Apocalipsis Reviews

I really tried not to give up on it because so much work was put into the beautiful artwork, but the puzzles and the controls/movement are horrible. Its the kind of game where even completing it with a walkthrough isn't worth it. It's incredibly tedious. It's just not fun.

I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this game. Like, I adore the art style and how it's clearly inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, Albert Durer, and other 14th/15th century European artists, both in its wood cut/early print style and its surrealist Christian subject matter, and it's no doubt the highlight of the game. The scenes are gorgeous - in a kinda grim, bizarre way - and while the first few scenes are maaaybe a little on the uninspired side, they quickly become aesthetic treats full of classic Medieval symbolism and the kinda funky creatures and landscapes Bosch and others were known for. The ambient sounds usually support this too, though some do have an annoying repetitive aspect (a crow constantly cawing, Henry the protagonist is ALWAYS coughing like a little Victorian orphan boy for some reason, etc.), and, while sparser than I think it should be, the music is rather beautiful and thematic. The narration by Nergal is also serviceable to captivating, and it fits the overall mood. If that's where it all ended, that'd be great! If I could roll back time, I'd buy the artbook and soundtrack DLC and be happily on my way. Hell, make an animated or even stop motion mini-film out of this or something! But this is a GAME, and unfortunately the gameplay is dull and aggravating enough to actively detract from enjoying the art aspect. Like others have mentioned the game is short - the main game is 15-20 scenes/puzzles, while the story add-on is only '3 additional scenes' - which wouldn't be an issue if the story was fantastic (it's only 'okay' if not a bit nonsensical and simple) or if the puzzles were crazy good. They're not. Every puzzle is either way too easy and not unique in the genre, or it's illogical to the point of difficulty unless you just trial and error through them. They also decided to add two action-y segments which have no right being in the game and are HORRIBLE to control, especially the second. None of the puzzles even really fit the story or themes, they're just kinda 'there' minus maybe the latter third, so again, they're just jarring against an otherwise captivating landscape. Which is...not a good feeling for a point and click puzzle game. So if you like the overall style of the game, just buy the artbook and support the artists who contributed some truly amazing work to this. But as a game, it's really not worth even the four hours it took me to 100% all achievements. It's an aggravating, unfortunately boring experience that sapped any excitement I had for the story or themes.

I understand ther reason they set a discount of almost 90% for this game. It just can't be played properly. The game attracted me with its hand-drawn style. The screenshots are really good, and all the people in the customer reviews section were like WOW THIS IS A GAME. But behind the gameplay, all the graphics, so gloomy and beautiful, is just unable to see. It's lost. I swear, I barely could stand the puzzles and the challenges the game offers. I was soooooo close to quit it and delete it from my library forever, without any other try to get 100% of achievements or even pass the game completely. A level where you have to run under the cannon fire? What a wild random! The shots don't even have any sequence, so you have to make a wild guess when you can run safely. Do you want to get an achievement? Pass a challenge or solve a puzzle on the first try, or you'll have to watch two loading screens and one more loading screen of the levels menu to just try to pass the level again. It's so damn annoying! Behind all the negativity you have to go through the game with, behind the understanding that the puzzles are terribly illogical and meaningless, you also can’t see the plot. But, oh yeah, we will add this little dot turned slightly to the other side above the symbol, so you, player, will waste about 30 minutes to understand what's wrong and why can't you just go ahead as it was in the guide. The game looks absolutely non-obvious. You never know what to expect from this or that object, this or that interaction. Why should I scare an owl with a sword first, and then with just a simple interaction? Why should it be done this way? Why does the owl throw out a bug from its beak, which for some reason is going to be eated by a mouse? I don't, and what's more important I probably won't ever understand. The second stage of the game and DLC is much more simple and obvious, but the first impression is almost indelible, and, as for me, it's absolutely terrible. It's a pity that the best thing this game has is just the design and nothing more.

