Achilles: Legends Untold – A Soul-Inspired Adventure in the Underworld

2023-11-16 11:03:53
We’ve all heard the story of Achilles, or at least the basics. He is the greatest hero in Greek mythology and the protagonist of Homer’s iconic work, The Iliad. His mother, Thetis, was immersed in the River Styx and he was virtually immortal and invulnerable, save for that famous heel, a small detail that ultimately led to his downfall. He was killed by Paris, the Trojan prince, who shot an arrow through his heel. A pretty useless and somewhat illogical way to die if you ask me, but that’s how the legend goes. In Achilles: Legends Untold we are immediately thrown into the Trojan War and, of course, we take on the title role of the legendary hero. Since this is a war, chaos reigns supreme throughout the game’s tutorial, which is easy enough until you encounter Paris, his ultimate killer, in an early boss fight. He’s very strong, and just like he did in the legend, Paris kills our hero here, not with a well-aimed arrow through the heel, but by simply beating the crap out of him to the point of life The count is empty. I was ready to start the whole fight over again against what seemed like a very strong opponent, but it soon became apparent that you don’t actually expect to win here. Achilles dies as he wishes, only to wake up moments later feeling confused and disoriented, a bit like having spent a night in the happy days of his youth. Achilles may be dead, having descended into the realm of the dead, but he soon discovers that this is not the end of his story. If he can defeat all the horrors lurking in the underworld, he has a chance to return to the land of the living and rewrite history. It’s no easy task, with everything from skeletons to scorpions to cats trying to get in the way. Well, unlike most other things, cats are completely harmless, it’s unclear what exactly they did in the Kingdom of the Dead, in Egyptian mythology there were cats guarding the Kingdom of the Dead, it could be something similar here, I’m not sure. Maybe it was some kind of punishment. You can pet them and there appear to be no consequences. Here’s an ad: Achilles: Legends Untold models everything in the Soulsborne template. As a soul veteran, which I still consider myself to be, it was the first thing that felt positive and got me excited about the adventure. What I love about these games is the challenge, you’re not just competing against the game, but to a large extent against yourself and your own psyche. Now, however, it’s worth mentioning that it’s not as hard as the Souls games and is more forgiving, but you’ll still get beat up from time to time. Otherwise, there’s definitely a lot of stuff that’s been influenced, or more or less copied directly from Dark Souls, and upgrading your abilities and attributes is very similar, and instead of being a bonfire at a checkpoint, it works in exactly the same way The way the Temple of Hades works. That means you can rest and recuperate, level up, and teleport between the different shrines you discover along the way. But like in games like Dark Souls, Elden’s Circle, etc., this comes at the cost of resurrecting all the enemies you kill in the area. Of course, it’s also the last one to start, so if you die, you have to start the journey all over again. In 2010, I probably thought Achilles: Legends Untold would be a very neat game. Now that we’re approaching 2024, unfortunately, that’s definitely not the case. At its best moments, it looks like a decent Xbox 360 game. Underworld is pretty well done in places, some of the textures and environments are certainly not terribly ugly, but Achilles and all the characters aren’t very well done, it’s more like Playstation 2 quality animation, even at times It’s bad at this point. For example, when Achilles stoops to pet a cat and slaps it a decimeter above its head with a stiff cupped primitive hand. No, Dark Point Games certainly doesn’t have the financial resources like From Software, but I don’t think it’s still greenlit in 2023. After all, some indie games look better with non-existent budgets. If you’ve played Dark Souls or Elden’s Circle, this will feel very familiar. It’s almost identical in terms of layout. Use the right trigger to attack hard. Use the RB button for lightweight quick attacks and B for rolling/dodge etc. It feels very familiar, which makes it easy to get into without any specific starting distance. However, the controls are nowhere near as fast as in the Souls games, and the overall feel is a bit stiff. I almost always feel a bit of lag, in which case it doesn’t seem to matter whether I use wired or wireless controls. In particular, the B button you use to roll and dodge is a little unreliable at times, making it especially difficult to direct your evasive moves. In most cases, this isn’t a problem, but some issues can arise when you encounter faster, more dangerous bosses. The camera also cannot be affected and cannot be changed in any way, but you have to stick to the angle decided by the developers here. This isn’t usually a big issue since it’s flexible, but it would be nice to be able to control it to your own taste. Here’s an ad: When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Greek mythology, probably because I watched Disney’s Hercules about 1,000 times in a year when I was ten. I think the story here is interesting, about Achilles getting a second chance at life, and that’s obviously what drives the game forward. It’s very much a clone of Souls, but it still has its own identity because it tells a new story about Achilles. Unfortunately, the rest isn’t a direct hit, it’s fun to kill a few hours and fight your way through the underworld, but it’s hardly something I’d go back to. It’s definitely worth checking out if you like Souls-inspired games, but it’s hard to recommend paying full price for it.
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