For being the latest in a subgenre with a few thousand indie entries ahead of it, Ultros is, shockingly, unlike any 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metroidvania I've ever played. That doesn't make it great. But, it does make it a worthwhile experiment for anyone who wants a peek at all the possibilities the spawn of Samus and Simon still have in store.
Many of Ultros' parts are familiar. It's a side-scrolling action-adventure game with a focus on exploration. It has melee combat and a weapon wheel. Its story involves a time loop. On concept alone, it may not seem all that different from other games in an oversaturated space.
But, when you look at what it's doing with those parts, you start to see the strangeness. It's set on the Sarcophagus, a large structure that looks like a sprawling space station, but is actually a giant uterus floating through the cosmic void that will or will not give birth to (to quote the Steam page) "an ancient demonic being" depending on your actions.
When you hear "space station,&quo♐t; you might picture sterile hallways, fluorescent lights, all smooth surfaces and flat colors, like a nuclear bunker had a baby with an Apple Store. But the world of Ultros is lush and colorful, brought to vibrant life by art director (and creative director) Niklas "El Huervo&qu❀ot; Åkerblad, best known for the art and soundtrack of Hotline Miami. The Sarcophagus is filled with alien plant life, and you need to learn to use it to your advantage as you explore.
That brings us to your weapon wheel, where guns you might expect to find have been replaced with gardening tools. This is Ultros’ most interesting idea. A𒁏s you explore, you collect a bunch of colorful seeds that grow into distinct flowers, trees, and ivies when planted. With your garden tools, you can trim hedges to open a path, spray plants to make them grow, and use a digging tool to retrie📖ve previously planted seeds.
The problem is, this implementation just doesn't feel very good to play. The run, jump, and double jump are good enough, but building up the game's weapon wheel left me feeling nothing but intellectual appreciation. Several times over the course of my 11 hour playthrough, I picked up a new tool that, in theory at least, was really cool. Then, invariably, I would try it out and it would feel limp and boring. One tool you unlock is essentially a circular saw you can use to chop through thick brush, unlocking new corridors. This should feel great to use, alive with buzzing energy. But, in practice, it just feels listless. The tool you unlock for short bursts of flight is similarly unsatisfying to use.
This is part of Ultros’ broader problem. It feels like it needed more time to cook. It isn’t a roguelike, and its time loop system is mostly just a tedious drag that forces you to collect your sword and all-purpose tool again. It often doesn’t tutorialize the tools on the weapon wheel outside of a quick text box you can easily mash through. And there’s no journal or way to mark your map, so you just have to remember what🐼 you’re doing or run around until you stumble upon the correct spot.
While you do, you’re running past terrific comics-inspired art that reminded me of Moebius’ work. Hadoque has created an interesting world, but I found it interesting like a good lecture, not like something I was part of and immersed in. Like the Sarcophagus, developer Hadoque is giving birth to something strange and potentially powerful. Ultros doesn't fully come together, but it's an interesting experiment in Metroidvania design that I hope Hadoque or another developer builds on in the future.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Ultros
Reviewed on PS5.
- Top Critic Avg: 79/100 Critics Rec: 77%
- Released
- February 13, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blꦰood and Gore𝕴, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Hadoque
- Publisher(s)
- 🅘 ཧ Kepler Interactive
- Terrific art
- Fascinating take on Metroidvania abilities
- Unsatisfying gameplay
- Lacks polish and cohesion
- Cool tools feel wasted
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