Numen: Contest of Heroes
Numen: Contest of Heroes is a third-person hack & slash RPG. Having demonstrated enormous courage as a child, you are selected by a Greek God to be its hero and must compete against those of other Gods in order to find the Sickle of Kronos first.
Pros: You get to pick from a boy or a girl, although can’t actually customize your appearance. When beginning the game, you are given the option of using different weapons, and your class is determined by the type you used the most. Your mastery of any weapon comes from using it. Each of the three classes allows you to pick from three different Gods to be the champion of, so the game offers a total of nine sets of spells and powers. There is a large variety of equipment you can find (common, enchanted, rare and unique) and may equip up to 16 at a given time. Some of the items you find are only good for one gender, but can be refitted to your character. Rather than being class-specific, items are attribute-specific, meaning a mage that works strongly enough on its Strength will be able to use that badass sword usually meant for Warriors. Graphics are ok, most textures are pretty good, and each piece of equipment have a different look on your character.
– Real player with 42.0 hrs in game
Numen: Contest of Heroes basically plays like a single player MMO, complete with hotkey bar, ability cooldowns, and combat that doesn’t feel like it’s quite connecting. It isn’t a great game, but it’s at least a decent one, and well worth the huge sale prices I’ve seen it (currently $0.99 as I write this review.) I myself picked it up for $7.50 soon after release, and don’t really regret it, though $5 or less is the sweet spot here IMO.
The introductory / tutorial section is pretty boring, but persevere and the game becomes more enjoyable later. You start out as a kid, and through a few quests learn the basics of the three primary classes - Warrior, Archer and Mage. At the end of the tutorial you get to pick which of the three classes you want to become, and appear as a leveled up adult with only the abilities of the chosen class. At the same time you also pick which God to worship, granting you additional abilities and bonuses, which increase as you make your God more proud of you through your actions.
– Real player with 31.7 hrs in game
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition
Titan Quest is the grandfather of Grim Dawn and despite the latter adding its own features and flavour, Titan Quest is an epic, mythological arpg that’s not to be missed. It world is huge, the class system is interesting, leveling progress is rewarding and the combat feels punchy. If you like the idea of facing off against Medusa and the hydra or fine tuning your character build, looking for that last piece of loot or class synergy, don’t miss Titan Quest. I far prefer it to the Diablo series.
100% recommended, I just hope they add more dlc in future.
– Real player with 340.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action RPG Loot Games.
BUYER BEWARE: This game now backdoors Epic Online Services onto your computer. If you are like me this is a deal breaker. I bought this game over 10 years ago and I’ve really enjoyed it (the game is great), but EOS is a red line. I want nothing to do with Epic Games and refuse to have their software on my system. It is outrageous that THQ Nordic installed this on my machine without my permission or even a warning. BUYER BEWARE.
– Real player with 114.0 hrs in game
El Shaddai ASCENSION OF THE METATRON HD Remaster
Full review (including score): https://youtu.be/RejP5rwsb6o
Summarized review below!
It’s not often that we get obscure, decade-old Japanese action games ported over to PC – but it’s definitely a trend I can get behind.
Note: Trimmed review to fit character limit, check video for full version!
Story:
The title – El Shaddai – literally means “God Almighty” and it is also one of the names for the God of Israel. The game itself is inspired by the Book of Enoch and you yourself play as Enoch on a journey to save mankind by preventing the great flood. To do so, you will need to seek out seven fallen angels and enlist the help of Lucifel – and that’s just scraping the surface of the weirdness that goes on here.
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action RPG Action-Adventure Games.
El Shaddai basically means Almighty God and this game has a heavy, but very stylized, theological theme running throughout.
The game is loosely based on apocryphal tales from Judeo-Christian biblical writings, but it’s purely as a backdrop and engine to drive a narrative. There’s no preaching or judgement and the story can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of denomination.You play the part of Enoch, a celestial scribe, (who also happens to be an immortal with ridiculous combat skills) tasked by God to venture to Earth and round up six fallen angels prior to the cleansing of the world by flood.
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
Loki
This game came out at around the same time as Titan Quest, yet Titan Quest looks 100x better graphically. Heck, Diablo 2 looks better. This game has unpolished looking graphics, a horrible UI, a rather badly made loot system, a frustrating skill system, and lousy combat.
