Apotheon: Usurp the Old Gods

Mythos Apotheon is set in the world of Greek mythology; where the divines ruled atop Olympus and mortals built shrines to honor their glory. In the world of Apotheon, Zeus, the king of the gods, has decided that this age of man is no more. Without the blessings of the gods, the people of Greece cannot grow crops, hunt, or do much of anything except drink wine and wait to die. Enter Nikandreos. You, the savior of mankind, must ascend Olympus and take back the blessings of the gods by overcoming many trials. Fortunately, these trials are pretty damn fun. First Impressions The first thing that struck me was how stunningly beautiful this game is. The art style is directly influenced by art from this period of time, with every door, person, and animal looking like they jumped right off a Grecian urn. Not only is the art style gorgeous to look at in a still frame, but it’s gorgeous in motion too. Animations are fluid and I rarely noticed any weird clipping or anything of that nature. After about ten minutes of gameplay, I started to get a decent feel for the mechanics of the game. Originally I had some trouble with the combat controls because aiming a bow at the correct target was somewhat wonky and it was a pain to switch weapons. It should be noted that I played through Apotheon with a controller and not a keyboard + mouse. Strength of Olympus The entire game is a tale of revenge against Zeus, the patriarch of Olympus. He has wronged you and all of humanity and it’s up to you to defeat him. This is where I think the game loses focus. Progression through the game is dictated by a hub world, Olympus, where there are various gateways to the realms of different gods. You have to take each god individually and complete a task in order to get closer to taking down Zeus. This is a problem because you don’t get to see much of Zeus early on, you’re only told of how crappy he is by Hera. While I enjoyed the Mega Man-like progression where you clear each god’s level to get a powerup, I would have liked to see more of Zeus in the game. Mechanical Marvel The controls in Apotheon are solid, but I never felt like I had full control of my character. Running, jumping, attacking, and dodging all have different animation speeds depending on your momentum, so it was hard for me to predict how fast I’d be able to go if I wanted to run toward an enemy and hit him with a quick attack. I also found it difficult to predict where I’d end up at the end of a dodge roll or jump, even after a few hours with the game. This could be due to the fact that I played through most of the game with a controller, but even after switching to keyboard + mouse for an hour or two I still felt like the controls were limiting my ability to play the game effectively. This created an artificial difficulty spike around enemies that had effective stun and crowd-control abilities like Apollo. That boss fight in particular was frustrating, not because of the mechanics of the fight (which I thought were brilliant), but because I found it troublesome to get the game to do what I wanted it to do. Thoughts upon Completion Immediately after I finished playing Apotheon I wanted to go through the game again on the harder difficulty and see what I had hidden secrets I had missed. I found several fun weapons throughout the game that were a joy to use, and I wanted to find more. Thankfully the harder difficulty is pretty challenging, and I’m having a blast playing through the game again. My initial frustration with the controls eventually subsided somewhat, but there are still portions of the game where I felt like the game was getting in my way instead of the controls feeling second nature. A game’s challenge should test the player’s skill not their luck, and Apotheon tested my luck more times than I was comfortable with in a game based around action platforming. Reflection Overall, Apotheon has a lot going for it. The art style is unparalleled and I hope to see more of this studio’s work in the art world soon. While the controls were somewhat frustrating, I still had fun with the game and I’m currently going through it again on a harder difficulty to see what else the game has to offer. In terms of the story, I never really latched on emotionally. It was fairly standard Greek mythology fare with competent writing and voice acting. I wouldn’t say the story is bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the tale of revenge never felt satisfying in the way that God of War’s did. Note that this is the only time I’ll ever say that God of War’s story did something right. If you like games that will challenge you and take you on a grand adventure, then you will be hard pressed to find a more unique and interesting game experience than Apotheon. Even though I feel the game could be stronger mechanically and narratively, I was extremely satisfied with how the game turned out and can strongly recommend it to any fans of the 2D action genre.

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