The guys at Dark Point Games have finally released the definitive version of Achilles Legends Untold, which had already been available for some time on PC in Early Access form. Since its launch in Early Access, the game has managed to generate mixed opinions, both from critics and players, so there will certainly be many wondering how and if things have changed. In this Achilles Legends Untold review, therefore, we will analyze different aspects of the game, focusing on both its positive and negative aspects. This way, you will have the opportunity to have a clearer vision of what the product is currently like, since there are some differences from when it was in Early Access. If you want to know more, we recommend you continue reading.
A new Achilles
Achilles Legends Untold begins with a long cutscene in which we are told, in a general way, what the story of Achilles is and what our objective is. Obviously, the game takes great liberties and not everything can be traced back to what is told in the texts, but there are still points of contact. Once you have witnessed this cutscene, you will take control of Achilles and will have to move forward to conquer the city. Shortly thereafter, however, things will change, and, after being defeated by a boss, you will return to life and meet an old man.
At this point, this is where the actual game will begin. In a succession of events and vicissitudes, Achilles Legends Untold will manage to keep you in front of the screen for at least fifteen hours, assuming you don’t also want to dedicate yourself to all the secondary missions and extra activities that you can do in the game world. Concluding the main story will make you witness epic battles against some of the most famous characters in the myths, such as the very famous and fearsome Minotaur. Between what is told in the texts and what the developers wanted to create, you will certainly find a work that does not excel in terms of writing, but which still allows you to play pleasantly.
Dark Souls meets Diablo
Well, yes, from a gameplay point of view, we can say that Achilles Legends Untold is inspired by both the Dark Souls and Diablo series. The isometric view and some game mechanics, such as the inventory, the blacksmith, crafting, and so on, are borrowed from the Diablo series, while the presence of checkpoints to be able to rest with the peculiarity that the enemies are regenerated every time is taken right from the Dark Souls series. However, although the gameplay is very derivative and does not actually introduce anything new, it is still satisfying and manages to involve players for its entire duration.
In Achilles Legends Untold, there will be many things to discover and explore that will allow you not only to better understand the plot but also to find increasingly better equipment that will make your life easier on the run. In fact, as in any self-respecting soulslike, there will be several bosses to face (in this regard, we would have preferred greater diversity between them), and having one weapon or armor rather than the other can certainly make the difference. Furthermore, you will also have the possibility to upgrade your equipment at the blacksmith, obviously making use of certain resources that you can find around the game world.
A big world to explore
As we already mentioned at the beginning of this Achilles Legends Untold review, the game offers many things to do in addition to the missions related to the main story. In fact, between one main mission and another, you will have the opportunity to take part in secondary missions or real dungeons of increasing difficulty that will be scattered around the game map. In this regard, we would like to say that the game map is truly very vast and is divided into several regions, easily accessible thanks to the teleporters that you will unlock as you explore.
However, both the side missions and the dungeons are actually very similar to each other and although they are a great way to take a break from the main story, in the long run, they can become something too repetitive to do and do not offer such essential rewards that can push you to continue. In fact, as already mentioned, the dungeons will be of increasing difficulty, often more difficult to tackle than the main missions, so having rewards that take this aspect more into account would have been more than welcome.
In any case, we can say that the game world is certainly not bare, even if a little repetitive, so if you are a completionist and want to complete everything 100%, you could find the right balance by completing different activities. In this regard, once you have finished the main story, you will have the possibility to continue playing and recover everything you left behind, so don’t worry about completing everything immediately, and in some areas, it will be better to return when you have some equipment improved.
Some technical issues
The technical side of Achilles Legends Untold is without infamy and without praise. That is, we can say that during our adventure we did not encounter any type of problem so obvious that it did not allow us to continue the game, but it is also true that there are some aspects that should be fixed to make the experience even more enjoyable. In this case, the biggest problem we encountered concerns hitboxes. In fact, they do not appear to be very precise, which can create some problems when you are in excited moments with many enemies or when you are fighting a boss.
Furthermore, in some game scenarios, command inputs are not immediate, which will make you tend to press the same command more than once, which will result in Achilles doing the same thing more than once. This too is certainly not optimal, especially when you are in combat and every move can be the decisive one. However, we are confident that the developers are aware of these types of issues and are already working on them to resolve them as soon as possible.
Achilles Legends Untold review – 7
Achilles Legends Untold is a game that doesn’t invent anything, but takes inspiration from some cornerstones of the gaming world, such as Dark Souls and Diablo, and tries to create a hybrid product that can be appreciated by a wider audience. In this regard, we can say that the team has all in all succeeded in its aim, thanks also to the fact that it was able to choose how to use the experience of Achilles Legends Untold, that is, whether the difficulty is the hardest one, which is calibrated to the standards of a typical soulslike, or the lowest one, which allows you to have a less frustrating experience. It will be up to you which of the two to opt for.
Although Achilles Legends Untold has some technical problems that we highlighted in the previous paragraph, this does not mean that it is not a game that manages to involve players, thanks to its gameplay, rather than the plot, which, in some points, seemed a little lacking and that it didn’t have very specific points of contact. Ultimately, we can say that Achilles Legends Untold is a game that has some limitations in some aspects, but it still remains an adventure that fans of Dark Souls and Diablo might want to experience.