Came here for the visuals, right? And probably for the music and atmosphere? Let me guess... you also consider yourself as a fan of small and niche games? And you also think that you probably can handle gameplay and technical issues, if all abovementioned aspects are good, right? Well... yeah, right about that... You see, I also started the game on rather positive note and thought that probably people here are a bit too harsh towards this game. Unfortunately the more I played the more issues I encountered. The last drop for me, which shifted the scales, was sudden and kinda abrupt ending and final scene in 1 fps. Yeah, 1 fps in a point and click game, you see it right. There are two endings, and both final scenes for them run in 1 fps. But ok, we will talk about it again, lets start from the very beginning. Visual aspects, music and overall atmosphere - all that stuff that brought you here is indeed great. Gloomy and brutal medieval setting, both beautiful and eerie visuals, twisted creatures, depressive tunes - everything is on it's place to create thrilling atmosphere. Unfortunately, this is where objective advantages end. While I mentioned visual aspects as a strong point... it also has issues. You see, very often when you collect items, you have no idea what you just picked up. You literally stare at your inventory, at all these pieces of... something and trying to guess what tf you just found. Is it a piece of glass? Hm, probably a... hook? Or maybe a claw? Ah, I can use it to start fire, so probably it's a flint. Or another example - you pick some... hm, half-broken oblong item. Is it a log? Or maybe a cane? Some tube? What?! It's a piece of bone?! - uh, o-okay. It is also not very clear which objects are interactable and which ones are not. For example, see that shiny lock near the girls leg on the gif below? Definitely looks like something you can interact with, right? - in fact no. And that's not an exception. Now about gameplay. The biggest problem here is, that rather often your actions here doesn't have sense. And I'm not talking about puzzles yet. You enter new location a-a-and... what the hell you want me to do here? You see, I played a lot of brutal old school point and click games where it was very hard to guess what I had to do. But retrospectively, when you could finally find a solution - it at least looked reasonable. Nothing like that here. Even if you find a solution, it still looks illogical. In many cases you do something not because it seems like right thing to do, but because... well, why the hell not? It is interactable and I have no any other ideas anyway... Now about puzzles. They are different, both in difficulty and quality. The difficulty varies from "my 3 years old brother would solve it" to "e-e-eh, what's going on here, let me out". Same about quality. Few of them were pretty good, while others are totally out of place. Imagine, you are preparing some dark ritual and as a part of it you have to solve... some typical plumber puzzle. Very... immersive. Techical issues. From micro-freezes (constant on some levels) to severe drops to 1 fps. Let me just cut the route to the point where I say that stuff like that is just not acceptable in 2d point and click games, no matter what you PC specs are. Story. Starts rather intriguing, but unfortunately ends abruptly with either happy or bad ending. Few words about consequences? Some explanations? - nothing. You either succeeded or failed in your quest and that's it. As to the One night in the Woods dlc - it gives little more info about events before the main story and honestly even slightly improves overal impression. It even has ending screen which runs in 60 fps (wow). Unfortunately it's ultra short and can't redeem other sins. Overall, I can recommend this game exceptionally for ultra refined connoiseurs, who is not afraid of some painful experience. P.S. "thinking out loud" - white liquid (?) in glass bottle, which can be stored in a kitchen and can also be used to repair shovel broken in half... without any other fixing materials. Some super glue? Secret receipt of super sticky mayo or condensed milk? I still have no idea what was that...

The illustration style is the reason I bought this. I love it. I expected something different for the gameplay I guess. My fault. There is a story (very basic), and a whole lot of symbolism that felt pretty empty and forced to me. I'm not even going to play 'One Night in the Woods', because I don't care about the story. The puzzles are ok, but I'm never told why I'm doing them or what they mean to the story. This game could have been great.

I loved the art style and unique puzzles. The music was thrilling and it's certainly top notch. Great game overall. The playthrough is about ~3-4 hours.

