Developer: Acid Nerve
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Rrp: £10.99 (Steam, gog.com and Humblebundle)
Released: 14th April 2015
Available on Steam, gog.com, and Humblebundle
Played using: An Xbox 360 Control pad
There is a place between the land of the living and that of the dead, it is in this place that the Titans reside. A lone person wanders among the ruins of that place, that lone person is you. Armed with a bow and a single arrow you intend on taking down the Titans and claiming the prize that they closely guard, the Titan Soul.
Like many of the really unique and original indie games this one originated from a Game Jam. Calling this one unique though may be a bit wrong, I know Shadow of the Colossus did the ‘boss battles only’ thing before Titan Souls and recently Jotun has been released that does something similar.
Yes, you read that correctly, this game has no opponents other than the Titans to fight. No minor enemies, no waves of monsters, just the Titans and you one on one.
I have good news and bad news, I’ll be traditional and start with the bad news. The bad news is you have only one arrow with which to fight the Titans. The good news is that though you may have only one arrow you can reuse as many times as you like, once you’ve collected it that is.
But wait there’s more! You can attract the arrow toward you by holding down the same button you used to shoot it. This too has a good and bad news with it, on the bad side using this power means you have to stand still making you an easy target. Ahh but the good news kinda’ makes up for it, the arrow does harm to your opponents on its way back to you, provided they touch it.
You die in one hit and every time you die your resurrected at a specific point in the world outside of the boss rooms. The good thing is your opponents also die in one hit… Although some bosses that have defenses that might require some creative arrow work.
As you may have noticed from the screenshots Titan Souls has a pixel art 16 bit style, there’s a small level of animation such as he lapping of waves and grass blowing in the wind. I know that many indie games seem to gravitate toward this style but most don’t really put the effort in that Acid Nerve clearly have. I don’t hesitate to call this game beautiful, plus the simple graphic style helps keep the combat from feeling cluttered.
One of the things that really made this game stand out to me was the music. The style of the music used in the overworld changes depending on what zone you’re in the starting area uses stringed and wood instruments giving the area a calm and quite serine feeling. Meanwhile a zone like the lava area uses a mix of pan pipes, piano and guitar with an Irish drum causing the area to have a wonderfully soulful feel to it. This all changes once you enter a battle with a Titan though, the music switches up to something far more epic sounding.
I haven’t played Dark Souls yet, but I have seen several play through sand I do find that when it comes to the way the story is told there are some similarities between these two games. The story isn’t told to you explicitly, instead it’s up to you to work it out through clues left around the game world.
There’s a bit of environmental puzzling in the overworld usually to get to the next titan. There’s also a lot of mystery as the world has lots of little secrets scattered around for those willing to put in the work
The controls are simple, one button to shoot and draw your arrows back, another to roll and run. After that it’s just the analogue sticks for movement and aiming. This simple control scheme makes the combat feel very intuitive and responsive.
While you can play this with a mouse and keyboard I really would advise against that, the way the controls are set up on the control pad are much easier.
As difficult as Titan Souls is I never found myself getting angry or frustrated, instead i found myself trying to work out my opponents weakness. It’s quite unique in that regard most games would leave me raging but there’s something different about this one. That’s the thing this game is all about analyzing your opponent, figuring out the weak spots and patterns in their attacks then making use of the chink in their armor.
After every successful kill I felt rather both proud and strangely unsettled. I was proud of the fact that I took down a damn Titan, some of those things fire lasers and have fists of stone, and I took it down with a bow and a single arrow. Hard not to feel at least a little badass after that. But it was unsettling too, the Titans bodies go grey and the music in the room stops leaving just the light sound of wind. Throw on top of that the realization that I was almost always the instigator for the combat and it’s hard to not feel a bit of a monster.
There’s no doubt in my kind that this game is worth every penny of its Rrp, it’s tough and unforgiving but a lot of fun. Plus there’s some replayability in this title too, with optional bosses, new game+ and some challenge modes available.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Dark Souls
Jotun
Hyper Light Drifter
