Achilles: Legends Untold is a clunky, tedious game that tells a new story of Achilles, the famous character from The Iliad.
Dark Point Games’ newest title Achilles: Legends Untold begins with a very interesting concept. Retelling the story of the famous character Achilles from Homer’s Iliad. A pleasant ‘what if’ scenario in which Achilles returns to the mortal world once more encountering many of the famous Greek gods and famous characters from the book such as: King Agamemnon, Paris, and more.
A quick word of warning, this game is currently in early access and is marred by a massive litany of bugs, glitches, and massive frame rate drops. The AI can suffer issues with their movement, sometimes getting stuck on the slightest bumps in the ground, or in some cases just back up constantly until eventually you chase them down and kill them.
With that out of the way, we can focus more on the game itself. Narratively Achilles: Legends Untold has an interesting hook as mentioned previously and it features some very good (if awkward looking) cutscenes that fully divulge all of the information the player needs. However, almost directly after this point the story falls flat. Upon meeting Hades the game takes a massive dive in terms of its narrative interest and a poor story in combination with poor dialogue leads to a very bland experience in what could be something so much more interesting.
The tutorial is really well paced out, which is very nice to see, allowing players to get more and more familiar with each moveset and new addition to the cascade of combat mechanics that players need to get their heads around. The controls can be somewhat clunky at first but are easy to get familiar with allowing you to engage with Achilles: Legends Untold best and most important quality, its combat.
The combat is not stellar, however. While many of the animations are brilliant and fully add to the flourish of gameplay, certain arrays of attacks are essentially worthless. Heavy attacks are so slow and cumbersome that they become pointless to use, instead of settling for hit and run, dodge and attack over and over again. This combined with Achilles frustratingly slow movement can make the combat somewhat dull in some areas.
Furthermore, combat is brutal which should be expected to some extent. The game is a soulslike after all and does take much of the souls DNA including masses of enemies. However, the number of enemies actually detracts from the combat of the game. From a lock-on system that is hard to navigate and a combat system that makes managing large groups of enemies a chore. You will find it very tedious when you are bombarded by a hoard of enemies countless times.
On the other side of that. The game’s combat is vastly superior (though still somewhat mundane) in one vs one scenario. Whether that is a boss fight or a really tough enemy, the game becomes way more fun when you find yourself in those boss battles. The feeling of cat and mouse, dodging, blocking, and slashing away at your opponent, watching that massive health bar go down is much more rewarding and the area of combat that feels the most fluid and fun.
Achilles: Legends Untold also features a very large in-depth skill tree. Now this skill tree does in some cases feature some very fun new combat mechanics and such, it is unfortunately marred by the other more bland features that we have come to see from RPG’s. The classic ‘get more stamina’ or ‘get more health’ while practical, also feels somewhat farcical, especially when other levels in a skill tree give you a brand new cool move to try.
Moreover, the game’s perspective does not help the combat one bit, in quite a few points throughout the game enemies would be attacking from invisible positions leading to you becoming confused before it results in your death. While the enemies are outlined in many cases, the outline is not bright enough to get your attention, and sometimes the red outline clashes with much of the environment that you find yourself in.
Achilles: Legends Untold also suffers from other areas. For example, the game’s exploration is incredibly poor, in that it lacks any of it. Now, this wouldn’t be an issue if the game were a simple series of dungeon crawls, but here’s the thing. It isn’t. Achilles: Legends Untold has large swathes of land between each dungeon, with each patch of sand as samey and monotonous as the last.
While traipsing through this vast area of nothingness, you really understand how empty the game is. Unlike other action RPG’s Achilles: Legends Untold has very little to grip the player. While other games in the genre are riddled with interesting NPC’s and side quests and so much more, Achilles: Legends Untold feels incredibly bland by comparison.
While it is somewhat unfair comparing an indie game to other triple-A titles, the game’s emptiness is a standout factor and one that makes an already tedious experience even more so as you wander across the empty landscape where nothing can hold your attention.
I will however say that visually the game can take your breath away. While it may not be consistent when Dark Point games start moving the camera Uncharted style you can see some vistas that are breathtaking and really show what the potential of this game really is.
Overall, Achilles: Legends Untold has the potential to be an incredible action RPG. Much of the core of the game is happily in place with an excellent story hook and more. However, for players that are diving into the game as of now. What players will be getting is a barren world in conjunction with mediocre combat all held together by a poor story all marred by a litany of bugs and frame rate drops which also impacts the overall experience.
Achilles: Legends Untold is an action RPG brimming with potential, but sadly as of now. Potential is all it really has.
Achilles: Legends Untold is available on early access right now via Steam. Here at GamesCreed, we cover everything gaming. From the latest news to stellar reviews, GamesCreed has you covered