The character balancing was pretty godawful too. You choose one of four characters (Greek Archer, Nordic Barbarian, Egyptian Wizard, Aztec Shaman), each of which have three skill trees that you can access by worshipping one of three different dieties for that particular class. You may only put points into a tree if you are currently worshipping that particular god. It is a rather needlessly complicated skill system.
– Real player with 138.1 hrs in game
Well this game was a dissapointment. I expected something along the quality of titan quest or din’s curse, but this game has failed to deliver many of the consepts of what makes an Arpg enjoyable.
Lets not kill the game outright and talk about some good things in it:
-
The game worlds have great background music, especially in the egyptian world.
-
The fighting animation of both the hero and individual enemies is well done.
-
This game has found a way to make the restart mechanism of Arpg compatible with the story.
– Real player with 32.8 hrs in game
Maybe Immortal
Maybe Immortal is an action role-playing hack-and-slash game based on Chinese mythology and cultivation. You will grow in a courtyard of one mysterious taoist to become immortal.
Fate has no mercy, it treats all beings indifferently.
With a background based around ancient Chinese myths and stories, players can hack and slash in a courtyard to fight for their own destiny.
The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things.
There are lots of items and equipments to help players to become a god-like being.
Features
-
1 Gameplay Map.
-
15 items.
-
10 equipments.
Sword and Fairy 7
Vast improvement compared to S&F 6. Impressive graphics, storyline is good and I love the new battle system. Bosses are challenging at higher levels and definitely requires some familiarisation of the skills to win, especially the last few. Played 2 rounds already at normal and difficult levels and gameplay was smooth. Did not experience any crashes or black screens or whatsoever. Only the bosses challenge after finishing the game is buggy. I played it in chinese, looking forward to DLCs. I do wish for an extra slot for the accessory though coz the buff they give are not really substantial but if you can stack 2 of those it’s probably more useful. Some accessories have to be worn throughout for convenience too so it’s quite troublesome to keep changing. Not my favourite chinese paladin series in terms of storyline but at least the ending seems to be a good one.
– Real player with 180.5 hrs in game
This game is great and what most open world games should aspire to be. Let me first state this game isn’t open world but are big maps that feel open world even tho most or instanced.
What they got right:
1. Trash mobs don’t just drop random stupid loot, they drop stuff u will actually need to use in crafting foods and forging ur gear.
2. It’s actually a challenge to upgrade gear and find better gear, ur aren’t just RNG handed broken crap.
3. The combat system is pretty smooth for a budget game, like better than GENSHIN IMPACT or any other similar game that’s been released in a while. Makes Darksiders look clunky.
– Real player with 58.7 hrs in game
Vikings - Wolves of Midgard
I’ve been playing this game on and off for quite a while now so I thought why not write a review:
Visuals:
-
beautiful handcrafted maps with multiple points of interest
-
multiple environments from northern forests, to sandy beaches, lava castles and medieval villages
-
enemies often have different skins depending on their environment
-
great lighting and shaders
-
particle effects aren’t as over the top as in most other H&S games (I’m looking at you Diablo III)
- The camera is a little too close to the character
– Real player with 129.1 hrs in game
| SCORE |
|
5/10
| “more Action than RPG”, which suffers from redundant, shallow and uncharacteristic gameplay that ultimately boils down to being an endurance test, full of weird difficulty spikes, and tedious pacing |
[i](a 7‐point scale)[/i]
[b]overall[/b] [b]achievements[/b]
⌛ time to finish: 20-25h ⌛ time to 100%: 60h
🔥 difficulty: 5 🔥 difficulty: 4
🍫 fun-factor: 3 💨 missable: yes
– Real player with 63.4 hrs in game
Achilles: Legends Untold
Take part in the journey of Achilles, who stands in the middle of the centuries-long conflict between Hades and Ares. The young hero is being sent to battle the War God’s child – Phobos. His journey will take him to many different corners of mythological lands where he will obtain powerful artifacts that will aid him in his quest. Achilles is not alone as Hephaistos – the god of blacksmiths - is always ready to craft new weapons in exchange for materials.
