I have to say that it's quite impressive to be able to create a game that's both unique and generat at the same time. How do you even manage to do that? Well, BulletHell Studios somehow managed to do it with Archons, a roguelite survivor game that was released roughly two months ago.
What is Archons?
Archons is another action roguelike bullet hell game in the style of Vampire Survivors and Halls of Torment. It follows the very standard formula of these games where you have to survive on a map for a certain amount of time and defeat the boss. On the way there you defeat enemies, level up and carefully pick from the random abilities that best compliments your current build.
The unique aspect of the game comes from the controls. You don't play as just one character, but two. When using a controller you control the two characters with each their thumbstick. It's something new, unique and creative but it's not really enough to set this game apart from others in the genre. One cool thing though; it sets the stage for couch coop.
First impressions
I played Archons for roughly an hour before deciding I had better games to play. Outside of the aforementioned simultaneous control of two characters there was nothing to set this game apart from other games in the same genre. Abilities fell mostly like they were copied from similar titles and so did the meta-upgrades that you can get in between your runs.
While controlling two characters using two different thumb sticks may seem cool, it really only is for the first few minutes of doing so. Unless you keep your two characters close together it's to easy to lose sight of one and end up taking enough damage to lose the run. I for one am not able to keep my eyes on two spots on the screen at the same time. It's probably perfect for couch coop though.
The fun in these games also comes from the ridiculous amount of enemies the game throws at you. In this you get like two or three enemies coming at you at a time. It ramps up late game but I don't want each run to only get fun 5 minutes into the game. I want it to be fun from the get go.
Ultimately I have to say that Archons feels like a bit of a cash grab. It's mostly copying all the established working elements of similar titles and packaging them together into an uninspired amalgamation.
I also got a bit caught up in this disclaimer on their Steam page:
It could be nothing, but it could also be further proff of my cashgrab theory.
Luckily I didn't spend any money on this game. If I did I would have refunded it anyways. I received it for free from the developer to play on my YouTube channel. I always screen games before doing so and this one just didn't hit the mark for me to want to feature it on my channel.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.