Asterigos: Curse of the Stars Review
Courtesy of the folks at TinyBuild and Acme Game Studio, I’ve been adventuring through their new action-RPG Asterigos: Curse of the Stars on PC and Xbox Series X for our full review. As usual here you can find our full video review, extended written review and common-sense parent’s guide to answer the big question, is Asterigos: Curse of the Stars worth your cash?
What is Asterigos: Curse of the Stars About?
Asterigos is a new entry into the souls-like genre, one which has been picking up a lot of traction over recent years. Asterigos (much like dark Souls and similar titles such as Thymesia) sees you battling through sprawling environments, defeating and often re-defeating the denizens within.
You take control of Hilda, a brave young warrior from the Northwind Legion. Following the disappearance of your father on a perilous mission, you’ll embark on an epic journey to reunite your family. Travelling to the ancient city of Aphes you’ll face off against creatures large and small to find your father and meet a few gods (ish) along the way.
The combat in Asterigos feels a lot lighter and more nimble than a lot of its souls-like counterparts. The ability to select two different weapons and seamlessly switch between them in combat does provide a nice air of agility. In addition, being able to swap them out at any time is a nice touch, allowing you to completely change your strategy (almost) on the fly.
The city of Aphes sprawls on for quite a while, and the different areas and a good mix of enemies (including 22 individual bosses) do give a good deal for you to sink your teeth into. Sadly, I have felt things get fairly repetitive quite early on, and some of it does feel a bit of a slog. This hasn’t been helped by a rather uninspiring skills tree. While it is certainly expansive, there wasn’t a great deal on there which I felt excited to get to.
There are some nice twists in this tale, however, and the light and nimble combat is nice to fool around with. As such it’s not one I’ve written off completely and as a first outing for Acme Game Studios it has put them firmly in view as “a developer to keep an eye on”.
Common-Sense Parent’s Guide
Rating: Mostly Harmless
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is rated by PEGI at 7 and above and by the ESRB at Everybody 10+. These ratings are mostly based on fantasy violence and in-game purchases and as long as you have parental controls in place the second shouldn’t be a massive issue. The US rating also references mild blood but this isn’t something I’ve really worried over as enemies you meet mostly disappear into stardust. Overall this isn’t one I’d hate the Micro-Bandits getting their hands on, and it’s getting a mostly harmless rating of 4/5.
Accessibility
Rating: Low Barrier
There are some good options for difficulty as well as the usual subtitles and other assistance. Button combinations can get a little complicated so it’s not all the way accessible, but it’s getting a low-barrier rating of 4/5 for accessibility.
The Run Down
Gameplay – 3/5: The core fighting mechanics within Asterigos are well created, especially for a first-outing of this kind from Acme studio. Sadly for me things do get quite repetitive early on, and while there’s a lot of variation within an expansive skills tree, there aren’t a huge deal which grab me.
Visuals – 4/5: At times the visuals for Asterigos have been really beautiful. I’ve been playing on PC and Xbox Series X and over on console things are looking pretty good by comparison. Sadly while things are great most of the time, there are some flickers and odd visual glitches here and there. In addition, enemy animations get very repetitive quite quickly, and it would have been nice to see more variation.
Audio – 5/5: the voice acting is superb and the soundtrack for Asterigos is truly beautiful. The audio has really shone out for me, and I’ve really enjoyed all aspects of it.
Narrative – 4/5: the story is another strong area of the title for me, and it has easily beaten counterparts such as Dark Souls and Thymesia. Asterigos really puts the narrative where you can see it and, while long, the cut scenes do a great job of weaving a nicely-flowing narrative.
Replay – 3/5: There are collectable notes and such scattered about the place, and the combat mechanics really are fun to flip around with. I like the easy choice of different weapons and this does help to mix things up. Sadly a mix of an uninspiring skills tree and repetitive gameplay have hit this one hard in the replay department.
The Verdict – Is Asterigos: Curse of the Stars Worth It?
Pixel Bandits What the Zeus Level for Asterigos: curse of the Stars is 7/10. The concept is enjoyable, and there’s certainly a lot of good things to be said about the title. The visuals are at times bone achingly good, and I’ve mostly enjoyed winding my way through well-designed levels. The overall repetitive nature of things has worn me down though and overall it’s one which doesn’t fill me with passion.It’s a relatively low price point for this one, however, and as a first outing for Acme Game Studio all things considered, it’s a positive experience.