Yahsu! <- that's Hello in Greek
Numen: Contest of Heroes is an action roleplaying game. Developed by small indie developer called Cinemax, hailing from Czech Republic. Game is available on Steam, Impulse and Desura. Like most of the games on Steam Numen has gone through one of Steam's generous sales already. At one point going only for mere £2/$2/€2. Including my copy.
Setting in Numen takes in ancient Greece. With it's rich mythology is ideal for such game. Player take control of an small boy (or girl) who can choose to be one of three classes(Warrior, Ranged, Mage). A deity is also chosen which grants unique set of skills. These can be acquired by traditional religious way, by sacrificing animal and gold, of course.
One can not go too much in detail on the story without spoiling it. Something bad happens in the beginning and players objective is to rectify this the best way seen fit. Interesting here is the way story is told, which at parts follows a traditional 8/16-bit JPRG story where a single nugget of clue is given where to go next. Number of side-quests and also arena dueling are added for more content. Arena dueling is done in contained arena where player duels opponents deity's gladiator in either simple 1vs1, 2vs2 or 3vs3 battle. AI's naturally vacating your team where more gladiators are required.
Gameplay and controls follow the average fare where ASWD keys controls the character and mouse rotates the camera. Enemies can be locked in and various attacks/talents are used to dispose these in real time battle. Most of the enemies encountered walk around the maps in somewhat random paths. This make necessary to use different tactics and methods to pull enemies. Or get the aggro to use more specific terms.
Graphically it is apparent that this is no AAA title. Still the Mediterranean scenery is displayed in beautiful manner. Every gear changes the character accordingly. Enemy roster is varied and interesting. Soundtrack in here is no doubt one the highlights. Only sound besides the music and the ambient is the narrator which I suppose does decent enough job. Soundtrack follow each map or level with different themes. Ranging from eerie tracks to ethnic matching the setting the perfectly.
After finishing the story after about ~20 hours I can honestly say that this was definitely worth the meager £2 I paid for this. Numen is not perfect,it has few minor faults. Such as occasional bug/crash. Also the story telling progression/logic is not as polished as what you might except. Still nothing that breaks the game.
This was no doubt a pleasant surprise. Rich Greek mythology is always interesting, Numen: the Contest of Heroes doesn't change this fact.