I love a good action RPG and have spent many hours dungeon diving and rift running in the Diablo series cutting swathes of enemies down as I charge towards my next objective. But what if a game implemented a Dark Souls type of combat style into an Action RPG to give it more depth and challenge? Developer Dark Point Games asked themselves this very question and have brought Achilles: Legends Untold and its souls-like combat to the Nintendo Switch. What’s it Like? Pick up your sword, don your shield, and immortality is yours for the taking as we review Achilles: Legends Untold for the Nintendo Switch.
Achilles: Legends Untold doesn’t live up to its title as it immediately tells the legend of Achilles, the legendary Myrmidon warrior as he takes part in the siege of Troy. Things don’t really go to plan and Achilles ends up falling in battle, only to awake in a foreign Greece, presumably countless years later. So begins your epic quest of righting wrongs, looting chests, and fighting many foes in a world that lets you tackle things at your own pace. There’s a lot of exposition and cutscenes with some so-so-voice acting, but it does its job of building the narrative and the mystery surrounding your resurrection. Archilles embarks to exact revenge on Agamemnon and along the way will dispense justice by either showing mercy or eradicating bandit leaders, rescuing blacksmiths, and stopping all manner of mythological creatures. These boss fights will see you have to rely heavily on rolls, dodges, blocks, and parries, as well as using potions to see them through, and managed to test my mettle every so often.
The game is played in an isometric top-down view, and shares many similar traits to the Diablo series. It’s a bit more modest with enemy placements, so you will rarely bite off more than you can chew, and the combat adds a refreshing change to the Action RPG genre. You will have to rely heavily on rolling out of the way of unblockable attacks, parry the ones you can, and follow up with devastating combos. There were times when I was playing that reminded me of the first battle in the movie 300, where Leonidas expertly maneuvers through an oncoming wave of enemies, parrying, striking, and moving the line forward, and then there were times where I was a pin cushion for the enemy, wildly swinging my sword in desperation using up all my stamina and eventually falling to the enemy. Thankfully, you can recover your earned XP by returning to where you failed, and use that XP by upgrading your skills at a Shrine of Hades, which are generously littered throughout the land.
This XP progression system was really interesting and allowed me to develop Achilles to my play style. You use your points to unlock stat upgrades and special moves and then connect them to a new constellation, bridging abilities and potentially unlocking special powerful skills when completing a specific animal in the constellation. It’s really all about choice, and even some of that choice spills over into the narrative. When facing boss characters, you are given the choice to spare or kill the boss once defeated which can result in a new piece of gear, or perhaps something that changes the narrative later in the game. It can be a tough choice, and good gear can be hard to come by so I made my choices depending on whether I felt I was due for an upgrade. Your gear choices will affect your play style, like having a sword and shield allows you to throw your shield Captain America style, while two-handed weapons offer devastating damage at the cost of maneuverability. You can also obtain amulets in the world of Achilles, and unlike most games, they offer a compromise instead of a bonus. One amulet I found offered me higher vitality but sapped my strength, and it’s up to the player to use them or cash them in for Drachma, the game’s currency. Gear can also be purchased and upgraded at the local blacksmith, so you can level weapons you like instead of leaving them behind for something stronger.
The story and mission structure are rather rigid and linear, but I found this to be a breath of fresh air, keeping the narrative running along at a decent pace, and for those who like to explore, you can also take the road less travelled to find cellars to explore and treasure to loot. You also will find that after spending time in the Underworld, you will unlock a special vision, which works similarly to the Arkham series detective mode. This allows you to track hidden enemies or find small rifts you have to close., These rifts put you in a large room and challenge you to defeat all enemies before they defeat you for a nice boost to your XP and a free skill point. I really liked having the choice to push forward in the story when I wanted to, and aside from some extra skill points, I didn’t feel punished for doing so.
Graphically, Achilles Legends Untold is a decent-looking game, cleverly using changes in perspective to give the game a grand scale of the world around Archilles. Some environments can look a bit bland, but others do a great job of immersing you in the game. Enemies look great despite there not being a huge variation between them, and the animations are smooth, making combat seemingly flow. Some performance issues hold Achilles back though, sometimes stuttering as you run along the landscape and in some stages towards the end of the game where the framerate dips. It doesn’t detract much from the overall experience but should be noted.
For my Mermydons looking into accessibility, you can toggle a range of options to help you fight your way to the end of Achilles like an automatic target lock, aim assist, displaying a mini-map for a sense of direction, removing things like enemy health and damage numbers, and turning off the cinematic blur. There are a range of controller options to choose from, but you can’t remap individual controls, unfortunately.
At just under $30 AUD, Achilles: Legends Untold is a great action game that was a refreshing break to play in between some huge RPGs. The story will take you about 8-10 hours to complete, with completionists easily being able to double that time exploring every corner of the world. Its combat mechanics and character development add a unique depth to the genre, and the world itself is easy to be lost in. Despite some performance issues, Achilles: Legends Untold is a story I’m glad to see unravel on the Nintendo Switch.
So, What’s it Like? Achilles: Legends Untold is like Diablo, mixed with Dark Souls.
