That is already turning right into a bumper 12 months for Metroidvania followers. With the superb Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown having kicked issues off superbly, Ultros now arrives from a smaller writer however with no small hype of its personal. With a gob-smackingly distinctive artwork fashion and a fungal, miasmic tone, it actually appears to be like like nothing else on the market proper now, with a much more obscure and player-led story than you would possibly anticipate.
The sport sees gamers awake on a mysterious spaceship, which appears to be taking part in host to the space-birth of a large being known as Ultros — a form of Lovecraftian cosmic horror that instinctively appears to be like like a foul factor for the universe.
The primary hour or so of Ultros is fairly conventional, as you discover a side-scrolling chunk of map, discover a quick sword to combat with, and meet a few quirky, odd characters who provide you with some enigmatic info to digest. You begin to determine a talent tree, and are instructed you will solely have the ability to earmark just a few of those abilities for retention between “loops”, with out figuring out fairly what meaning.
Then, after making it previous the sport’s first squelching boss, you will have that thriller solved as you sever the connection of a sleeping monk from Ultros’ beginning course of (you learn that proper) and get sucked right into a space-time vortex to awake again the place you began. You will solely have no matter abilities you managed to mark for defense, and that monk will keep severed, however from there you will have to start out over, making your method by to a central chamber to gather a power-up once more and heading off to search out no matter new route you can also make it by with mentioned device to search out your subsequent monk.
That is Ultros’ loop, a curious fusing of Metroidvania traditions with the lightest of roguelite trappings. It is a loop that does not really reset you too harshly, however thematically resonates as you begin to uncover extra particulars concerning the ship you are on (most of these particulars aren’t precisely definitive, nonetheless).
Your two predominant instruments are that quick sword for fight and a little bit floating robotic known as an Extractor, which homes the navigation upgrades you will achieve step-by-step as you progress by the sport. Fight is straightforward, largely centred round a dodge system that leaves opponents open after a well-timed button press, and whereas it is pretty good and responsive, you will quickly realise that enemy selection is sorely missing. The sport additionally has little to no issue curve; bosses are persistently actually easy and enemies simply overcome, with the one actual boundaries we ever encountered proving much more typically to be navigational ones.
As you kill buzzing beasties, you will decide up physique elements from them that can be utilized for therapeutic and to replenish your shops of 4 levelling-up sources, a system that sounds extra complicated than it’s in observe. This looting brings into play one ultimate gameplay twist, one among Ultros’ most unique. You may as well discover and decide up seeds as you progress across the ship, and plant these at designated spots to sprout a wide range of plant sorts, a few of which provide up bounties of therapeutic berries whereas others supply new motion choices, from climbing spots to momentum-building velocity boosts.
The place you select to plant which kinds of plant can have a extremely personalising impact on the sprawling map by the point you are in your final couple of loops, though the sport has clearly been fastidiously designed to not make these selections lock you out of areas it’s good to entry until actually clearly signposted. Better of all, the crops develop additional after a accomplished loop, and the ship quickly begins to develop into much more fertile and stuffed with flora, resonating with some story beats.
This bulging, pulsating sense of fecund life is in lockstep with Ultros’ attractive artwork fashion, by far its greatest and most distinctive success. It is a neon-soaked, hand-drawn slam-dunk of a visible experiment, in some methods easy due to its primary 2D design however persistently throwing pretty designs and backgrounds your approach to actually promote its inventive imaginative and prescient. Hole Knight is a transparent touchstone for the sport, and that recreation’s quiet, sombre tone is in some methods echoed right here, however visually Ultros feels just like the acid-spiked model of that subterranean world, in a extremely memorable method.
Nonetheless, in the identical vein because the underwhelming fight, the pure platforming of Ultros can be not fairly on the elite degree that has followers slavering in anticipation of the long-awaited Silksong. Whereas shifting round feels clean sufficient, jumps are simply the slightest bit imprecise, and your motion set is simply the tiniest bit restricted in a method that may make the prospect of shifting from one facet of the big map to the opposite a little bit daunting and draining.
Equally, close to its ending the sport presents you the possibility to take a brand new method story-wise by hooking up the entire ship to a form of intravenous community — one which requires you to maneuver by its corridors fastidiously linking up nodes to one another.
This course of is attention-grabbing and enjoyable in small doses, however locking fast-travel behind it’s greater than a little bit harsh, and it did not take us lengthy to surrender on the concept in favour of a speedier decision. It is just a bit too janky to keep away from comparatively frequent moments of light frustration.
Conclusion
Ultros boasts a visible id that deserves actual recognition, a surprising imaginative and prescient of alien color with design concepts that dwell lengthy within the reminiscence. Its platforming and fight cannot fairly match that vigorous success, sadly. Nonetheless, for those who’re on the hunt for a unique-looking Metroidvania recreation that comes bursting with concepts and a modest 10-hour runtime with the choice of extra for those who like it, few video games can match it for fashion.