Apocalipsis is the story of a man named Harry who lost his wife, who was his world. There's very little story, so let's just kick things off with what's good about this release. The art direction is solid; it really is a good throwback to depictions and artwork from ancient Greece, as well as Greek mythology as a whole. The muted neutral tones, contrasting blacks, and occasional snippets of color only push the dreary atmosphere to new heights. It's all very aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, the glum soundtrack really instills a sense of deep melancholy, disparity, and loss. If you're looking for atmosphere, you've come to the right place. However, if you're expecting anything more then know that in this instance beauty is only skin deep. Where Apocalipsis is bad, it's terrible. Despite all of my best efforts, the majority of the game lagged horribly when interacting with puzzles or when walking from one side of the screen to the other. Frame dips as low as 1 FPS in the ending scene and 15-30 in puzzle areas were seen. Thinking at first that this may have been an issue with the game downscaling from 4k to 1080p, I set my native resolution to such, rebooted, and all seemed well for a few levels before the issue returned. The problem seems to lay within the fog effects, as levels without it run fine. For reference, I have an i7-6700k/GTX 1080 rig that runs all modern games at 60+ FPS in 1080p, so a 2D point and click should be of no issue. Optimization problems aside, the gameplay just isn't that fun. The story is obscure, and a lot more narration could've been done to help get audiences even interested in what's going on. The developers put a clear focus in on the puzzles, but there's no hand-holding here and you're left up to your own devices to figure out what you're even supposed to do. Some of the enigmas are straight-forward and almost child-like in their simplicity, while others are completely obtuse with solutions hearkening back to the notorious 90's era point and click difficulty. Man, okay so here's where my two worlds really come together. I started reviewing some 11-12 years ago now by writing about metal music, and my roots are seated primarily in black and death metal. Every extreme metal fan knows Behemoth, and their vocalist/guitarist frontman Nergal is pretty well revered in the underground. From how the developers have presented his presence in Apocalipsis, you can tell that his inclusion is their main selling point for the entire game, but you may be disappointed to know that you only get four or five lines from Nergal in the entire 2-3 hour campaign. It's unsatisfying, and moreover whoever was responsible for the sound completely botched the narration by recording Nergal's voice at max capacity; you can literally hear the mic trembling and distorting. And yes, I always have, and always will, use headphones of the highest quality when it comes down to me talking in-depth about anything relating to sound quality. It comes across like some mega fan's dream come true, and that they used a video game as an excuse to make it happen. Apocalipsis is a game with a lot of potential, but it's weighted down with some overburdening problems. How a 2D point and click game could run as low as 1 FPS (for the ENTIRE end cutscene) on a rig that can run every modern game at 60+ FPS in 1080p is baffling; optimization here really needs to be addressed. A lot of additional disappointment could've been avoided by not pushing the Nergal appeal so hard as well, since he has relatively little to do with the game and speaks perhaps an entire minute of narration in total. The puzzles are also all over the place, with some being incredibly obtuse and some childishly simple; a lot of them aren't very ingenious either. With all that said, the art direction and sound are spot on, but there is much here to be desired. [h1]Rating: [b]2.0/5.0[/b] - It's not awful, but it's not great.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore

An amazing artstyle. Nergal as a narrator. Interesting soundtrck. What could go wrong? Incomprehensible story, which makes some sense at the end of the game, but no earlier. Events are completely random, seems to be glued together without any particular reason. Then the even worse part - puzzles. There are hopefully only few of them, but solving them requires more guessing than true solving. Another part which could be better was searching for objects. They were same color as background. Many of their shapes did not allow to recognize their purpose - so again - it required guessing to go further. One more thing. If you are going to play on a high resolution screen, consider setting up a lower resolution. On a 4K TV I was unable to see the pointer and there was no option to increase its size. With all my love towards Nergal and Behemoth, I tried to like this game. Sadly, its execution is not good enough to recommend it.

Unless you get it at a significant discount it's not really worth it. Someone might like the artstyle, and it's mostly about that, but it didn't impress on the game front.

I had high hopes for this game. First heard about it through Nergal's social network, as I am a fan of the band and follow Nergal on Instagram and such. Figured if Behemoth is on board, this has to be a cool game. Plus the art looked great, so yeah, I had high hopes. Unfortunately the game did not meet all of my expectations. The art is nice, maybe a little too simplistic for my taste, but still it's a good looking game...I always admire games that put the art in the front seat, especially 2D. The narration is ok, not much of it and is divided from the gameplay as it's only in rudimentary cut-scenes. But hey it's Nergal, so always fun. The story is there, but kinda takes a back seat...no emphasis is put on the story, which is too bad. As for the music, after 2 hours of play I have only heard athmosperic sounds, nothing else. You get tired of this pretty quick and I had to lower the volume after some time. Now for the bad part...the gameplay. Sooooo slow, every action triggers an animation that is too slow, and the animation has to finish before you can do anything else. A point and click is a point and click, but I think the gameplay feel could have used a good revamp before releasing the game. To me this feels incomplete, like the first beta where you tell your testers...yeah don't worry we will make that better, and that faster. The puzzles are just ok, some of them with the glyphs are kinda weird and too hard to figure out. Some others are very simple and you figure it out as soon as you see the scene. Overall I think this game could have been better in terms of gameplay and storytelling. And that is why I would not recommend it. I wish it could have been better, really. All hail Behemoth !