The 2nd game based on Greek God mythology released in 2020 that I gave a 10/10 to. Hmm.

Funnily enough when I first started the game and saw how weak the customisation options were I was ready for a rather lacklustre game. But like Hades this one plays on the things I love about games so well. The constant feeling of progression and improvements from upgrades, fun and fast gameplay, great environments to explore. And speaking of customisation, while the overall starting hair/face/eyes etc options are limited, the game does the thing where you can equip one type of equipment for the stats and bonuses, but use another type for the aesthetic. I love when games do that. You can even do it for your phoenix friend. So it meant that if you found a great looking piece of armour that had terrible abilities, you can just use it for the look but wear something better for the bonuses. My main complaint about that is that you can’t save preset costumes, so you’re constantly switching based on the context of what challenge you’re facing, and late game you can have so much equipment that scrolling through it becomes a pain.

The story is maybe its weakest part, while I do think the overall story is fine, if a bit simple, the narration angle they went for definitely felt overplayed. Zeus and Prometheus do bounce off each other well, but Zeus in particular can be such a failed attempt at comedy at times that the sheer amount of him becomes overbearing. Not that the game can’t be funny, there were plenty of moments I laughed at, it’s just not consistent at all. Other characters felt enjoyable though even when their attempts at comedy weren’t great, because their personalities were just fun. I particularly loved how Ares as a chicken bonded with a random bear. The plot twist at the end was fine. It’s not super unexpected or mind-blowing, but it’s not like it felt forced, it just kinda felt like a natural part of the story.

I adore the combat in this game. Even when the game starts it’s enjoyable and rewarding with the parry and dodge, but I could see it getting old quite fast. However thanks to the many, many upgrades you end up with so many ways to engage with combat. You can just do standard close combat (which itself is broken up into many different kinds, like focusing on stunning, parrying or dodging – you get different bonuses depending on the equipment you pick), or you can do ranged combat with both a bow, or objects that can be thrown for huge damage. Or you can use the environment to your advantage and use skills to knock enemies off ledges. Multiple God powers, multiple upgrades to standard attacks all make combat so rich and satisfying.

Vaults all provide a unique challenge that test your multitude of abilities to their limit. And then there’s just some vaults that play with the games physicals, like one of them is a giant pinball game; it’s great. Outside of vaults the challenges can get a little repetitive. Things like the constellation myths just kinda throw lots of mini puzzles at you at once, many of which are similar to what you’ve done many times. Others like the navigation, lyre and arrow challenges are technically unique but all use the exact same basic skills to complete (not that they’re not fun, especially the navigation ones which will really test your movement skills). But the jigsaw challenges were really pointless. Once you’ve figured out the pattern to clear a single one you can do all of them effortlessly since they all use the exact same set-up and amount of pieces and just use a new skin for the puzzle itself. Overall though the puzzle aspect to this game felt great to solve and was a welcome break between combat encounters.

Finding solutions to epic chests can occasionally do some really creative things too. My favourite was when the game made you play tic-tac-toe with the Ai by using the fire lighting mechanics. So clever and fun.

I like how the game makes use of being open world. Since you can go to any area first (after clearing the little tutorial island) it means every area has beginner dungeons. Those dungeons can be cheesed super easily if you go to them later on with the upgraded abilities you get from grinding through the other areas first. Obviously there's a ton of vaults in every area that require full, or at least near full, upgrades to complete, but it is fun to go to clear the last area and find a dungeon that was placed for the hypothetical newbie and just skip all the puzzles because your movement options allow you to bypass the gaps that the puzzles are supposed to create paths for you.

Speaking of movement options though, I do wish the game had a faster glide and climbing upgrades somewhere along the line. Especially climbing.

The obvious Breath of the Wild comparisons come up in this game, and I don't think there's a single review that hasn't mentioned them. I have BOTW a 9, so if I'm giving this a 10 it means I think it's a better game? It's hard to say and is part of the lack of nuance with star ratings. I think BOTW peaks so much higher than this game, but I lowered BOTW's rating by half a star because it has much bigger flaws too. This game may not be as good at Breath of the Wild at its best, but after I had quickly fallen in love with it, it didn't do anything to lessen my experience. So while I might not say this game is definitely better than it's obvious inspiration, I do think it's more consistent at being good.

So yeah, really enjoyed this game. Whether I was combating, solving puzzles, climbing mountains or just generally exploring the land with its varied locales, it kept me fully immersed all the way into platinuming it.