Abyss Odyssey

You know, I have tremendous respect for ACE Team. I don't think I've ever loved one of their games, but each offers such a distinct brand of idiosyncrasy both graphically and conceptually that I'm always glad that they're still around and putting out new creations. There are definitely some Indie developers out there that lean hard on the auteur angle, and that can really help when the market is as saturated as it is. You play something like Zeno Clash or Rock of Ages or today's game, Abyss Odyssey, and you're unlikely to forget it or the developers that made it happen.

Abyss Odyssey, from what little I was able to play of it today, appears to be a procedurally generated 2D side-scrolling action RPG. Not a true SpaceWhipper, as I don't think it has anything in the way of backtracking or progress-enabling upgrades, but then I've made the case in the past that a lot of SpaceWhippers can be edge cases when considering specific credentials we might apply to that misunderstood subgenre. Rather, it's a lot more like Rogue Legacy or really any Mystery Dungeon game in that you have a hub, to which you are unceremoniously sent back to whenever you die, and it's your goal to descend as far as possible without getting your ass beat. After dying, you don't keep the treasure, items and equipment you found, but you do keep your experience level. In this vein, you can work towards gaining an extra level or two as you travel deeper, secure in the knowledge that your next run will bear more fruit.

As for plot, it's typical ACE Team weirdness, though I appreciate they added a personal touch by setting the game in their native Chile. The player is one of I imagine multiple figments of a warlock's dream that is determined to stop his slumber, as it has also resulted in a multi-tier dungeon of an ever-changing shape full of demonic and destructive figments that represent the warlock's worst impulses and fears. What stake your character has in preventing this "somnmoning" (I'll workshop that) is presently unknown, though she's working alongside the Chilean military of the 19th century to ensure this magical nightmare doesn't spread any further than it already has.

I've learned a handful of things while playing the game so far, besides the above failure conditions. For one, every floor appears to have an altar that lets you reorganize your special abilities and purchase items from a familiar-looking trenchcoated merchant who might be charging way too much. Other icons on the mini-map include chests and item shrines, which potentially have treasures for you to purloin. Mana for your special attacks can only usually be recovered from these chests. Health, meanwhile, can be restored by usable healing items you find in various places, as well as from defeated enemies. Enemies will usually trap you in a small area until you've defeated them all and can move on, Double Dragon style. There are some enemies - like the little Metroid crawling guys, flaming bats and this bizarre floating dude in a witch hat - that appear outside of these combat zones and will interfere with your exploration and platforming until you deal with them. Finally, there's a recovery mechanic where a soldier will stand in on your behalf if you should fall, and can resurrect you if he gets to the altar at the end of the stage. He doesn't have your equipment or skills, or even your healing potions, but he's sturdy enough to survive a battle or two. Your best bet for survival, then, is to not die early on a dungeon floor so the soldier can have a fighting chance of reaching the altar at the end.

Other aspects I'm less clear about. Is there any way to retain items from run to run? Is the entire game map also procedurally generated, along with the individual floors? If so, is that why the third area of the game has a "hard" rating. because that seems kinda harsh? Is there a way to switch hub towns? According to the map, there are three different surface areas, which I imagine are separate towns that you might want to start from. Can I equip weapons that aren't swords, and do they have different move sets? How do I unlock the other characters I see on the start screen? Does creating a checkpoint, which requires spending an expensive "camp token" at a particular rock usually found near the end of each floor, mean it's there permanently or just for the next run? I could look any or all of these up, but I'd prefer to find out in-game if I can.

There's also the matter of the combat. This is easily the game's weakest aspect, which is a shame because a good combat engine can really make or break a game like this. Guacamelee! for instance, proved you could have a half-decent combat engine with air juggles and combos and the like in a side-scrolling exploration platformer (though that game had plenty of its own problems). The combat in Abyss Odyssey, however, is extremely chaotic and laggy, and I often find myself ineffectually mashing at enemies until they finally go away. I obviously need to get better at it, if the early game over I received is any indicator, but it just doesn't feel good or flows well at all. I'd blame some of that on my puny system of course, which I'm sure is mostly responsible for the laggy part, but at the same time I think there's a connecting tissue with the similarly chaotic (albeit more fun) combat of Zeno Clash, where I'd often spend battles flailing around until every hostile weird lumpy bird-man creature around was on the floor unconscious. It doesn't help that most enemies in Abyss Odyssey are damage sponges with your default weapon, which was why I was slightly rattled that the game reverts to your weak starting equipment after death. Visually, the game doesn't look all that great either; it feels like ACE Team used the same technique Rare did to produce Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered 3D character models which were then animated like sprites. You get something of an eerie stop-motion quality with that, and it never looks as fluid or as sharp as you'd like.

Actually, if I had to compare Abyss Odyssey to the closest similar game I've played in tone and feel, it would probably be the equally bizarre and high-concept A Valley Without Wind. Both have a similar graphical jankiness to it, an equally awkward combat system and in both games you could potentially spend hundreds of hours exploring procedurally generated 2D side-scrolling dungeons for treasures and nebulous goals the games rarely deign to share with you. I'm supposed to descend into the dungeon to wake up a warlock, but that's about the extent of the game's exposition besides a brief tutorial to get you familiar with the controls and a collectible side-quest for the warlock's lore-rich dream journal. Not a whole lot of guidance, but I suppose as long as I've been given one direction - downwards - that's enough to go on for the time being. I'll be spending one more day on this to see if it clicks before I decide to skip it and move on.

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