famous wooden horse in which the best warriors of Greece took refuge. But we’ll talk about this some other time.
Darkpoint Games loves the Illiad and the Trojan War theme. They also love games from From Software, or more precisely, the mechanics of complex battles in which any mistake can be the final one for the main character. When it comes to soulslikes games, the gameplay formula here is not so complicated – you level up the hero, and he becomes stronger, but regardless of this, any careless movement sends you to a save point. But not all gamers may like this arrangement. And the guys from Dark Point Games took this into account. In their new game, Achilles: Legends Untold, they decided to loosen the iron grip of Dark Souls a little and allow the gamer to take a breath if something doesn’t work out right away. And not go to respawn repeatedly, causing attacks of completely understandable rage.
Let us remember that Achilles: Legends Untold was presented last July. The launch of the pre-release version was expected during the first quarter (that is, until the end of March) of this year, but development was delayed. As it became known, Achilles: Legends Untold entered Steam Early Access on May 12, and now, after months of development, the developers are ready to show us version 1.0.
Plot
As you may have guessed from the title, we play as Achilles or Achilles. But I like the traditional sound. Great warrior leader of the mythical tribe of Myrmidons. Achilles was the central protagonist of the decade of the Trojan War. He defeated the great hero and defender of Troy Hector (though, thanks to the deception of the goddess Athena, he fell from the arrow of Paris (Apollo helped him aim). For those who don’t know, I’ll explain: Achilles was practically invulnerable. His mother, the sea nymph Thetis, decided to make her son immortal. Secretly from her husband, she rubbed him with ambrosia and put him in the fire to “burn out everything mortal from the father.” But Achilles’ father, Peleus, saw his son lying in a fiery furnace and snatched his son, driving his wife far away. As a result, Achilles’ heel, by which his mother held him, remained unstrengthened, and it was precisely this vulnerable spot that Paris hit with a bow.
This plot is essential to understand since the developers did not bother to explain anything in the game. There is a fact – you play as Achilles. Who he is, what he is, and why his health is instantly restored is not explained, except for a short speech at the beginning of the game, which still does not answer the questions. Here, the hero runs to Troy. Fights, defeats, and kills Hector. Next, Achilles meets Paris and inevitably loses the battle to him, dying.
But it was for the world of the living that Achilles was struck down. In the world of the dead, not just anyone but Hades (aka Hades) personally comes to him and offers him a deal – to return to the world of the living, work a little for the god of the underworld, and receive an official resurrection. Naturally, Achilles agrees to the proposal. But not everything goes smoothly. Achilles loses almost all his strength, and most importantly, he ceases to be invulnerable. Well, this isn’t the first time we’ve upgraded heroes from scratch.
Gameplay
Achilles: Legends Untold is an isometric action game with role-playing elements, in which “diabloid” and soulslike try to get along. From the first game, the game inherited a camera (you can’t even zoom in), an interface, and general similarity, and from the “Souls” came the combat mechanics, according to which you deal a lot of damage very quickly, but also very easily receive damage in return, and if you are not careful or if you don’t heal the hero in time, you will quickly die.
In case of death, you will have to look for the place of death to pick up lost souls – they are the local currency for which Achilles is upgraded. So I recommend that you forget about the habit of running forward, collecting a locomotive from mobs, and then cheerfully and cheerfully dealing with them with one or two blows. In such a situation, you will most likely die from archers or you will simply be pinned in a corner and finished off. Patience and precise calculation are the formula for success in this action game.
Combat system
Frankly, at the very beginning, when the player is only taught the basics, the combat seems dull and monotonous. But the lack of weapon choice is to blame here. Achilles fights with one sword and covers himself with a small shield. And this will continue throughout the prologue. At this point, some players may turn off the game due to boredom. In addition, quickly running out of energy is damn annoying, because of which you will not be able to call until the enemy dies, and you must remember that dodging also requires energy, and if you do not control the consumption of this element, then the hero will die quickly.
After the meeting with Hades, when Achilles returns to the world of the living, the variability of the battle increases simultaneously with the hero’s leveling. For example, you can take another weapon in your second hand, and the attacks will change. And if you arm yourself with a spear, you must get used to it from scratch. In addition, I remind you that you are no longer invulnerable, and every missed blow has a noticeable effect on Achilles’ health. When you die, you return to the nearest temple of Hades, but with your resurrection, your opponents also return. Of course, there are also health bottles, and what’s most interesting is that you find them in the world, be it boxes or chests, and if you use them, they do not return after death, so be careful.
