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While combining video game genres is not something out of this world, it should be done carefully. When done well, you have a perfect amalgam, which makes you enjoy many mechanics simultaneously. It’s even an ideal product for those who don’t want to dive into one type of game and prefer a toned-down version. But what happens when a combination of mechanics doesn’t make one or the other stand out? I’ll tell you. What happens is Achilles: Legends Untold. It’s a game that has an interesting formula but is poorly executed.
Achilles: Legends Untold Review: A Poor Iliad
Achilles: Legends Untold announces itself as a legendary action RPG with intense Soulslike combat. On paper, it sounds fantastic. Being able to experience the dopamine rush of a game like Diablo or Path of Exile combined with the challenge of a game like Elden Ring or Lies of P? Sign me up. Well, I wish I would have taken back my entry had I known I wouldn’t get the joy of killing hordes of enemies, let alone face enemies that would challenge me like in other Soulslike games.
Story: Rise, Achilles!
Achilles: Legends Untold clearly takes inspiration from a specific game and a prominent genre: Diablo and Soulslikes. If we start talking about the story, I can say the studio is well-inspired. The story is as absent as in Diablo 3 or Demon’s Souls. There is a plot, but it’s not relevant. Whether you pay attention to it or not, the little enjoyment you might get from the game won’t change.
Still, it is important to mention the story of Achilles: Legends Untold, which, if so far the name of the game has given no clues, is a fictional story of the Greek hero. It starts in the Trojan War, where Achilles leads his warriors to rescue Helen, Menelaus’s kidnapped wife. After a short tutorial and the typical almost undefeatable boss of Soulslike games, Achilles dies and wakes up 10 years after the battle of Troy with no memory of previous events. Here, it’s up to Achilles to find out what’s happening with the lands filled with undead creatures and unspeakable horrors.
While this all sounds interesting and intriguing, it is not. Instead of feeling like Achilles in a grand adventure full of new and familiar characters, the experience felt like a poor version of Hermes with all the fetch quests I had to do and passing a message from one place to another with the excuse of exploring a new area. What could have been an epic journey is a half-baked fanfic from which I can’t rescue anything, not even the interactions with the known characters of Greek mythology. Besides that, the voice acting is one of the worst I’ve heard this year and adds nothing to a story that falls apart faster than Achilles’ heel.
Gameplay: A Missed Opportunity
Of the genres that Achilles: Legends Untold draws inspiration from, I’m more familiar with Soulslike. I’ve played them almost religiously. As for ARPGs, the inspiration of which lies more in the Diablo series, I have played the last two installments. I am fascinated by their freedom of choice to customize a build and utilize it in frenetic combat against hordes of enemies where, despite being outnumbered, the skills make the enemies explode like piñatas full of loot ready to be collected. That being said, if I lacked excitement for the story, I had plenty for the gameplay since, I reiterate, the combination sounded interesting. Sadly, it wasn’t.
Focusing primarily on the Soulslike part, I was expecting a challenge. In recent games like Lords of the Fallen or Lies of P, the combat is difficult. It is strategic. You must plan how to approach enemies before you perish. Here, it comes down to land two hits, roll, land two hits, repeat. It’s the most mind-numbing thing I’ve experienced in Soulslike combat. Plus, add to that an enemy imbalance. For instance, the first attack of all wolves is an unblockable skill that takes almost half your health. This wouldn’t be an issue if the packs were balanced or had their damaged tone down. They are more aggressive than the bosses. Such is a flaw in balancing and enemy design.
Moving to the ARPG part, it tries to use many systems. The isometric camera is here, and I must say that it is a beauty. The panning and movements are fantastic, and it is effortless to follow the character with it. But that’s as far as it goes. Since the combat is Soulslike, one would expect fewer enemies with greater difficulty. No, there are many enemies with annoying mechanics and no abilities to help you. I never felt I had the power to mow down hordes of enemies like in Diablo 4. Rather than a combination, this title feels more like a contradiction of games where one seeks to counteract the fun of the other.
One of the things that both genres share is making an intricate build—an assassin with daggers or a berserker with an axe and spells. Here, there is a Skyrim-like talent tree presented as constellations. I started in the constellation of the “warrior;” I call it so because they don’t have names. I unlocked bonuses for my strength and gave up. The talent tree has walls of text that have no relevance. Each node serves to increase a stat, and sometimes there are skills. Also, the game gives you so many skill points that you can unlock everything, and you never feel the individuality of a build. The skill tree is entirely irrelevant and annoying to navigate.
Another big thing pertains to weapons. In Diablo, it is normal to change weapons. You get one that you replace with a better one in minutes. But in Soulslike games, you get a katana, upgrade it, and get attached to it until you take it to the game’s last boss. As the combat of the latter genre predominates, I expected something like this. The game has a system for upgrading weapons that is just as irrelevant as the skill tree because every weapon is instantly supplanted. While it is good because it invites you to try something distant, I never felt attached to one. Rather than the game trying to grab me, I felt like it was looking for ways to make me feel an ephemeral experience with each system.
Graphics and Audio: Hit and Miss
Achilles: Legends Untold is another example where the art department, like Atlas, carries all the weight of the game. The design of the dungeons is divine. Each one is meticulously made down to the smallest detail. I wanted to do more backtracking in these dungeons than in the open world. I counted the hours to go back into one. Although, the open world is not far behind. The combination of lush scenery with dilapidated structures gives a contrasting and beautiful feel. The limestone buildings filled with broken Greek urns paint a landscape worthy of an epic. And it was my favorite part of my hours during this ordeal.
I also recognize the people in charge of the animation of the game. The animations are still great for having a combat system that rarely works, archers with the aiming capabilities of Stormtroopers, and hitboxes worse than Dark Souls 2’s. You have weight to every attack, and Achilles’ wrist movements make swinging his weapons precise. Also, the enemies tend to do combo attacks, and seeing one soldier jump over the shield of another to reach me and attack me was a delight. The real titans of the game were the animators and art.
The audio has a few bad things, too, sadly. Nowadays, we blame voice actors when they do a bad job. Personally, I think the fault lies with the direction. It seems like the Achilles actor was told, “We need the vocal range of a potato.” In other words, non-existent. The lines are so repetitive that every time you level up, Achilles reminds you, “I think I’m getting better,” over thirty times. If he is the main character, the other characters are worse. I’ve seen more emotion in Iron Fist Alexander, who doesn’t have a face, than in a character who just lost a daughter and reacted as if he had been told that his food would take a minute longer.
Conclusion: Unworthy
Achilles: Legends Untold is a game that promises an interesting formula but delivers nothing. It takes iconically different systems from different genres that overwrite each other. There is no sense of progression or individuality and no fun throughout. What could have been an entertaining and immersive amalgamation is like Icarus, yet another game that flies too close to the sun to fall into a ball of flames. It could have been a good combination with a little more planning and care. Sadly, it gets lost as just another soul in the river Styx.
Achilles: Legends Untold is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (Reviewed).
Review copy given by Publisher.
Achilles: Legends Untold (PC Reviewed)
A game that tries to stitch many systems together, but fails at doing so.
Pros
- Excellent camera work for its isometric levels.
- Great art style.
Cons
- The combination of genres feels bloated and lacks polish.
- Forgettable story.
