Ultros Review (Shotgun Justice)
---see where this game landed on my Metroidvania tier list beneath this review!---
Ultros has plenty of charm and interesting things going on compared to your typical metroidvania. It’s a fairly good game with a bit of a niche. Being underground exploring and dealing with plant life vaguely reminded me of an adventure/exploration game from 2012 called Waking Mars.
The first few hours of my playthrough had me quite confused. I was concerned that I’d find various aspects of the game frustrating, but I just went with what Ultros was throwing at me and things progressed very smoothly. I’d start each new loop with no idea as to what I should be doing, but the way that the game pushed me in different directions despite me feeling kind of lost was quite clever. ..This area isn't gated this time? ok! oh, this path is blocked now? Ok!
The sound/art is nice, I really dig the colours and art style. I didn’t find it difficult to distinguish backgrounds from foregrounds and enemies, nor did I have any difficulty tracking my character amongst it all.
For better or worse, combat is on the easier side of things. For the most part you just time a dodge (feels like timing a parry in other games), and attack with X + direction, kinda like in Smash Bros.
The game wants you to use different attacks on every enemy to be rewarded properly for killing them. Fortunately you can pretty much do that just by pressing X + a different direction each time.
Bosses look nice enough, but they are total pushovers. This isn't a game that you play for the combat.
As far as the concern from players that hate roguelites (And yes, I'm aware that this game isn't one!), the looping didn't feel repetitive in the way that a roguelite sometimes can. I didn't feel as though I was repeating the same stages over and over. I felt like I was going in new directions in a persistent world, the feeling is far more what you'd expect from metroidvanias. When I started a new loop, I didn't feel as though I was enduring a great deal of repetition in order to find new ways.
As well as acquiring a set of metroidvania abilities, killing enemies nets you plants which you can eat to unlock skills from the skill tree. ..It is a very small and basic tree. I think of it as some extra sauce, and not as anything too important. After the first couple of loops you’ll pretty much have this maxed most of the time without needing to give it much thought.
When you start a new loop, you won’t lose many skills that you care about because you’ll have locked them in with your.. ‘brain thingies’. You probably won’t have enough ‘brain thingies’ to do that for the first loop or two, but you quickly pick up so many enemy parts to reacquire your lost skills that it hardly matters.
Also on a new loop, and separate from these skills, the main metroidvania abilities need to be reacquired from a specific room on the map, which isn’t much of a hike and didn’t bother me in the slightest.
The gardening is an interesting part to this metroidvania, overshadowing the combat and platforming. You'll grow various plants that can open up paths to new areas. Each plant is a little bit different, some sturdy ones acting as platforms, others as vines that you can swing on, and so on. Unfortunately your metroidvania abilities are mostly gardening tools to aid with this.
In the later parts of the game the gardening becomes kind of a finicky puzzle. You'll need to work out which plants you can manipulate to expand across the map further. It’s tricky to differentiate the plants from one another as they look pretty similar in your inventory. It actually became too much of a nuisance for 100% completion for my tastes, so i stopped after getting the first ending. I can see someone else getting more into this gardening exploration though.
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My Metroidvania Tier List (PC) (excluding Metroid & Castlevania titles)
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-Not an objective list, purely how much I enjoyed the games-
S+ Aeterna Noctis |
S Tier (Truly Special) Astalon: Tears of the Earth | Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom | Hollow Knight |
S- Blasphemous 2 | Cathedral |
A+ Afterimage | The Last Faith |
A Tier (Amazing) Elderand | Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Environmental Station Alpha | Doomblade^ |
A- Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights | Depths of Sanity |
B+ Blast Brigade | Haak |
B Tier (Really Enjoyed) Alwa’s Legacy | Steamworld Dig 2 | Islets | Blasphemous | After Death | Pronty^ | Mortal Manor* | Escape From Tethys | Outbuddies DX* | Monster Sanctuary | Elliot Quest | Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | Ultros |
B- Haiku, the Robot |
C+ (Fun) Lone Fungus | Ghost Song | Death’s Gambit: Afterlife | Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night | Kunai | Kingdom Shell | Axiom Verge | Rabi-Ribi | TEVI | Treasure Adventure Game |
C Tier (More or Less Enjoyed) Flipwitch | Infernax | Plague of Yamorn* | Column on the Sea | Jrago* | MF-01 Aerostrike^ | Laika: Aged through Blood | Xanthiom Zero | Carrion^ | Chasm | Wuppo | The Mummy Demastered | Momodora 4 | Momodora 5 | Catmaze | Omega Strike | HunterX | HunterX: code name T | Aggelos | Midnight Castle Succubus |
C- (Meh) Sheepo | Ato | Cookie Cutter | Elephantasy | Rusted Moss^ | Grime | Moonscars | The Messenger | Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth | Iconoclasts | MindSeize | Ebenezer and the Invisible World |
D Tier (Didn’t enjoy enough to play through) Castle In The Darkness | Alwa’s Awakening | RIN: The Last Child | Pharaoh Rebirth | Yoku’s Island Express | Guacamelee! 2 | Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse | Beholgar* | Phoenotopia: Awakening | Insect Adventure* | Clunky Hero* | Headlander | Strider | Minoria* | Souldiers | Bone Appetit | The Witch & the 66 Mushrooms | Transiruby | Destroy Space Aliens | La-Mulana | Guacamelee! | 8Doors | Gato Roboto | Super Panda Adventures |
E-Tier (Didn't like) Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap | Ginsha | Dandara | Vernal Edge | Blaster Master Zero | Medusa* | Lost Ruins | Sundered | Salt & Sanctuary | Valdis Story | Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet | Touhou Luna Nights | Chronicles of Teddy | B.I.O.T.A. | Shadow Complex | Timespinner | Rex Rocket | Aquaria | Nyaruru Fishy Fight | Apotheon | Gungirl 2 | Bad Pad* | Lootbox Lyfe | Angel’s Gear* | Fearmonium | Magicians & Looters* | Tres-Bashers* | Dust: An Elysian Tale |
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^ = Mouse & Keyboard are STRONGLY advised.
* = Very raw indie or contains some jank or lack of polish.
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