Apotheon Review

Overview

Apotheon is a 2D adventure platformer set in ancient Greek mythology that was published by Alientrap Games and also developed by Alientrap Games alongside Sickhead Games. Apotheon is available on PC, Playstation 4, Mac and Linux.

The game centres around Nikandreos a warrior that is given powers to smite the gods in an attempt to save humanity from whats effectively a purge.

Characters

You play Nikandreos who is a silent character who interacts through actions more than anything else, as you go along you meet gods who all have unique personalities that define what they are the god of.

Ares for example goes around killing and telling you to kill for his amusement, Athena gives you a trial of intelligence and Dionysus challenges you to a drinking contest. 

The characters were extremely strong due to how defined they were and were all memorable in their own way but I did find some of the human characters in the start a bit bland and throwaway.

Gameplay

Apotheon has extremely strong gameplay in the form of its combat and momentum whilst still maintaining a high level of difficulty in its platforming, there is also a good amount of exploration and side objectives that may give you better weapons, buffs and armour.

You have the ability to throw any weapon in the game and have 4 slots for different types of items, one for melee weapons, one for ranged weapons another one for throw-ables and the last for potions. You can carry any amount of these as long as the weapons were unique, so you cant stack up on your favourite weapon and may be left with daggers if you are not careful.

You have health and armour, the type of armour is upgraded throughout the game is the form of vendors or loot and the max health is increased throughout the game, once damaged you will heal up to a certain point but you will need to craft a health potion or find a health pickup to heal back to max.

The combat is extremely satisfying and requires a decent amount of skill, if you happen to find a shield you can block incoming projectiles and weapon swings. Each swing of your weapon is slow and satisfying and usually knocks back an opponent just to emphasise the power. 

There is a multiplayer version of the game on Steam by the name of Apotheon Arena for free if you want to try the combat for yourself.

The platforming is simple but requires skill due to momentum, you can build up speed the further you run and that means you can jump further, there are some areas that are timed and can be extremely difficult until you are familiar with the game. 

The gameplay does get mixed up a bit when puzzles are introduced, below is an image of a puzzle where I had to figure out which creature was not included in the diagrams and then enter the corresponding door.

There was also a section in Posidons domain where I had to sail a boat by choosing which tiles to sail to on a map, this only further emphasised each themed journey you would have to go through to see the gods. 

Story

Ill keep this vague to avoid as many spoilers as I can, Nikandreos is given powers by Hera to effectively dethrone Zeus so the mortal realm can be returned to peace, to do this you go to the reals of the gods, mess with them in one way or another to retrieve the gods objects of power (eg. Posidons trident), after doing this a couple of times Zeus is justifiably angry and chucks you back to earth, Hera then chucks you back up, you mess with the remaining gods for their objects of power and then mess with Zeus until he stops being mean to humanity.

The developers went quite far to make sure all the lore and mythology was correct which was incredible to explore.

This is all told through extremely well voiced dialogue and small notes you find around the place.

The atmosphere throughout the game is well done and really helps push the story across, for example when you go back down to earth for the second time everyone is getting killed and washed away and its dark with some lovely music to set the scene.

Aesthetics

My personal favourite art style in a platformer hands down, everything looks as if its painted on a ancient Greek vase with that distinct art style, the game is beautiful and does look as if it could've been ancient Greek art, the artists did an absolutely wonderful job making the world come alive.

There is honestly not much i can say about the aesthetics that cant be said with the images, its unique and amazing.

Verdict

I fully recommend Apotheon for its price its one of the better platformers out there and an obvious amount of love and attention to detail that went into this game, the story is rich and has a satisfying ending, the combat is fun and keeps some of the more boring sections fun, the art style is nothing short of a masterpiece, music fits the game well and the voice acting is spot on.

I honestly have nothing bad to say about Apotheon, its an amazing game and is priced at £10.99 on steam and £8.99 on Playstation 4 and for that price, the game is worth every penny.

