The Impact Factor

Battling the Pantheon

Review

Apotheon, Alientrap Games (PS4)

Abstract: Apotheon, created by Alientrap Games and released on PS4, is a mixed bag. Gorgeous visuals, unlike anything I have ever seen in a game, make Apotheon a sight to behold every second you are playing the game. The sweeping orchestral score and deep knowledge of Greek mythology synergize to create an immersive foray into a war on Mt. Olympus. Presentation isn’t everything though. Apotheon’s gameplay falls flat. A bizarre control scheme and floaty physics make Apotheon unintuitive to play and, often times, unenjoyable. An unevenness prevails throughout Alientraps’ 2D brawler, where high highs are met with equally low lows. Apotheon’s unique artistic styling makes it worth checking it out, but some serious faults cannot be overlooked.

Apotheon is a game I had my eye on for quite some time. Around the summer of last year (2014), PlayStation Blog put together this huge list of independent (indie) games coming to PS4 in 2015 and beyond. Each title had its own post, detailing what the game had to offer. Dozens of titles were previewed and, inevitably, I was curious which of the games would stick with me over the course of the year. Apotheon was certainly one of them. The gorgeous art style of the game alone had me interested enough to habitually check in on its tentative release. The early trailers for Apotheon also hinted at a potential “Metroidvania” style of gameplay, which is a genre / style of game that often resonates with me. As 2015 rolled around Apotheon’s release date was set for the first week of February, ushering in rampant speculation that it may be included as a “free” title in that month’s PlayStation Plus lineup. Thankfully, the rumors were true, and I was able to pick up Apotheon without reservation. Which brings me to today, the review.

Created by Lee Vermeulen and the team at Alientrap Games, Apotheon is a 2D sidescrolling action game with Metroidvania influences. Apotheon’s story retreads the fairly well wrought trope of gods versus man. Due to an increasing lack of respect for the authority of Olympus, Zeus and many of the Grecian pantheon have turned their back on humanity, leaving the world in the state of total chaos. The sky is dark because Apollo will not bring the sun, the seas are flooding the cities and earthquakes run rampant because of Poseidon’s wrath, etc. You play as Nikandreos, a Grecian hero who, with the help of his Olympian ally Hera, seeks to take revenge on the petty gods and save the Earth from total annihilation. Vermeulen’s selection of Hera as your ally was unexpected and refreshing, as her desire to help you comes nearly entirely from a place of disdain for her boisterous, philandering husband (Zeus) and less so because “you are the hero of legend” or something similarly trite. Over the course of the game, you combat the deities of Olympus to gain their power and overthrow the tyrannical Zeus. The formula works for Apotheon, and certainly evokes some of the same feelings I got while playing through the God of War series. That said, Apotheon does not do anything new or exciting with the story, making it mostly forgettable by the time you finish the roughly 10-hour experience.

Apotheon’s crowing achievement is its art direction, which is immediately apparent. To be as concise as possible: Apotheon is beautiful. The game is styled to look like paintings found on Grecian urns from antiquity, with their stark black and white coloring used to depict heroes and stories, set against the warm tawny-hued clay. Every single moment in Apotheon resembles one of these urn paintings, and does so tastefully. At the same time, Apotheon is not afraid to depict locations and monsters of its own making that feel completely at home in the aesthetic. The art is consistent and evocative. I found myself stopping to admire each new location, character, and monster because of how skillfully and interestingly they had been rendered into Apotheon’s art style. The fact that, even in motion (i.e. during gameplay), Apotheon looks this great is no small achievement.

Looking really good there, Apotheon.

“Sumptuous” is a word that comes to mind when trying to think about Apotheon’s art—playing the game is certainly a feast for the eyes. No feast would be complete without the side dishes, and thankfully Apotheon delivers an impressive final package. A great soundtrack compliments the gorgeous art, and works synergistically to create that cinematic and “epic” feel you would expect from a clash against the Olympian gods. The voice acting in the game particularly impressed me, too. Many indie games forgo voice acting in favor of text boxes, for artistic and, likely, budgetary reasons. But Apotheon features voices for essentially every god, each evoking their distinct personalities. Voice acting is a small touch, but one that had a substantial impact while playing through the game. All of these things, the art, the music, the voice acting, come together to create a unique, and thoroughly impressive, presentation.

When playing Apotheon, it is clear that Vermeulen and Alientrap have a passion for stories from Greek antiquity. Though I would never claim to be an expert, I am relatively familiar with the stories and goings-on in the world of the ancient Greek gods. I have read the Illiad, Aeneid, and Metamorphoses and took a decent handful of classes in college about Greek & Roman mythology. All of this is preface to say that Apotheon’s depiction of the Olympian gods is probably the closest to their literary depiction as I have seen in any video game. Apotheon nails their personalities: Athena is cunning and loves puzzling the player, Apollo is self-obsessed and lords his control of the sun over humanity, and the list goes on. There is also a subtly by which the personalities of the gods are brought to bear: no god greets the player like, “Tremble before me Nikandreos, for I am the goddess of the hunt and fertility!” Well, except maybe Ares. But that fits too. Each god you encounter has his or her own zone in the game. These carefully crafted areas are again reflective of the gods themselves, and give Apotheon a great variety of locations to explore. Within these zones are the challenges each god forces upon you and, for the most part, these too succeed in feeling true to the gods they represent and keep the game varied. Apotheon also contains loads of small nods to some of the lesser-known tales from Greek mythology, like that of Actaeon and Persphone. Finally, stone tablets scattered throughout Apotheon contain quotes from Homer, Virgil and Ovid, contextualizing the area you are in or the actions of the gods. I appreciated the respect Vermeulen and team showed for these texts, and I love that people playing Apotheon could potentially be seeing these words for the first time. Through and through Apotheon shows a deep respect and knowledge of Greek mythology, and the game is much stronger for it.

