Aztech Forgotten Gods

Short review: God that price is big. If you catch it on a sale, I recommend this for a glimpse of some really ambitious direction.
The ambition in this game is immense, and you can feel the skeleton for something amazing as you play this game.
When I first tried it and got the hang of the movement boss combat, this game shined in a way so unique that I really couldn't stop thinking about it. Your first move is a jetpack, and the moveset only gets even crazier from there with quick boosts, homing rocket punching and a bunch of ways to chain them together. I can't overstate how good the gameplay feels when it's at its peak.
Unfortunately, whether it was time, money or direction, it's only a skeleton.
Most of the game is traversing through the overworld, which has some cool ideas like energy-recharging rails, air hoops to make you go faster. the problem is that every objective is at the corners of the map, away from these cool mechanics, leading you to just holding a button to fly there.
Story might be nice... but since it's presented through voiceless dialog, it just feels slow. When I accepted that I could skip through whole scenes, the game improved immensely. I owe an apology to the writers, I'll gladly experience your stories any other way.
Visual designs are REALLY good... but I swear the shaders and illumination in general betray these designs by making them feel out of place, too bright or too dark.
Music is also REALLY good and puts you in a very good mood. Sound design is also good... but a little broken.
All this being said: I had a blast in every single boss in this game, which is half the game. They're dynamic, requiring a lot of quick thinking and movement, and had badass music, visuals and mechanics going for it.
This vision and direction for a game has so much potential. I'll follow these guys closely.

Cool game if you appreciate indie games meaning a pretty good/interesting story, unique movement and so on. The game could obviously be slot better in many aspects but is still pretty cool

This game does 1 thing well: movement, I dont think there are many games that let you fly around with the freedom this does... unfortunately the budget of this indie studio shows and the design is just not there, instead of making a game focused on movement, which it excels at, they made a game about combat, which just falls flat on its face, worse to pad out the time they focused on the story which is just, very flat with a very obvious twist that you can see at the beginning, if only this game had focused on its strengths instead of trying to do something it wasnt prepared to... still the movement is pretty great, flying around the levels feels really good so when it works, it really works

The controls for this are fun to mess around with it. Storywise it went in a direction not used often but the written was not great not bad but definitely mid.Only really bad part of it was one boss fight decided that you should need to go thru an illusion maze every time you hit it which was infuriating

I purchased the game heavily discounted and would consider £5-10 to be a more reasonable price range.
Aztech: Forgotten Gods is an action game in a futuristic setting. The protagonist, Achtli, discovers an ancient artifact and faces the titular forgotten gods, who threaten to destroy her city.
It is a decent boss rush game with unusual combat.
The main aspect of the game is the battles against formidable and diverse bosses. Each battle has its unique mechanics, while the bosses have some background story scattered around the city.
The city itself is open for exploration from the start, though there are very few things to do there - there are some optional challenges and lore pieces, which might require having certain abilities unlocked in order to access them. The bosses appear in a specific order and cannot be fought at will.
The story is well-paced, with the characters and their relationships developing throughout the game, though I did not quite like one of the main ideas. The protagonist is, nonetheless, interesting, reasonable, decisive, and tragically realistic - a young person with a history degree and a position that does not require high school (a courier).
The combat is unusual and I do not think that I have mastered it even after finishing the game. The jetpack (jet-glove?) allows vertical movement with very little limitations and automatically propels the main character towards the target. The abilities are unlocked as the story progresses, with the upgrades available and requiring the experience points to purchase. Additionally, there are several stylish outfits and hairstyles to choose from for the protagonist.
The graphics are stylised and quite appealing, while the music fits both the combat and travel well. The game is VA-free. The subtitles can remain on-screen as long as needed during cut-scenes (with the characters performing looped animations), but advance automatically during other parts of gameplay.
The controls are comfortable and rebindable. The game saves the progress automatically, so Windows Explorer can be used for the save file management.

TL;DR - A good game to snag when it's on sale (at 10 bucks or below, imo). Be ready to read for about half of your playtime because this is pretty dialogue/story heavy. The game itself is also pretty short, about 5-8 hours depending on how you play and if you go for achievements.

I'd like to start off by saying I can see a lot of promise in this title and I did like what Lienzo was going for. Although the game lacks a good chunk of polish and still has a fair few bugs in it, I did enjoy my time playing this.

I will have to say, I was caught off-guard at how long it took before I could actually play due to all of the dialogue (past the game's intro, of course), and how much dialogue overall is in the game. That being said though, I think the writing is one of the big winner's of this game in my opinion, because I feel the characters have good chemistry, even if there is only a handful of them, and their dialogue feels quite believable.

The gameplay itself, although fairly basic and lacking much depth, still was not bad. The combat is much like a very simple rhythm game, with a few abilities to pepper in when you get them unlocked. I will say it is not insulting, but it could definitely stand to have something more added to give it a more fun feel. The main gimmick of the game, the Lightbringer (the gauntlet) however, is where I feel the game's other strong suit is. Once you get the hang of using it and after you get a few upgrades, it is quite fun to fly around, although I am quite saddened it was not used to its full potential.

That thus leads me to another missed opportunity this game has: level design. I was expecting and even looking forward to traversing different dungeons or maps with the Lightbringer, but sadly, that never happened. This issue also ties in with another big factor of the game: its length. the game is incredibly short, being able to get all trophies/achievements for it in about 8 hours, and I feel adding dungeons before most, if not all, of the bosses could have killed two birds with one stone.

Now, about the game's visuals and sound design? I feel the visuals have a very early era ps2 feel to them, so if that's what they were gunning for, they hit the mark. I also feel the game's overall theme is quite unique, being a mix between ancient aztec and sci-fi. I will say though, I know that they are aiming for a certain style, but I feel the character models could have been improved, just a tad. the game's music and sound design as a whole though? Can't say I have a single gripe. The music is good and fits quite well in my opinion at least, and the sounds deliver just the right amount of kick, or lack-there-of if it's a more gentle sound.

All in all, I feel this is a good game with a lot of promise and missed potential that still needs a bit more elbow grease to get it where it needs to be. As it is now though? It is certainly playable and I do recommend it, but certainly not at it's unwieldy asking price of 30$. As it is now, I feel 5$-10$ is more than a fair enough asking price.

P.s. If the game devs are reading this, sorry if I came of as a bit harsh. I just want this game to be as good as it can be and I can see something special here, it just needs a bit more time in the oven. I wish you all the best over at Lienzo and I hope you never stop improving and doing what you love!