Achilles: Legends Untold is an isometric action RPG game, greatly inspired by the souls-like genre and old-school hack&slash games. The players will venture through many unwelcoming locations, battling legendary creatures and trying to piece up the story of the world. The game is a bit lighter on the “souls” side, as the studio wanted to create an easy-to-learn but hard to master experience. Because of that, Achilles: Legends Untold may be enjoyed by the souls veterans and new players alike. And if help is needed, just summon your friends to play together in jolly cooperation, and explore various dungeons together.
The gameplay features enjoyable and skill-based combat, RPG elements, and resource management. Every item found on the journey might prove itself useful in creating new weapons and gear when brought back to Hephaistos. Throughout the game, players will become more and more skillful alongside the main character, gaining the ability to take on even more powerful foes! And you can be sure there are plenty of abominable and dreadful enemies that will cross your path.
Achilles: Legends Untold also features an innovative GAIA system, responsible for the AI characters’ actions who feel lifelike and work together in unpredictable ways. Experience immersive battles in which monsters adapt to your playstyle, try different strategies, or create ambush scenarios, driven by this contemporary in-house designed system.
Will you be persistent enough to grow in strength and take down Ares?
-
An engaging and original story inspired by the Greek mythology
-
Beautiful, eye-catching graphic design
-
Deep combat inspired by the souls-like genre and old-school hack&slash games
-
Easy to learn and hard to master gameplay
-
Jolly cooperation!
-
Innovative GAIA system responsible for enemies’ AI
Bogatyr
“We sure can have a lot of stuff! We can even have nothing!”
~Mikhail Zhvanetsky
Letande vs. crappy Russian RPGs! Round 999! FIGHT!!! Seriously, though. When it’s about crappy Russian (also, Ukrainian) role-playing games, I’m a freakin' veteran. I’ve played and finished pretty much everything there was – from Заклятие (Spells of Gold) to Талисман (Talisman, an RPG in Slavic setting from 2003, not to be confused with German point-and-click adventure from 1995 and Nomad Games' adaptation of Game Workshop’s tabletop game). To be honest, though, I didn’t expect any new games of the kind. I mean, something like that? It was possible only during the very certain time period. A period, when majority of the Russian people didn’t have access to Internet connection and it was possible to sell pretty much any crap to them for the price of proper products. Games like Орда: Северный Ветер (Horde: Northern Wind) were possible only because there was no YouTube to show people what they’ll actually get for their money. The more accessible Internet became – the less of such games we’ve got. The lest one of the kind I’ve played was, I believe, Ukrainian Заговор Тёмной Башни (Dark Tower Conspiracy, AKA Dungeon Quest) in 2006. After that? All those wannabe developers switched to mobile games. Which are not nearly as fun to suffer through.
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
Well, I have no idea who made English translation , but he must be executed.
For rest of the game - world and soundtrack combined are TASTY , pleasure for my eyes and ears for this price. Blood is shameful though, combat - found it funny, but only for 3 hours not more.
7/10 for Indie like that. Trash cause of translation, but good enough for that money and I still understood the story.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Gimle: Archlikvake Saga
Ragnarok has come …
On the ruins of the old world destroyed after the clash of gods and giants, Gimle is created - the place where humanity was reborn. The New World was described in the prophecies as free of wars, hunger and suffering. For thousand years it has been struggling with the forces of evil for an unknown reason. Meanwhile, another disturbing threat is coming - death will be only the beginning of the suffering of the fallen. Norse warrior Brand arises as the last hope of mankind - will he stand up to the fight and uncover the mystery of an unfulfilled prophecy?
Gimle is an isometric RPG inspired by the classics of the genre, enriched with beautiful pixelated graphics.
Begin your journey!
Explore the dark world of Gimle based on Norse mythology. Discover forest thickets and mountain trails, explore evil-ridden towns and villages, and mysterious tombs full of dangerous underground tunnels.
Defeat your enemies!
Master the dynamic combat system and face the threats of the New World using a wide variety of weapons - swords, spears, axes, bows and much more!
Tame the mighty power!
Learn unique abilities that are so much more than ordinary magic. Use your powerful gift and solve the mystery of an unfulfilled prophecy.
Collect unique items!
Use the possibility of gathering resources and trading, get powerful items and artifacts that will prove useful during your journey through the Dark Lands.
Improve your skills!
Become the legend of the Viking world! Achieve mastery in many areas through an extensive system of statistics, science and attributes.
Write the story of the New World!
Experience a ravaged world full of difficult, ambiguous choices and face their significant consequences.