      Steam store link     Playstation store link

This game was reviewed on pc.

Overwatch Review

Overview

Overwatch is a 6v6 first person shooter set in a futuristic earth where some form of robot uprising took place and was thwarted by the Overwatch division. Overwatch was developed by Blizzard Entertainment for Xbox One, PC and Playstation 4. 
Instead of being able to customise weapons and attachments Overwatch's customisation is limited to cosmetics only currently, this is due to there being playable characters much like a MOBA.

The game is multiplayer only with no meaningful singleplayer whatsoever.

Characters

There are currently 22 playable characters which are split into 4 categories, offence, defence, tank and support. Each one of these characters has a fleshed out backstory and their own personality that makes them easily distinguishable and memorable, none of these characters are generic or boring. The roster includes things such as ninjas, robots, soldiers and even criminals all of which come with 2 abilities, one ultimate ability and the left and right mouse button for various actions.

Customisation of these characters as mentioned previously is cosmetic only with 7 different categories of things to choose from, skins, emotes, victory poses, voice lines, sprays, highlight intros and weapons. Customisation's are received from loot boxes, these can be earned through just playing or there are micro-transactions for real money if you are so inclined.

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Gameplay

Overwatch is a first person shooter where you play a 6v6 objective based gamemode with maps made balanced around the gamemode they facilitate. Unlike its competitors Overwatch has abilities that interact with the surrounding world and the players in it, some abilities deal damage, others heal and some can even be used to place structures like walls or turrets. 

The "ultimate" ability is an ability that charges up as you deal damage or heal friendly players or even just charge over time, these abilities are far more powerful and can be the difference between victory and defeat, some ultimate abilities are things such as reviving all the surrounding dead friendly players or allowing you to see all the enemies through the entire map and there is even one that is a teleporter that friendly characters can use to get back into the fight.

As a quick note, playing the healer in Overwatch is not actually boring unlike some other games. This is due to things like getting assists from healing people who are getting kills and even the odd satisfaction of watching your teammates health bars go up.

There is also the play of the game system where at the end of the match the game plays a replay of what was considered the best play during the match, this is extremely satisfying and lets you see some really great plays you may have missed and/or been on the receiving end of, also after this in the post match lobby you can vote on players for certain categories like damage healed, damage dealt, damage shielded and even some strange ones like players teleported and armour packs created.

The gamemodes included are escort, assault, hybrid and control, you cannot choose which one of these you get to play, there is only the option for "quick play", although this helps the speed of matchmaking sometimes its just not fun to play a particular gamemode and its always nice to have choice or at least filter out some maps and modes.

In escort the objective is to move a payload to the other side of the map, to do this you must stand near or on the payload as it slowly progresses, if you are on the defending team all you have to do is make sure they cant push the payload forward to the other side of the map.

Assault is a gamemode where you have to either defend an objective point or attack it, objective points can be captures by simply standing on them for a period of time, the defenders have to stop that from happening.

The hybrid gamemode is a combination of the 2 aforementioned gamemodes where you have to capture a point and then a payload appears for you to push forward to the other end of the map.

There is also the control gamemode this is where both teams fight over a single objective point, the longer the point is held the higher the percentage for your team ticks up, first to 100% wins the round. Every round (up to 3 total) there is a new objective placed in another part of the map. 

There is also a ranked system where you play 10 placement matches and are then assigned a number 1-100 which is your rank, the ranked games usually take a lot longer than quick play and change the gamemodes ever so slightly.

Aesthetics

Overwatch has a cartoon like art style comparable to the animations of Pixar whist still retaining stunning realistic lighting and visual effects.
Each characters model fits their personality and the animation quality is top notch and polished, one would expect nothing less from Blizzard.



Characters such as Zenyatta truly show how well designed some of these characters are, he is effectively a monk robot, his animations, the way he moves, his clothing, all of this reflects that in a meaningful way and this dedication is for all for the characters albeit nothing quite as odd.



