It has been half-a-year since I last checked in on Achilles Survivor, a new bullet heaven based on everyone’s favourite dodgy-ankled hero of legend.
Now, with today’s big launch update resetting my progress on PC and with the game launching simultaneously on PS5 and Xbox Series, it felt like the perfect time to check back in on how Dark Point has been getting on.
What is Achilles: Survivor?
I’ve pretty much answered this already, but ever so quickly so that the Google bots can keep up with us mere mortals: Achilles: Survivor is an action-RPG that follows on from Achilles: Legends Untold, which was developed by the same studio. In the same vein as Vampire Survivors, Dark Point presents you with a selection of legendary characters and then unleashes you against hordes of enemies, all while you juggle upgrades and so on.
As implied by the name of the game, the setting is in the Ancient Greek world. In fact, we start off at Troy, the place where it famously went wrong for our squishy-footed friend. That means you’ll be battling against characters and creatures that are drawn from the Trojan story, and from wider Greek mythology, across the game’s four chapters. I have to say that leaning into such a famous setting is so much better than fighting some random monsters that you’ve never heard of before.
Combat is largely similar to all auto-shooters, in the sense that your attacks are automated, on timers, and have different attack patterns to consider. You can have up to four at once. Because you don’t have to worry about using all of those abilities the focus is, therefore, on dodging damage, checking the map, and making the right decisions during the moments in between the chaos, when you are levelling up.
What makes Achilles: Survivor stand out?
The obvious thing that you’ll notice when you sit down with the game is the quality of the visuals, which are a cut above the usual standard in the genre. The attack animations all look interesting enough, the environmental designs are good, and the enemies are pretty varied, based on the dozen-ish hours I’ve spent playing.
The most unique aspect in Achilles: Survivor is probably the base building element. It’s pretty basic, but it does add a really interesting tactical element. As a result of the turrets and other buildings that you are able to position at certain hard points on the map, I felt connected to the environment in a way that similar games sometimes struggle to achieve. At times, when I was using bottlenecks to drag enemies around my traps, it felt like a tower defense game.
The different playable characters all fall within certain archetypes. Naturally, I gravitated towards the Rogue class, but there are a few to choose from, I think. There are several to unlock, including a chicken of all things, and based on my current pacing, I think it’ll take many hours to get everything.
But is it a legendary survivors-like?
As you play, you are given regular chances to enhance your character through the buffs you are granted from your buildings, items you find in chests, and upgrades from grabbing XP and completing objectives. That said, much of your success will be determined by how you spend your resources when you’re not on the battlefield.
During your downtime, you need to level up your classes via the favours system, and also spend resources on the usual incremental upgrades. In this instance, it’s a solid system, but I didn’t see anything particularly earth-shattering either. Just don’t go expecting a reinvention of the wheel, although I will happily concede that there are a lot of unlocks waiting for those who want them, with plenty of longevity there if you want it.
Technically speaking, things have been refined since that last time I played. That said, the scrolling sometimes felt a bit shuddery as I was moving around the map. I also experienced a horrible bug where I got stuck in the upgrade screen while the game carried on in the background – I was right at the end of a run, too. Words were uttered.
All told, one or two technical hiccups aside, I’m really pleased with how Achilles: Survivor has turned out. It doesn’t do anything radical, but the base building elements, the depth of the meta-progression, and the overall quality of the audio-visuals make it worth checking out, especially if you’re on console, where it’s out for the first time.
Achilles: Survivor is out now on PC (Win), PS5, and Xbox Series. I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer and their PR chums – thanks for that!
