There is no doubt that there is a fever towards the retro. While some games are thrown into the pool without any alibi, with pixels as the engine and a high difficulty as a more powerful weapon (Shovel Knight would fit in this group) others camouflage it, more or less, so that newer players do not They feel like fish out of water. The excellent Guacamelee was the middle term:
two-dimensional technical section but no pixel worth, with sprites in high definition and game mechanics of proven efficiency. What we have here in our hands is an ‘old’ game that tries to be modern, because in the good and the bad, Abyss Odyssey seems like a
title like before. Developed by the Chilean ACE Team, responsible for that interesting rarity called Zeno Clash , we find an action adventure that its creators like to qualify as a ‘Metroidvania’, although the elements that define this subgenre are present in just a few small amounts.
For example, at certain times we find false walls that we can break as long as we have an elemental weapon that can destroy them (fire, ice), so in theory the exploration of this form would be enhanced. The reality is however different, because the levels in Abyss Odysseythey are generated randomly and you can not go back to the floors already completed when we have descended into the abyss, where our objective will be to defeat the Warlock who is creating chaos in the world
with his dreams and monsters of the underworld. The random generation of the maps is not extremely complex either (the more we play the more we will realize how much they repeat before or after), so that any hint of replayable characteristic can be –
and should- confer to the repetition of the descent to the same place where we will finally meet the final boss . Along the way, we will go through several rooms where we will encounter monsters and eventually some deputy chief. Abyss Odyssey structures its campaign in a prologue
and a development of descent into the abyss, marking three places as possible starting points. The first is Santa Lucia , the starting point where we can buy basic equipment before descending into the depths. It is the longest road, consisting of fifteen rooms in total. The intermediate point is Parque Pocuro , where in the same way we can talk to a shopkeeper and other soldiers who will give us advice about the adventure. It has thirteen rooms, but to make up for things there are some difficult ones in the initial route. Finally, if we start from the Cathedral Sacramentinos
We will have to overcome only eleven rooms, but of course: most have a high or moderate difficulty. The distribution of these locations varies (there is a treasure room, for example, which in each game is on one of the routes) but all are governed by a color code that responds to the difficulty we will face: between easy ( pink), moderate (light red) and difficult (dark red). The difference between them depends on the damage done by the enemies, their number of appearances and the defense they have.