Verdict

Overwatch is limited by the fact that its only multiplayer and is still full price, the game can get repetitive and boring surprisingly quickly and unless you have friends to play with, you can find yourself frustrated and angry.
But after all that, with some friends this game is a blast, nothing compares to the feeling of pulling off awesome combos with your friends or even doing silly things like all playing the same character, the shooting feels great and you always feel like you are participating with satisfying hit sounds and weapons feeling strong and powerful.

But in the end unless you have friends to play this game with I cant personally recommend it due to how frustrating it can get or just downright boring due to most matches being one sided without a back and forth struggle and due to the game being out for so long you find people end up going the optimal team compositions over and over.
I personally have over 60 hours in the game, most of which were accumulated at launch and I will probably still play from time to time but in the experience of me and some of my other friends playing alone usually ends up as an exercise in frustration, even when winning.

If you do have friends to play with or your going to get the game anyways I should mention that the developers are constantly updating the game with bug fixes, balance change and even new maps and characters, this amount of support is amazing and other developers should take note.

The game is available from amazon or blizzard directly in multiple different editions, prices vary for platform and shop but are around £40 or your regional equivalent.

Amazon link    Blizzard shop link

This game was reviewed on pc.

I Am Setsuna Review

Overview

I Am Setsuna is a JRPG that utilises an active time battle combat system. Developed by Tokyo RPG Factory and published by Square Enix. The game claims to be inspired by Chrono Trigger and some of the old JRPG's and it fulfils that promise for the dutifully. The story centres around a girl named Setsuna whose been chosen as a sacrifice to keep monsters at bay and has to go on a pilgrimage to get to the last lands where she is to sacrifice herself. But meets Endir when he shows up to assassinate her in her hometown. Eventually a merry band of cookie cutter characters appear and join you on your journey.

Characters

Being a JRPG the characters are somewhat meant to one of the main strong suits along with the story line, after all the, combat can only take the game so far.

*Scythe guy not included*

So how good are the characters?

You play Endir, a man from a tribe of mercenaries who wear masks for some inexplicable reason and is hired to assassinate Setsuna, when this fails Endir joins Setsuna in average JRPG fashion and is dragged along the pilgrimage across the lands. Endir displays a rather bland personality being the strong somewhat silent type.

The other characters for the most part just seem to fill the tropes that they could, quiet, lone wolf older man, short, loud, and spry child, a brooding female knight that sticks to her duty, an apologetic female mage who seemingly comes from nowhere to help the sacrifice. There is also this other guy with a scythe that appears from time to time to try and kill Setsuna.

Scythe guy apart its pretty easy to guess which characters which in the image.

Combat

This game heavily relies on its combat which takes part in small 3d battlefields and in all honesty the combat is pretty good and has Chrono Trigger to thank for that. 

There is a stupidly large amount of abilities and passive effects known as techs and spirnites, these spirnites can be augmented with talismans which give the abilities added effects like defence power and support bonuses.

The combat is known as an active time battle or ATB for short this leaves no time to sit and plan this should be kept in mind if you are looking to purchase this game. 

One of the awfully explained mechanics is momentum, this allows your abilities to have secondary effects, for example, blunt strike can paralyse an opponent and if used with momentum this also applies a team heal.

Momentum can be activated by waiting until a "SP" bar fills up which can be filled by doing damage getting hit or just waiting depending on what you have equipped, once the SP bar is filled press X on the controller whilst using an ability or just attacking to active momentum.

Here you can see "SP" indicated by the "pips" on the snowflake to the right of that character.

There is also a combo system where some characters can use an ability together for massive damage, this consumes both of their tuns which can be pretty big considering you only have 3 characters in a fight. The effects of these combo's are usually devastating and can leave a whole group of enemies obliterated before you.

