Abathor Review

In Abathor, the Atlantean civilization has angered the god so they saw fit to send hordes of monsters to punish Atlantis in hopes of annihilate the continent. But four heroes won’t just stand to see their continent ravaged. They will band together to fight hordes of demons and put the Gods back in their place.

Abathor is a 2D action platformer where players, up to 4 players in fact, will go through a variety of levels, killing threats coming at you. You’ll also find chests filled with jewels and pink colored chests that will contain health refilling items. Some chests will also contain sub-items/weapons. Each protagonist has their own unique skills.

Aside from the default jump and normal attack, heroes have their own skillset. The barbarian can dodge and use a strong attack, whereas the valkyrie will dash and dodge. The warlock will dash and use magic attack as a strong attack and finally the Assassin will dash and use an uppercut like attack.

You can only carry one at a time; they can be sub-weapons like throwable spears or items such as potion that refills your health. They also have limited use, so use wisely. And I guess there isn’t enough buttons on a modern day controller because to use said sub-weapons/items, you need to press UP and X; like in the NES era (for certain games). Triggers and bumpers aren’t used, so no excuse here.

There’s also one-time use powerful items that can help players in a bind. Said items will summon Gods that will clear the screen of enemies. But the problem with is, you cannot use it whenever. It will be used once you pick it up and more often than not, you’ll already have cleared most of the enemies, making this power-up completely useless.

Jewels found in chests can be used at the merchant where you’ll be able to pick up power-up and upgrade your character by either increasing your attack power, health or speed. Annoyingly though, when you reboot/reload the game, you lose your improvements and the gear is converted into currency so players can play around with various builds.

The game looks fine as a whole; it would’ve stand out greatly back in the classic 8/16-bit era of gaming. Each area has its own unique theme and levels are well thoughtout overall. I need to point out the wave effect in the background of an early level; looks incredible. The soundtrack is fine for what it is; nothing really special but it does have a bit of Castlevania flair to it.

The game’s main nuisance is its “rogue-lite” feature where every time you reload the game, you lose all the equipment you purchased. It is used as an excuse to adapt to each level, but problem is I’ve completed levels without seeing a single merchant, thus ending up penalized.

As a whole, there’s nothing really wrong with Abathor. It’s a fun, straight forward action platformer. The setting and protagonists does give it a bit of Golden Axe to the game. It does make for a fun co-op experience. While it is annoying to have your gear/upgrades reset when you load the game is pretty stupid, it’s still a fun adventure game. If you’re looking for a simplistic co-op game for the holidays, you can’t go wrong with Abathor.