ARENA an Age of Barbarians story Reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed the original AoB game so I had to try this one as well, and while I like the overall concept of Arena, and would still recommend the game, I must say that the practical execution is weaker than the original. But first, let's start with the good: Visually, Arena is a worthy successor to the original game, delivering more than enough of the basic ingredients of any barbarian inspired media: violence and nudity. Thanks to the faster paced gameplay, both racy and gory scenes are more frequent than in the original. The Arena, the namesake of the game is superbly designed, with varied and exciting levels, none of which fail to capture the gritty feel that we all enjoy. Same goes for the enemies you will encounter in the Arena, be they wild beasts, fierce Amazons or ruthless Barbarians, they all look the part for this savage world. Simply put, the atmosphere is flawless, 10/10. While the storyline plays second fiddle to the visuals and atmosphere in this kind of game, I really like it, as it serves as the perfect introduction to Yanah and Xodan, the protagonists of the upcoming AoB Chronicles game, which we will hopefully see released soon. Another strong point of the game is the introduction of multiple playable characters, some of them familiar faces, others completely new. The versus mode, which lets you fight in a singular match against the AI or another player is also a welcome addition. Now, to adress the elephant in the room, this game is CLUNKY, and this will unfortunately ruin many of the good things I listed above. While the gameplay is faster paced than the original and the controls are slightly different, not to mention the fact the game wasn't designed to be easy to beat, none of these are the culprits for the clunkyness, the game is simply janky in itself and sometimes it's borderline unplayable, especially in the infamous trap rooms. I felt that some of the reviews of the original game overstated the bad mechanics, but when it comes to Arena, these criticisms are perfectly on point, the gameplay can be hell. If you like the original game, and sword and sorcery in general, I'd definitely recommend getting a taste of this, but adjusting to unpolished mechanics will give you a hard time, no matter how good you are.

Why i put the negative review? I know this game is great and fun. But I can't confirm because I can't play it! Due to random crashes. I've tried for hours and hours and I can't finish the story. And since 2020 the game hasn't been updated. The devs said there was a problem with the engine that prevents them from fixing things. I'm very sad about this whole situation.

Unplayable. Game crashes consistently. Completely broken mess.