Apotheon

Very good game with a lot of ancient Greek myths turned into various gameplay elements.
It has more depth that it first shows and great music, very recommended.

Pros:
+ Everything is under the setting of Ancient Greek mythology: the plot, the characters, the locations, the equipments, etc. And the mythological elements are accurately portrayed.
+ The game is incredibly stylish thanks to its fluid animation in Greek black-figure art style and the well-composed soundtrack which attempts to stay true to Ancient Greek music.
+ Flexible save system. AFAIK, you can save anytime and anywhere.
+ No missable achievement, although one achievement requires a second playthrough to beat the game on the hardest mode.
+ Dialogues have voice acting.
+ Has a powerful in-game console.
+ The design of the combat system is interesting and realistic:
* weapons and shields have durability: they are no longer usable when their durability is depleted;
* ranged weapons need manual aim and the trajectory of projectiles is affected by gravity;
* heavier melee weapons are slower to wield;
* hitbox of melee weapons depends on the length of the weapon (for example you can hit an enemy from a further distance with a spear than with a knife);
* wielding melee weapons consecutively tires your character and makes his action slower.
Cons:
- The story is too simple. You basically slay one god after another for their maltreatment of mortals.
- The fast-travel system is not that useful, so backtrackings are time-consuming.
- Its metroidvania elements are mediocre. Most of the time you get access to places by finding keys in other areas, which is not fun at all. Besides, apart from aesthetic satisfaction (as I said, the game is truly beautiful and every scene looks gorgeous), exploration is not fulfilling since most places are rather empty: they only contain consumables and nothing more intriguing.
- As most negative reviews state, the control is really awkward and floaty, which makes the combats tiring, dragging, and repetitive. This nearly ruins the experience of the whole game, which is first and foremost an action game: in almost every main/side quest, you need to perform tons of platforming, dodging, or fighting. As a consequence, the fun wears out quickly due to the unwieldy control system, and boss fights gradually feel like a pain even though each fight is unique and stands out from the previous ones.
Verdict:
The action part of the game leaves much to be desired. But visually and auditorily, the game is sensational. So IMO, this game still worths picking up, especially when on sale. If you are not picky about combats, you may even enjoy it thoroughly. Otherwise, you can always use console commands to give yourself invincibility, flying ability, etc to avoid annoying combats or backtrackings (see

Magnificent game! Loved every bit of it. The missions, the combat, the lore, the bosses, the way each level was developed and how different they were to each other, the characters, the ending, etc. And all those hours of gameplay are offered for such a small price. We need more games like this. Great job, developers!

I played this game several years back when it first released and played it again for some years from start to finish every time. I recently replayed it again actually and I can say with the upmost certainly that this is one of my favorite games I played in recent memory from mid 2010s to now. I'm a huge mythology fan, so you could say I'm a bit bias, but I'm not. The story is definitely the strongest point the game has despite it being a revenge story against the gods, Zeus and those who sided with him. The twist here though is that not all gods aren't for Zeus and actually help you in your quest by giving you their blessings, so it's similar to God of War for those who played the original trilogy of games, but you don't kill every single god. The story is also bolstered imo by the old/ancient Greek pottery art style as it's faithful to how the gods were depicted in ancient times.
The game play and item interactions like crafting helps the game with its 2D platform elements as it allows for some strategy during combat. Speaking of combat, while I agree it can be a bit janky at times, it's relatively minor and doesn't affect the flow of fights much from my experience and you'll still have fun with it. The game also rewards you for looking for and completing side quests as they can allow you to have access to better weapons and items early on and really don't have to buy them from shops other than paying for weapons training that improves damage and proficiency with weapons. Another thing about weapons and items, specifically melee and ranged weapons and shields, is they can shatter, which people would compare it now to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but replacing the weapons and shields isn't difficult as replacements are usually in chests that appear on your map or are in buildings.
Overall, I strongly recommend the game for those who are interested in trying something new compared to today's games and love story related games with enjoyable game play.

As a MASSIVE history fan you could say this game was tailor made for me. My attention was brought to this game years ago when I saw a Nerd Cubed video on it. It was one of those games that I had to have the moment I saw it and boy am I glad I did get it. The absolute unique art style centered around greek pottery is just gorgeous. The voice acting is wonderful. The music is by far one of the best aspects (especially the final fight against Zeus which the game blares the not so subtle title "the king of the Gods" track). Each boss fight is unique in its own way both in presentation and way to victory. Furthermore the inclusion of other deities such as Dionysius and Artemis (to name 2 of them) as completely optional is a great way to encourage full exploration. There is no list of side quests to complete, more so that you stumble onto a key or note and have to follow that clue to its conclusion. The attention paid to historical weapons, armor, and setting is admirable and one of the main reasons I keep coming back to this game over the years. There are a few not to great aspects that I do need to mention. First is that combat can be a tad tricky at times, especially if you are overwhelmed with sheer numbers. There are some enemies that can be a sheer pain to defeat but the one that stands out is those D**N mermen. Its hard enough to fight them underwater but the only good weapon to use is the trident as its the only one capable of being thrown underwater. Anyway secondly there are a few bugs that I have encountered over the years, mainly that during Poseidon's fight cutscene the sky is fogged completely and I have to restart the game to fix that. The other has been a more recent issue of crashes to desktop and I'm not sure what causes it, but you shouldn't let that deter you. In summary Apotheon is an absolute gem of a game that I have and will continue to enjoy in the future (despite having gotten all achievements)(and beaten it on Olympian difficulty several times. I sincerely hope that the developers make a sequel, they could even go into other mythologies such as Norse or Egyptian or maybe even something akin to the Bayeux Tapestry/medieval art style.

Cool story, excellent aesthetics, engaging puzzle/secrets, great soundtrack and sounds + Jerma

A pretty decent metroidvania. The art style is really cool, and each area is pretty unique in asthetic/theme. The bosses are all pretty unique as well, and based on my mediocre knowledge of greek mythology, the game seems to be pretty accurate with the writing of the characters and gods.
My main issue with the game is the combat: I feel like it could have been fleshed out a bit better, sometimes it felt clunky on controller, and was pretty hard to accuratly land a hit on targets, even with melee weapons. I tried switching to keyboard, but honestly the keyboard controls are argubly worse than the controller, despite the ability to actually aim with the mouse on keyboard.
Overall, if you can get past the meh controls and combat, the game is pretty enjoyable. I would only buy this game at 50% off at its current price (15$). 7/10