A little more about the combat and enemies
In order to explain how combat differs from a number of its competitors, let’s first focus on the enemies. In the description, the developers boast about their AI system – and in some places it really works.
Here is the most standard swordsman warrior for you. Dies in three or four hits. Well, that is, he should have died, but he doesn’t want to at all. And to hell with him that he blocks blows with a shield – we have already seen that. But the carelessness with which an ordinary mob can simply sidestep your attacks surprised me. It’s even more fun when there are two or three mobs—while you’re hitting one, the second one calmly walks behind you.
A couple of the simplest archers can pin you down with alternate fire (ohhh how I felt it at the beginning of the game), and even skeletons that are generally not burdened with intelligence can surround you and overpower you. Of course, all of the above are the best cases. The enemies here can also be stupid, get stuck out of the blue, and perform meaningless actions. But considering what’s going on in the industry, their glimpses of intelligence seem almost miraculous.
Add to the intelligence of the opponents the fact that the hero is easily staggered by enemy attacks and can die in 2-3 seconds. Yes, you can easily call out opponents here – if only they stood still and did not try to kill you. When even the most ordinary enemies easily dodge attacks, and more advanced ones can send you to the ground with a kick, you have to act extremely carefully.
What is important here is not only stamina management, as in DS, but rather positioning and the right choice of the moment and direction of the strike. Fortunately, the sidestep is available to you, so you only need to use the somersault in exceptional situations.
However, the time and place has come to talk about problems – even combat could not do without them. In general, Legends Untold has one problem – the game feels empty. It’s extremely unfortunate. Even after you get used to the controls, they sometimes seem unresponsive, and the hero himself moves as if in water, not giving a feeling of impact. Hitboxes also leave much to be desired – sometimes hits count or don’t count. Particularly annoying are AoE attacks that can hit you in a very questioning way.
Hero development
Defeated enemies drop souls, which you use as local currency. The role-playing mechanics in Achilles: Legends Untold rely on a tree of skills that you level up. In addition to skills, the hero also develops attributes such as strength, endurance, and so on. So don’t rush to grab everything at the start, but think about what will be more important for you at this stage. At first, I downloaded everything that gave me more stamina and crit.
As you explore the world, you will find hidden chests from which you can obtain new weapons or valuable resources. In the future, when Achilles finds Hephaestus’s forge, he will be able to improve his equipment by increasing its characteristics. Of course, it won’t do without magic skills.
Graphics and sound
But with the visual and sound components of the game, everything is not very good. I was shocked to find that instead of adequate anti-aliasing, the developers are trying to hide the models’ mistakes with a solid portion of blur. You know, you can spend a long time describing the beauty of the picture in those games where it is truly good, but when faced with outdated graphics and special effects, this does not relate to the style but is simply a defect. Flaws are visible almost everywhere – in the animation of the hero and opponents, in special effects, in post-processing. And everywhere, everywhere, this blur.
There were also small drops in FPS – this is not the worst thing, but after the release of Jedi Survivor, it is no longer so scary. The same can be said about the sound. It is frankly weak and does not create any impression or make one listen that some free samples were taken from public databases.
About the rest
Achilles: Legends Untold suffers because it tries to please the hardcore soulslike audience without being one. Stuck somewhere halfway from “diabloid” to “souls,” it didn’t get its face. Time after time, you will compare it with some other product, and time after time, Achilles will lose this comparison. Even though the combat system receives a certain variety, it is not enough for the entire distance to be covered.
It’s likely that after a few hours of fighting, you will become bored. If in “souls” the combat is of quality and variety, and even in an ordinary mob, there is a real challenge, then in this game, you will regularly run from crowds of skeletons or bandits, trying to break them into small groups and thus deal with them. And you will quickly get bored with this, too.
I was pleased with the game. Even at the current stage, there is good potential, which, over time, can give us a wonderful game. What pleased me most was the non-standard combat system and glimpses of intelligence in enemies’ actions.
The game and the developers have a good foundation – all that remains is not to start enjoying the victory ahead of time and continue to work hard. I advise all fans of the souls-like genre to keep an eye on this project, as over time, it has every chance to blossom and become an excellent game.
Our review of Achilles: Legends Untold was completed thanks to a code provided by PR.
