Infamous Aeon Must Die! got to us faster than the game itself. The developers accused their bosses of stealing copyrights, of not being paid properly and creating unbearable conditions. The situation is confusing, and passions are still boiling there, even after the release. All details can be found inour news feed . But what about the game itself? Why all the fuss and was it worth it?
Speed1
Two in one
In fact, it was worth it – at least in terms of art design. If the people responsible for this all were really thrown, then this is disgusting – it looks like Aeon Must Die! very expressive and brutal, here you can feel your own handwriting and character, there is a feeling that you are in a comic book that has come to life.
Even in a static drawing, movement and speed are felt.
The setting itself and the characters – to match: sharply outlined, expressive, not that deep, but bright and memorable. Eon, Scarlet, Nebula, Galaxy, Armada of the Void, some nihilia, stalkers, renegades, monks of the Order – but who are these people, what is happening here? At first, nothing is really clear, but it is interesting – in this universe you can feel its own intrigue and tension. Here, tough uncles and aunts are constantly fighting for life and death – for glory, for power, and someone here is for the Void (this is such a religious doctrine) or just for the opportunity to have fun by killing someone else.
It is only clear that the titular emperor Aeon, who is to die, received a knife in the back from his close associate Ivory – she threw him somewhere. Eon survived and, having lost his body, found a new carrier for himself – our main character from the Star-born race.
Actually, this is not his body.
The emperor, who must return and prove to his generals that he still hoo and in vain they buried him, wants to subjugate the will of the bearer, and he resists, expresses his opinion, dares and argues. Moreover, he assent to him in his digital language, poking out Eon, the intelligent futuristic bike Geruda, the companion of the star-born.
The emperor quarrels with the car – a pitiful sight.
Nevertheless, there is nothing to do – forcedly woven together, the overthrown Emperor and his rebellious bearer go in search of the generals of the Void in order to get their help in the fight against Ivory by force or truth. The Starborn still has the audacity to decide whether to kill the generals, if they persist, or to join the Eon – this gives new skills, but reduces the reserves of will. And if it drops to zero, then the Emperor will break the resistance of our hero and the game will noticeably become scarce. All skills will become available to us, penalties for death will disappear, but at the same time the “challenge” and a bunch of funny dialogues between the characters, as well as the ability to choose in key plot situations, will disappear.
It’s always better to have the right to choose.
Initially, nine points of will are given, and each death takes away one. After resetting and transferring to full control of Aeon, you can continue to play or commit suicide and return to the previous global checkpoint, which is usually located at the very beginning of the chapter. In doing so, we will lose all upgrades.
Will is the most precious thing here.
Enemy color differentiation
In fact, Aeon Must Die! – this is a fighting game, only we are fighting here, as a rule, not one on one (only bosses are honored with this honor), but with groups of enemies. The authors approached the problem creatively and came up with interesting mechanics. On the one hand, the entire mandatory program is in place – combo, block, dodge, a bunch of tricks, and even the ability to fry opponents with fire attacks. For the successful completion of the chapter, they give an honor point (if the rating is good, then two at once), for which Eon teaches his wearer new techniques. In addition, special abilities open up for Geruda – the bike can be charged so that it saves from death at a critical moment or literally runs into our opponents.
Battles sparkle with rich colors and special effects.
On the other hand, here you need to carefully monitor the state of the character: some actions in battle overheat and ignite him, while others overcool him. Both are bad – half of the techniques cannot be used, and the hero can be finished off with one blow. Therefore, it is important to get out of this situation as soon as possible by performing certain actions and techniques: for example, with hypothermia, you need to often attack, warming yourself up, and when ignited, actively dodge, knocking down the flame.
Enemies also affect the condition. Highlighted in red fan our flame (that is, raise the temperature of the body), blue – cool it down. And the green ones push us to the state to which we are closest now.
Here everything is red.
There are also spectators who watch the fight, and then they can run out and help their own. We are free to grab the enemies and throw them at the observers, knocking them down the impending attacks. Yes, and Geruda can be charged so that she rode through the rows of spectators.
You pay money for viewing.
In addition, the authors clearly spied on the Nemesis system in Middle-earth: Shadow of War – the enemies who defeated us become stronger from this and steal willpower points. We need to fight them again to get them back, but if we lose again, their strength and health will increase again. In general, the mechanics are built in such a way that practically any of our actions and victories lead to the fact that opponents grow up, grow stronger, learn, rally, begin to copy and predict our actions.
There are three parameters that affect how quickly the bastard gets stronger.
Too clever
As a result, a vicious circle is obtained, from which not the most convenient, overloaded control interferes (we are talking about the PC version, where it is almost impossible to play without a gamepad) and an inadequate abundance of mechanics – two types of vulnerable states of the hero, into which he strives to fall ; different colors of enemies that you have to keep in mind; viewers who are also constantly up to something; a bunch of their combos; Geruda’s skills; unpleasant burdens in the arena, where they can turn off the lights, rain or some other nasty thing, which also brings us closer to overheating or hypothermia. At the same time, opponents both from our successes and from oversights become stronger. And we have only nine points of will for everything about everything …
There are a lot of enemies.
This is despite the fact that in some situations the game allows you to break all its sophisticated ideas with the ability to almost freely and endlessly grab enemies, beat and throw them. True, in this case, the battles drag on. No balance in general.
You can grab and fight even while riding a bike.
Also Aeon Must Die! overloaded with cut scenes and dialogues. Not those that lead Eon, its bearer and the generals of the Void, but those that accompany meetings even with ordinary opponents and who always follow the scheme: “I am Eon, I am cool and in general your master. Die, worms! ” – “Well, well, now we’ll check!” As a result, you turn on the “facepalm” mode and start skipping them automatically.
Eon does not shut up for a second and remains extremely predictable.
All in all, Aeon Must Die! – this is a pain not only for its former developers, but also for the players who are forced to survive and delve into the jumble of everything that the creative fuse of the authors dumped on them. Well, as “creative” – some of the things, as I said, they took from the patented Nemesis system. No matter how much you have to sue the Middle-earth developers !
Of course, it has its own breed and its own face, interesting, non-trivial ideas. But there is also a typical indie sore – a lack of a sense of proportion. Because coming up with and loading a gamer with a bunch of mechanics is not about making a good, balanced game that will be fun to play through. It is all the more offensive that there are no complaints about those who were responsible for the picture, quite the opposite – I want to applaud. And they just didn’t get paid? Still, there is no justice in this world – only emptiness.
Pros: interesting plot and non-trivial setting; bright characters; a strong combat system in its capabilities; enemies learn from our mistakes and become stronger; entertaining system of will ”- a lot of techniques and combos; chic visual style; atmospheric music and juicy voice acting.
Cons: the game is not balanced and overloaded with mechanics, dialogues and cut scenes; in some places it is too complicated, and in some places it is too monotonous, protracted and simple.
