Achilles: Survivor Review

Achilles: Survivor is a fast-paced single-player bullet hell where you fight battles through almost surreal waves of enemies. Developed and published by Dark Point Games, it builds on the universe of Achilles: Legends Untold, their 2023 RPG, but goes by a hyper-accelerated action-adrenaline survival experience.

With the bullet hell and rogue-lite genres becoming more saturated, Achilles: Survivor must distinguish itself from popular titles like Vampire Survivors and Slayer: Hordes of Hell. Initially, it seems to merge the visual aesthetic of Titan Quest with the relentless combat of Vampire Survivors, but there's more beneath the surface.

Dark Point Games has taken the setting of their 2023 RPG Achilles: Legends Untold—rooted in Greek mythology, the Trojan War, and Achilles' legend—and repurposed it into a survivors-like game. In the beginning, I feared that the connections to the previous title would mar its own originality, considering that the aesthetics seemed to follow in the footsteps of the other genre veterans such as Titan Quest. I was totally wrong, seeing that knowledge of Legends Untold was in no way necessary to experience Survivor in its own right.

At its core, Achilles: Survivor follows Vampire Survivors' formula. Beholders begin as Achilles during the siege of Troy and are tasked with battling mythological creatures and enemies such as skeletons, cyclopes, and spiders. The game begins with simple attacks and lets Achilles level up by collecting XP gems from slain enemies. Upon leveling up, you choose from four upgrade options, each enhancing their abilities.

The available upgrades are pretty diverse. For example, Shield Throw launches a bronze shield that ricochets between enemies before returning, while Chimera Spikes fires a spread of spikes at enemies in front. Various powers allow for different play styles; some might deal very heavy damage with single-target abilities, while others concentrate on area-of-effect specials. Also, once the experience gets high enough, secondary abilities are unlocked, and that stacks with primary attacks for great combos.

And new characters in Achilles: Survivor can be unlocked as you progress by completing in-game achievements. Each character entails a differing ability and playstyle. For example, killing a lot of skeletons unlocks Tartarus, a slow-moving character who sets off a poisonous field of damage over time.

There are a total of 11 unlockable characters, each with different states of power like damage dealt, health, and movement speed. Offensive prowess in ranged attacks is complemented by defensive strategies to stave off extremely tough waves. The objective is straightforward: survive for 20 minutes to complete a level and unlock the next.

Each level in Achilles: Survivor contains icons on the ground marking construction sites, which allow the building of structures as long as you exist within their radius. You have to be very careful when managing their limited resources, for the right choice of structures at the right time can mean the difference between success or failure.

Upon reaching the construction points, you will find a selection of buildings from which you can choose. You need to select turrets to add to their offensive capability, health stations for recovering, or barracks to spawn Myrmidons helpful in fighting.

There are plenty of options to build on the map. Each building serves its own purpose in fighting and provides additional passive increase, such as extra damage, armor, or health. Buildings can be destroyed, and considering the limited resources available, you must always make careful and strategic decisions in this regard.

For the levels to be completed, surviving just for the set timing is not enough. The only other strategy is to avoid combat, but this will lead to the loss of potential resources and experience points. As players navigate the map, portals and Underworld basement doors periodically appear. Defeating the enemies that emerge from these locations grants Obols, a currency used in the game's main menu to unlock Favors—passive upgrades that enhance health, damage, XP gain, and more.

These enhancements apply to every character and lessen excessive grinding, which is neat. Using the special relics scattered throughout the game additionally allows you to experiment with builds, giving further passive effects that suit their playstyle, such as enhancing survivability or damage output.

The game also spawns in bosses periodically. These bosses can be a really tough challenge; they chase you down and show up randomly to raise the tension. Heroic bosses such as Hector are more resilient, with large health bars and special abilities of their own. Giving a unique reward in the form of temp-like buffs and bonuses on XP to players who bring them down.

Despite having a lot of things going on in the game, Achilles: Survivor does not offer a lot of variety. All the levels set up the same structures, enemies, and champions, making it feel quite boring to play repeatedly. Besides, all characters go through an identical leveling-up path, which constricts any feeling of distinction between survivors. There are no interactivity features in the maps—no chests, no secrets, no incentive for exploring.

The lack of dodge mechanics could also be felt in that you have no immediate means of evading the opponents' attacks. The upgrade system is more or less permanent, and you cannot reset your skill point; most enemies are simply variations of the same scorpions.

The visuals, technically speaking, are fine, but nothing special. The environments feel static; after several runs, they start to feel repetitive. Some sort of diversity in the environment would aid in relieving that fatigue between levels. Destructive terrain or changing weather conditions would be a good variety of dynamics.

Sound design serves its purpose but does not turn any heads. While the hit sounds of weapons and enemies feel responsive, the total audio experience feels somewhat forgettable. If there were more variety in the background music and enemy sound effects, it would help with immersion. A dramatic score that responds dynamically to the game's intensity could have provided a fantastic atmosphere, something the developers kind of oversaw.

Achilles: Survivor might not be perfect yet, but its first impression is quite strong, presenting an attractive marriage of bullet hell action and strategic building in a setting of Greek mythology. It's still in the early days, so the content is still pretty limited, yet it is all captivating and promising.

The basic mechanics of Achilles: Survivor seem to hold ground; provided Dark Point Games build upon what they have with further campaigns, characters, and a better tutorial, the game could find quite a neat spot within the survivors-like niche.

Fans of Vampire Survivors and Greek mythology will have a lot of fun with it, although it's possibly better for new players to wait for more content. Nonetheless, Achilles: Survivor certainly is emerging as a worthwhile entry to the genre for anyone in search of a new roguelike challenge with a few original elements.