Apotheon – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 12]

Yesterday for the 15th day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza I played a game called Apotheon, which I got in 2016 for $3.74. Hard to believe I’m into a third week of this. Anyway, I had been looking forward to this one because I knew it was a visually unusual game.

I don’t normally like side-scrollers. The last one I remember enjoying was Pitfall on an Atari 2600. Actually I can’t think of any other side-scrollers I’ve played on any platform since then. Wait, wasn’t Wolfenstein on the Apple IIe a side-scroller? And I think I remember an Oddworld game sometime in the 90s? Oh and I played a little bit of Terraria, but I didn’t like it.

Anyway I didn’t expect to like Apotheon, but I did. It’s more than just another version of Mario Bros., where you jump on turtles’ heads (that is how I stereotype every side-scroller game ever). There’s a surprising amount of depth to the combat. There’s a variety of weapons. There’s a shield. There’s dodge rolling. There’s health potions. There’s ranged weapons. There’s resource management. There’s even a story, kind of.

It’s basically an Action RPG game in a side-scrolling environment.

I got it mainly because it looked unusual (and because it was $3.74). And boy does it look unusual. It looks like you’re playing the game on the side of an antique clay vase. The visuals are very well-done. It’s a real work of art.

I played for nearly an hour on a controller and completed the first … Mission? Level? I beat the boss, talked to Hera, and she promoted me to the next … Zone? That’s where I stopped.

Will I play more? Very possibly. It was fun. It’s easily worth the $3.74 I paid. It’s a good game to put on the “someday I’ll play this again” list. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but someday. (Which of course means probably never.)

Live Stream - Apotheon

Stream Production Notes: Nothing really to report. This was the first day that I did not have all of the information about when I bought it and how much it was and the game’s description pre-prepared in an EverNote document, so I had to spend a couple of extra minutes beforehand looking that up.

Previously on the Steam Backlog Bonanza: Game of Thrones.