Recently, I got the chance to try out Dark Point Games’ latest release, Achilles: Survivor, and I can honestly say that I’ve had a great time with it. After spending quite a bit of time grinding and making my way through the dangers within Troy and the Greece Coastline, I’ve realized that Achilles: Survivor is, for a lack of better explanations, what it would be like to take Greek mythology, shove it into a blender with a whole bunch of roguelite chaos. I’m pretty obsessed, to say the least. It’s chaotic, it’s fast-paced, and extremely unforgiving.
Achilles: Survivor forces you to survive the onslaught of monsters constantly coming at you. You start out playing as Achilles, but as you progress through the different locations, you unlock new characters (including a literal chicken), each offering unique abilities and playstyles that you can try and experiment with to see what works best for you. Since there are so many to unlock and mess around with, regardless of how you like to play, there’s a character for you, whether it uses melee, ranged attacks, or magic.
Over time, regardless of your character, you’ll be able to unlock Favors for both Survivors and Structures with Obols and Adamant, which you earn in each run. Favors increase your character and skill stats and improve your structures permanently, meaning that you essentially get better the longer you play, regardless of how you play.
The combat itself is pretty simple bullet hell stuff. Your character automatically attacks, giving you time to dodge everything coming your way. It keeps you on your toes and makes you think strategically about the best path moving forward, balancing offense and defense while you level up and start getting things in order. It seems repetitive, but once you really get into it, it’s so hard to put down. You even have certain objectives to meet throughout each location to unlock the next, adding a bit of depth to the usual bullet hell-style gameplay that I enjoy.
One of the more critical aspects of Achilles: Survivor‘s gameplay is the building mechanic. You can build up defensive or offensive towers to aid in your survival. These can be healing towers, trojan horses that bring others in to fight alongside you, or structures that spew flame and spikes out at the enemies. You can create an area to spend most of your time, setting up the perimeter with deadly traps and towers while filling the inside with a forge, healing towers, or anything you’d like.
Dark Point Games nailed the Greek mythology aesthetic, including crumbling ruins and enemies that dive into the historical inspiration that it brings. I can fully appreciate how the game looks and feels, but in a game as chaotic as this, the scenery isn’t nearly as prominent in your mind as the need to avoid dying to a stray arrow.
While the visuals are pretty solid, I encountered a few bumps in the road regarding performance specifically. In the later stages of the game, when I experienced moments that were particularly hectic and filled with enemies, I noticed some frame rate drops, but nothing that would deter me from playing, especially since it was still in Early Access. There’s plenty of time for optimizations before the full release.
Overall, after spending loads of time in similar games, I like the added depth that Achilles: Survivor has compared to other roguelites and bullet hells. It’s easy to pick up, but it can take quite a bit of time to master it, so you still get all the chaos with the opportunity to strategize and use your skills. I love the visuals, even though they’re not too important in this game, and the bugs I came across were minimal enough that they didn’t keep me from wanting to play.
