Apotheon

As a greek mythology and art enthusiast, this fills SUCH a hole in my poor soul that i thought no other interactive art form would. Although at times can be a bit buggy and i'm not the biggest fan of Apollo being one of the bad guys, the artstyle, dynamics, scenes and gameplay make it all worth it. 100% i told all my friends about it!

The art is beautiful and makes you feel like you've been transported inside an ancient Greek vase. The combat is easy to grasp and allowed for a good amount of variety with weapons and armor. There are two difficulty settings, the normal and the Olympian setting. It may be just me using keyboard controls, but playing through both difficulties felt like completely unique experiences with how it challenges you to change the way you fight. Also all the references to Greek mythology were pretty spot on and super fun to watch unfold. 10/10 highly recommend.

Definitely one of the most beautiful 2D games I've played. The art style is just gorgeous and what got me hooked in the first place, but the fluidity of movement and mechanics of combat are no second. It's also very easy to learn for first time players, and the compelling story could easily be canon for classical Greek mythology. 10/10 so far.

Honestly my brain randomly remembered this game and i'm so glad it did. This game is an underrated gem. The art and music is absolutely beautiful, and honestly I personally dig the controls, it feels very fluid. Honestly just makes me think of 2D god of war but on a vase. Still this game is beautiful and a must play.

Gem amongst the metroidvania genre.
For some, another game about freek mythology could be too much, but Apotheon even after all these years manages to keep it fresh with astounding visuals inspired by greek vases. Just look at those screenshots - it looks even better in motion.
Nikandros, our hero, is Kratosing all over Olympus. He sometimes is allying himself with some of them, but no matter the outcome the devs managed to keep the challenge fresh. Every domain our godslayer is visiting is a much different challenge. Here you need to get out of prison, there you need to keep up with drinking contests, etc. All of that is doing work on environmental storytelling. Even if you are not very familiar with Greek mythology all the gods are fleshed out splendidly. Music and voice acting is on par with visuals and once you get through the jank, it's an easy way to just enjoy the game.
Yes, the jank. Combat in Apotheon is janky, sometimes weird. You can definitely get used to it, but it won't stop feeling clunky until you see the credits. Menuing also leaves a lot to be desired, especially with a crapload of equipment. Your weapons can break, so you are hoarding them constantly. In the end the problem is not that you don't have anything to use (on the contrary - there are a lot of weapons), the problem is to pick the right weapon on the spot without pausing the game.
Character progression is just ok, same with the enemy variety. Overall 100% recommended, 200% if you are a metroidvania fan. This game is very solid in its genre, very easy to get all the achievements and its gametime is not a long commitment.

✔️ The Good
• Stunning Art Style: "Apotheon" features a unique, classical Greek pottery aesthetic that sets it apart visually from other games.
• Rich Mythological Setting: The game delves deep into Greek mythology, offering players a rich narrative embedded with historical and mythological figures and events.
• Immersive World: "Apotheon" offers a decent sized environment that is fully explorable, filled with secrets, side quests, and mythical enemies.
❌ The Bad
• Clunky Controls: The controls a bit unresponsive at times, particularly during intense combat situations. Aiming is atrocious when trying to do it manually, it personally deterred me from using ranged weapons. Fighting multiple enemies is an absolute nightmare, the character auto aims to the nearest enemy making fighting multiple enemies confusing to say the least.
• Performance Issues: There are occasional performance drops and bugs that can detract from the gaming experience, especially on lower-end systems.
• Inconsistent Difficulty: Some players might find the difficulty spikes in platforming and battles increasingly aggravating as the game progresses.
⚠️The Ugly
• Frustrating Inventory Management: The quick-toggle feature for navigating inventory can be cumbersome, often impacting the fluidity of combat.
• Limited Replay Value: Once completed, the game offers little in terms of replayability beyond the initial playthrough.
• Sticky Platform Controls: The platforming elements can be frustrating, with the character often sticking to surfaces or missing jumps, which can lead to health-draining falls.
Overall Score:
7.0/10

This game was quite enjoyable, but I feel like the combat could of used some improvements.

Apotheon is a 2D Action Adventure game where you explore a map with different areas all revolving around the mythological gods. Each different area of the map changes colors as well so you can identify better the different areas. The games theme overall and art style is really what sets this game apart from many others, I think it was very clever how the developers made it look like the game was a Greek wall painting, its so prominent that if you press start and hover your mouse over blank spaces in the menu, your mouse acts as a flashlight and you can see it shinning on patterns of a stone wall, I thought that was super neat. Its as if you're an archaeologist discovering the story of the downfall of Olympus by examining the paintings in a Greek temple.

The story of the game is pretty good as you are nobody special that is given the task to Stop Zeus from killing all the mortals. The soundtrack of the game was also well implemented. It took a more atmospheric approach that matched the different environment that you explored perfectly. The combat for the most part is actually pretty good with some environmental items scattered across the map while you explore that you are able to pick up and use against your opponents, as well as many multiple different weapons that you can pick up and use. Weapons are destructible in the game but I never once ran out of things to use as the game provides you with tons of weapons everywhere. There is also potions you can consume that aid you in combat and you can even use throwables that spawn minions or explode and range weapons as well such as bows and javelins. Overall the combat is very versatile with the options you have at your disposal, so why would I say it can be improved?

Well for the most part I Feel like the way you swing your weapons was a bit slow and clunky. Depending on where your mouse or Thumb stick is positioned, your character will either thrust, swing or downward swing, but a lot of the times it doesn't work very well. If an enemy is right on top of you, you don't even hit them at all unless you get a little bit of space between each other. You also have a Stamina bar where if you swing too much your character gets tired and you swing incredibly slow which makes sense but I never once found a place where I was able to upgrade my stamina bar and the bar is very small. Due to all of this, the combat tend to be slow and tedious at times, with me just switching to a bow to kill enemies quickly or at least more efficiently. If they would of opted with your character just doing 3 different types of slashes instead of depending on where you were aiming your mouse or take the stamina bar out completely, I feel like the combat of the game would of been much smoother and more fun. I still had fun playing with it, but again, most of the time It just got in the way of me being able to do certain things.

At the end of the day I think you should still give this game a try. If you are into Greek Mythology and like games that give you a lot of variety when it comes to combat, then I recommend this game to you. It was still fun to try different things and use everything you are able to use at your disposal. The game isn't super long though so if anything pick it up on sale.