Achilles Legend Untold XSX Review
Summary: Achilles: Legend Untold is filled with obvious ambitions and inspirations of a souls-like RPG, with even a few Diablo-like dungeon-crawler undertones along the way. However, the areas this game falls short in were too much to overcome.
2.5
Greek Chores
Achilles: Legend Untold is an ARPG developed by Dark Point Games, that brings a mix of hack & slash with souls-like inspired combat to an Ancient Greece setting. You embark on a journey as Achilles, doing your part to end a centuries-long conflict between Greece and the underworld. Conquering your surroundings to obtain overpowering items, skills and weaponry is the only way to come out on top as the hero Greece needs to survive.
The “Goods”:
Character customization is a strong point in this game. While you cannot fully create your own character, you can craft Achilles to fit however you’d prefer to play. For example, I went with an endurance and strength focused build which allowed my character to deal heavy damage while also being nimble enough to dodge even the quickest of attacks.
Loot and rewards from missions was refreshing for most of the game. I constantly felt like I was getting valuable consumables, throwables and weaponry during my quests. Rarely did I use the same weapon and shield for longer than an hour of gameplay, which to the game’s credit, did keep some level of freshness to my playthrough.
The skill tree design, although at times confusing, uniquely depicted your character’s growth. Each skill was chained together via constellations of mythological gods, giving you the feel as if you were truly writing your personal odyssey amongst the stars of the hero’s who came before you.
The “Bads”:
Combat, to me, was the biggest miss of the game. To truly get a souls-like experience, the combat must be challenging but at the same time incredibly fluent and satisfying. I felt myself cursing at my TV not because of the difficulty of enemies, but because of how wonky the target-lock was, often doing more harm than good for me while in conflict. I wouldn’t describe enemies, even the bosses who essentially were just meatier versions of the foes I fought earlier in the level, to be “difficult” as much as I would simply call them “annoying”. I felt fights to be more about how quickly I can spam buttons, than it was about the classic souls-like strategy within combat.
Exploration was somewhat dull and borderline unfulfilling, outside of the main routes to the objectives. Anytime I strayed away from the objectives to look for hidden treasures, I typically found myself either running into a dead end or the expedition ending with a paltry consumable. Site-seeing was few and far between, as most of the map was just reiterations of things you already had seen. There was never a jaw dropping visual or easter egg that I’d never come across if I didn’t venture off the beaten path.
The setting and story were far from captivating or immersive during my playthrough. The dialogue between characters felt as if the characters themselves weren’t interested in listening to each other speak. Not only did I feel the story to be overly direct and dry, the enemy variation and bosses were nothing to be reminisced about. Boss fights were just meatier versions of enemies I’d seen hundreds of times before, and rarely ever did they pose a challenge that left me with a classic souls-like sense of accomplishment upon completion. Certain parts of the map looked better than others, but overall, the majority was mundane enough to where I rarely was taking my eyes off my character to enjoy the scenery surrounding him.
Final Thoughts:
Achilles: Legend Untold is filled with obvious ambitions and inspirations of a souls-like RPG, with even a few Diablo-like dungeon-crawler undertones along the way. However, the areas this game falls short in were too much to overcome. A lack of both an immersive storyline and an enjoyable combat system kept me from developing any sort of extensive connection to this game or the world within it. Eventually, surviving Hades and saving Ancient Greece became more of a chore than a gratifying journey.
About the Author
Paul Garlic has been gaming uncontrollably since 1998 and is a published videogame reviewer, primarily for Xbox and Nintendo Switch titles. Garlic's favorite genres are Adventure, Soulslike & RPG. His top three favorite games of all time are Red Dead Redemption II, Elden Ring & God of War.
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