Some negatives I noticed were things like the healer and mage becoming useless pretty much as soon as you get in your first city. Whats the point in using a healer or mage when you can have three tanky sword people who have full team heals whilst dealing both physical damage and magical damage which means even enemies that require a certain type of damage to be killed can be easily destroyed. This heavily removes from having a dynamic team as you can just focus on getting skills for the tanky people and running through the game with that.

Bosses are decently challenging and require a decent amount of preparation at times, there is almost always a save point before the boss which allows you to have multiple tries without having to clear the whole area again.

Here is a boss I encountered around 12 hours in, I ended up ditching Setsuna as this was where I found out that Endir can heal just as much. It took me a few tries from there but overall left me feeling satisfied once defeated, a good balance of actual difficulty and skill requirement is struck for most boss, this keeps them interesting and unique.

Story

The story is the games biggest letdown, all of the story arcs are predictable and I am positive you could just get a JRPG trope bingo board and you would have them all ticked off at the end.

The story takes place in some form of winter wonderland where monsters roam free and tradition runs deep.

I Am Setsuna moves you from location to location without letting any characters develop or even giving time for the plot to thicken.

Good question, I am not exactly sure.

Setsuna has to sacrifice herself to the fiend of the island who somehow controls whether monsters are everywhere or not, to keep this peace going every decade a sacrifice is chosen to go be given to the fiend, although for some reason hes rather grumpy this time around and for this reason Setsuna was chosen ahead of schedule.

There is not much else to say without spoiling the plot but I can say that everything is predictable if you have ever happened to play JRPG's before, no surprises are to be found in this story line and for this reason alone its debatable whether you should buy this game or not, if the combat seems to interest you a great deal then go ahead, just do not expect anything groundbreaking from the story. 

Aesthetics

I hope you like snow, because that is the only environment this game has to offer well, apart from icy caves 1 through 9.

In the games defence the snowy aesthetic is gorgeous and some of the icy caves look as if they are composed from crystals, the particle effects along with your footsteps deforming the snow as you walk really add to the experience.

Ice caves, get used to these.

The art in this game is truly amazing, when dialogue appears seeing the small portrait assigned to the character was always nice and ability effects were satisfying and made you feel as if the abilities were heavy hitting regardless of the damage dealt, weapon designs and models were unique and interesting.

Verdict

I Am Setsuna is in a strange place for me, I love the game but can easily see where the game lacks, stuff like no secondary objectives, side quests or contracts to perform all hammer down the fact that you are in a linear JRPG with no real choice.

The soundtrack is nothing short of a masterpiece in my eyes, composed of entirely piano it adds atmosphere and beauty to the world around you and truly fits the aesthetic and makes you feel somewhat lonely in a vast land of snow and ice. No extra orchestra is added, no artificial sounds, just a single piano.

The game suffers from a lack of risk taking, the game could've been so much more but they played it safe and reinvented the wheel for lack of better words.

I cannot recommend you to buy or not buy this game, if you enjoy games like Chrono Trigger then you will probably get along with this, also a controller is a must if you wish to play this game.

Also on a completely unrelated note, how does a civilisation end up with airships but not guns or other heavier forms of weaponry, just seems odd to me.

The game is currently priced at £29.99 or your regional equivalent and is available on PC and PS4.

Steam store link   Playstation store link

This game was reviewed on pc.

Rainbow Six Siege Review

Overview

After nearly one year Rainbow Six Siege is still maintaining a strong player base whilst adding fresh new content in the form of "seasons" every three months, these free updates contain two new characters and a single new map.

Rainbow Six Siege is a tactical first person shooter that has one team attack and another defend with multiple gamemodes. R6:Siege also focuses heavily on map destructibility. The game currently has 27 operators all with unique abilities and customizable loadouts. Rainbow Six boats a hardcore damage model with people only requiring 4-5 bullets to kill and headshots one hit with whatever weapon (sledgehammer included).

Both forms of barricades, walls on the right, door on the left.

