The Story Goes On
**NOTE
This review was written back in June, months before I was hired onto the staff as an official dev. Everything down below I’ve written from a non-biased, early-access perspective and will remain unchanged.**
If you like top-down hack’n’slash type games such as the original Zelda games or random maze generated gameplay like in the Binding of Isaac, then this may tickle your fancy. The Story Goes on [Although Currently in Early Access] is a fun-fast paced game with hidden secrets and unique items.
– Real player with 65.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Roguelike Exploration Games.
Due to an undying love for arcade, indie, dungeon crawlers and HnS games I unashamedly asked the dev for a key so I could try this game out and review it. Nobody was hurt in the process. But here’s the thread so you know.
Check TL;DR at bottom of review if this is too long for you.
The past few days have been spent milling around inside this squeaky clean indie game with a handful of baddies and critters, all of us sort of gliding from dungeon to dungeon in a place deemed a maze and called by the rather grandiose name of, The Odyssey. Having realised there must be some sort of lore, it felt essential to plop on my deerstalker cap and produce some yummy Googley searches. The results were thankfully plump lore of where we are introduced to our main protagonist, seven year old Aidan. Of our four diversly skilled characters (three of which you unlock through hidden puzzles), Aidan is the one you’re stuck with in the beginning. A trifle “young” for my taste, I only played him a few times before moving onto my favourite and more recent addition to the team, Gambit the Void Slayer (flailing his ninja arms back in true Naruto fashion will confuse your sense of direction in the beginning, plenty of in-game references to many other delightful characters like this). But more on that later since the story goes on (couldn’t resist the chance pun). On one fateful night Aidan’s brother tells Aidan the tale of their grandfather, a man whose thirst for hidden riches takes him to a mystical place called the Odyssey where it is said treasure buried deep in the dungeon awaits those brave enough to search for it. It is a treacherous maze of the Scar, a gang of thieves operating under a dark leader Staz. Thirty years passed and to this day nobody knows what happened to their grandfather, seemingly lost forever in the depths of this strange world. In hindsight the current EA version of this game at the time of writing this review doesn’t implement this lore much and stays bromidic in-game. Where there is a story if you want it, it doesn’t suffice as a form of narrative within the game itself. Players are greeted by the trusty shopkeeper, Bob who offers hints and helpful in-game factoids to ease any progression difficulties for the newbie or aid unlocking secrets. This lessens the feeling of emptyness of hearing your own voice echo against the walls of the maze.
– Real player with 23.3 hrs in game