When it comes to the actual gameplay, however, Apotheon is a thoroughly uneven experience. The gaming press’ insistence on labeling Apotheon as a Metroidvania does the game a disservice. Many design elements are shared between Apotheon and that style of game, such as the 2D exploration and ability acquisition. What Apotheon really lacks, that makes a game a Metroidvania, is using new powers for exploration. This model of beating a boss, gaining a new power and then being able to explore previously locked off areas is essential to Metroidvania’s, and gives the player a clear and rewarding sense of progression. By the end of your typical Metroidvania (Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Guacamelee!), you feel powerful and have explored every nook and cranny of the world. In Apotheon, beating bosses always results in one of two outcomes: some stat boost or combat ability. In every instance these bonuses do not affect the ability of the player to explore. Often these power-ups are so subtle that I hardly noticed any difference after obtaining them. This design choice eliminates the free and organic sense of progression, reducing it to a linear “beat this god, beat this god…beat the game” model. Exploration is nice, but the game gives the player only limited rewards for doing so. It is not a bad player progression model per se, but for me, it was less satisfying. Apotheon shares more DNA with old school arcade beat ‘em ups like Golden Axe than with Super Metroid in many ways. Apotheon’s core is a 2D brawler; once I had the proper frame of mind, it allowed me to ditch some of my loftier Metroidvania expectations.

 

You have a lot of combat options in Apotheon. I just wish they felt better to use.

Excellent combat is essential to any 2D brawler—it has to be fun and fluid to keep you engaged. Apotheon’s main focus, from a gameplay perspective, it is combat. Unfortunately, Apotheon’s unevenness is at its most evident when considering the combat. Fighting enemies is clunky, slow, and not terribly fun. A lot of this stems from the unusual control scheme in the game and Alientrap’s focus on creating precision-based 2D combat. To attack an enemy in Apotheon you have two options: to attack them directly with your weapon or to use ranged weapons. Each of these attacks can be aimed by use of the right analog stick on PS4, moving the attack up or down accordingly. This is important, as many enemies have shield that can block direct attacks or weak points that demand a precise strike. This control system is awkward to execute, since you constantly have to move your right hand between the face buttons and the right stick. Having to move your hand around slows down the combat substantially and removes most, if not all, of the fluidity. More often than not, I would forgo aiming my weapon because it felt so unnatural to perform. Ultimately, it feels like are stuck between a rock and a hard place: if you try to play precisely, the game feels and plays badly, and if you let the game aim for you, combat turns into a monotonous mash fest. Apotheon’s combat problems are accentuated by its floaty and slow movement systems. This makes both the platforming and combat in Apotheon feel clunky and imprecise. It’s not all bad, though. The combat still can be quite fun during one on one encounters because of this more slow paced design. I also really enjoyed the item degradation system, which forces the player to switch between weapons frequently. Some of this is made moot by the frequency by which you acquire new weapons, but overall I enjoyed how the idea played out. Lastly, weapons felt unique, especially the rare weapons you could find throughout the world. The flaming sword was a particular favorite.

The same characteristic unevenness is prevalent in the world design. As I mentioned, each god has his or her own specific zone. Some of these areas are great: Hades’ underworld looks and plays great, and I really enjoyed the forest of Artemis. The boss fight against Artemis is a particular standout. The fight made you rethink how you played the game and had a nice thematic twist. Other areas are less successful. I loved the design and progression in Athena’s zone. The rotating labyrinth filled with puzzle and skill challenges was a perfect fit for Athena’s personality and was truly spectacular to behold. However, while the ideas in her area were great, the controls made getting through it a nightmare. In several instances you had to precisely shoot arrows across the map and, given how clunky the controls are, what resulted was frustrating trial and error. Many of the remaining areas had good ideas but were plagued with equally as many missteps. I enjoyed the oceanic feel and the attempted sea map based exploration in Poseidon’s zone, but getting around was a chore and the boss fight at the end was terrible. The final area in the game, commanded by Zeus, was perhaps the weakest in the game and ended up feeling incomplete.

 

Athena's zone map. A perfect fit for the goddess, but getting through it
was frustrating in all the wrong ways.

Apotheon is a game I wish I enjoyed playing as much as I did looking at. Frustrating controls and combat that ranged from boring to infuriating hindered my full enjoyment of the final experience. Still, Apotheon has a lot going for it, and is worth checking out if you’re into Greek mythology or 2D action games.

Apotheon

3/5