At the start of a round the defenders can put up reinforcements in whats known as the preparation phase, in this phase the attackers are spawned in as drones to scout out the objective beforehand and identify the defenders location and chosen operators.

Each player comes equipped with 2 wall barricades and infinite door barricades.

The game is multiplayer only with a few pseudo singleplayer experiences For example the situations teach you how to play ending up in the brilliant article 5 mission which shows how much potential for a singleplayer story there was.

The game has some large issues at launch with things like being randomly disconnected and hackers everywhere, but with the most recent patch it seems that hackers are getting banned left right and centre, although this seems a little too late for a game trying to be an e-sport.

The graphics in this game are quite nice but there are a few flat textures here and there, the gun models are extremely detailed along with the operator models which can be further improved with a ultra texture patch which is mainly for 4k users,

The controls are your average fps controls with very little straying from the norm, there is no delay between movements and you always feel in control although being upside down on a window rappelling sometimes throws you off.

                                    Gameplay

Signal Jammer.

Gameplay is fresh and unique to effectively every first person shooter on the market, it requires some form of team cohesion to successfully breach an objective with a myriad of gadgets such as a grenade launcher thermite charge and even a sledgehammer. This dynamic destruction adds to the tense nature of the game because you never know if the wall you have your back turned to will suddenly be taken from you along with your life, you can of course make it more secure using signal jammers to mess with detonators but certain attackers have gadgets to destroy those as well. Rounds last for 3 minutes maximum and a full match usually takes around 10-15 mins, this keeps the action quick whilst still allowing for extremely tense situations to occur.

whilst defending hearing explosions from all angles as your entire team gets wiped out is an impressive sight to behold and you do not feel frustrated, if anything I was impressed seeing these perfect breaches go off and I knew I had fallen to the superior player.

                                                            

                                   Mechanics

Mechanics in this game are extremely strong with well made abilities and the unique ability to use a grappling hook to climb on the outside of buildings.

The movement is fluid and your speed is dictated by the amount of armour your operator comes equipped with.

Lots of operators gadgets synergize for example Thermites thermite charge and Thatchers EMP grenade make it almost impossible to make a reinforced wall indestructible and this means picking a team composition that works well together is incredible important, all operators are also equipped with a drone to scout out things, you can use the drone to do things such as see enemies on the other side of a wall to get a cheeky kill by shooting them directly though it. 

Ballistic shields also have a mechanic which is that to aim your pistol whilst using a shield you lower part of your shield and reveal your head to be instantly killed this makes shield operators play more carefully by doing things such as waiting for the enemy to have to reload before open firing, you can also fire without aiming but the chance to hit is pretty random.

Negatives
Now, the game has its flaws with some ridiculous bugs and balance issues, things like body parts going through surfaces so enemies on the other side can shoot you and even sometimes breaching charges wont blow open the wall but will consume your charge regardless, along with seemingly random disconnects and moments where you were in cover on your screen but still show out of cover to enemies. This all takes away from the games attempt to be an e-sport.
Hackers for the most part have been dealt with in the most recent patch and the developers are constantly updating the game with fixes and balance changes but sometimes you have to wonder if they even play their own game with things like the wrath of heaven being inflicted upon you if you ever decide to look out a window and this means you literally cannot see outside at people and the people outside see you clear as day, no wonder nobody uses flashbangs.

Verdict

Overall I recommend this game and for all its shortcomings it never ceases to entertain me and every match is different, nothing ever plays out the same and for this reason the game remains fresh and with constant support from the developers i can easily see this game going for another couple of years with a healthy playerbase.

The game is priced at £29.99 or your regional equivalent and for that price I think it is worth every penny there is also a season pass which gives 7 days early access to the new operators (maps come out for everyone at the same time).

                                       

                                 Steam store link

This is my first attempt at a formal review  and I may have missed things here and there, if anyone does infact read this some constructive criticism would be nice.