Escape From Tethys Reviews

This is a pretty average, bite-sized metroid-like game (no vania here). It's very NES-inspired, which can be both good and bad, depending on your perspective. In my view, the simplistic graphics don't hold the game back at all. No, what holds it back are the AWFUL controls. You know those ice levels in games where you're sliding all over the place, like into baddies and off ledges? That's ALL the time in this game. Further, there are these air drafts that you sometimes need to jump with to get extra height to clear obstacles, but actually getting the height boost from them is a complete mystery to me. At least 90% of the time, all my guy does is bob in the air, until randomly, it will work. It's infuriating. Overall, it reminded me very much of Environmental Station Alpha, which is an excellent game overall, hindered by crushing difficulty. This game is less inherently difficult, but the frustrating controls make it feel just as bad. I'm honestly not sure which is worse. It's not all bad though. The soundtrack is Excellent. Unfortunately, it's not available separately, nor can you snag the files from the game directory. It's a real shame because that's probably the best part. I like the game, but I just can't recommend it. If you're a huge fan of the genre, it's not without merit, but get it on sale, and don't get your hopes up.

If you like Metroid with Mega Man boss fights, this game is for you! Great game, good music, great controls (using an XBOX 360) Its a great and fun game. A bit short (1st time clear was 5 hours with all upgrades/trophies) but for the price and content, Its well worth it. I can't wait for another gem like this.

For the money, this is an alright game, no more than that. The gameplay experience could have been better by adding 8 directional shooting and allowing the player to make shortcuts ala Dark Souls. The bosses are a LONG way away from the checkpoints and you basically have to redo the entire level all over again every time you reach the boss and get trounced because you have but a sliver of life left. Music is decent and level design is alright, if a little generic. Overall 3 stars out of 5.

Really fun metroidvania game with good visuals and really good music. It can be pretty hard at the start, but it gets easier as you find more upgrades (which there are a lot of). Though an easy mode exists if you still have trouble with the difficulty. Overall it's definitely worth the cheap price! Also, ignore the old reviews complaining about the controls, they've been fixed and feels very responsive now.

The difficulty is questionable. Easy mode gives you 30 instead of 10 hp and basically renders every boss fight trival. At the same time the act of just exploring and moving around is almost impossible with the 10 hp you get normally. This game desperately needed HP potions or any way of reliably regaining health instead of random hp drops from enemies. If you play on easy you can just dash through rooms you have been to for quicker exploration but on normal you have slowly crawl forward to not lose too much hp because the save points are far and between. So for the time being I recommend playing on easy even though the bosses become a joke. I mean I walked up to the rogue scientist, emptied my 9 granades into him and killed him in literally under 5 seconds. Other than that the exploration and powerups are really fun. Although the most important one: increasing your basic shot range is not among the available upgrades.

[h1]tl;dr[/h1] • Metroid copy • pixel art, music, world size, upgrades, gameplay → decent • difficulty balance, story and boss fights → barely gud/not gud • 72/100 [h1]Positive[/h1] ☑ Generally nice-to-look-at 2D visuals. Seems like a mix of the first few Megaman games and Super Metroid's graphics. ☑ Decent soundtrack that surprised me with its variety. The boss battle theme is definitely a keeper (expect some unexpectedly [i]heavy[/i] bass and drums). ☑ World map is, I wouldn't say massive, but vast enough for a good few hours of exploring in a fitting way that doesn't make it feel overwhelming. There are also some secret corners here and there that are hidden behind walls without overlay lines on them, much like in Metroid. Those kept it interesting to look around. ☑ Difficulty was balanced through half of the game. ☑ Getting all the upgrades was fun but I have one major problem with them which is adressed in the next point. [h1]Negative[/h1] ☒ Getting all the upgrades by the end makes you OP asf. To put it into perspective, you can literally annihilate every single enemy in the screen (doesn't matter which enemy) in less than a second and have any inch of HP you may have lost regenerate before you can even get touched by anything a second time. [spoiler]If that wasn't enough, you can clap the final boss' ass cheeks in less than a minute, which made for a plain anti-climactic send-off for me.[/spoiler] This is only a partial negative aspect either way, as it's not expected for you to have gotten every single one of the upgrades before you finish it. Still, it feels like the game was supposed to be played by getting at most half of the health/ammo upgrades available. ☒ Story was uninteresting imo. On top of that, the ending is like a more boring version of every Metroid finale ever, and that's barely considered a spoiler because you just know what to expect from the very get-go. It's even in the title. ☒ Only one out of the 7 boss fights felt like an actual boss fight for me. Unless you give zero shits about any of the upgrades you can get if you explore, everything is quite ez. [h1]Verdict[/h1] [b]72 • 100

Metroidvanias are my favorite game genre. This is one of the best recent ones, if by that you mean most enjoyable. The graphics are eye-pleasing, the creatures are inventive, and the music makes a nice mood. But what really rocks is the gameplay. It's on that sweet edge where it's almost too difficult...until you break through and it isn't. The various creatures are quite hard before you get more life and weapons. And the boss fights are a bit on the easy side. The hardest thing is the platforming. There are a couple of very hairy moves. My only real complaint is that it's too short. But for 5 bucks, it's a steal. Looking forward to a sequel?

If you like all the weird, imperfect metroidvanias out there (Timespinner, Wuppo, Environmental Station Alpha), you'll probably like this one. If you only like the greatest ones (Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, etc), this one might not be for you. The game is hard, frustratingly so at first. You're severely underpowered and save points are few and far between. However, what I like about this game is that the power curve had such a large range. You start so weak but by the end you're unstoppable. It's kind of fun and gives the game a feeling of acceleration as you're able to bypass obstacles that were super difficult before. Compare that to a Hollow Knight, where you never get all that much more powerful. Are there things I'd change? You bet. There's one item on particular that you should be given much earlier, to prevent so much backtracking. I wish there were a few more teleporters here and there. Also, it would be great if the map had some more information on it to tell you where special items are after you've seen them (similar to metroid). All in all though, this game is worth playing and certainly worth far more than the $1.50 I paid for it. Looking forward to the sequel!

[h1] The Metroidvania Review[/h1] [url= https://metroidvaniareview.com/2018/12/01/escape-from-tethys/] Scored Summary[/url] | | [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/30503887/] Subscribe to our Curator [/url] [b]How Metroidvania is it?[/b] Perfect Fit – Leans more towards the Metroid side of the spectrum in the sense that you gain all of your power through exploration (Rather than leveling or other systems.) [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/MetroidvaniaReview/discussions/1/1744479063998161224/] Want to hear a different opinion, or want to share your own review? Check out our Forum here.[/url] [h1]Full Review[/h1] [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] is an excellent Metroidvania game that’s held back by its production values. The map is obviously meticulously planned, power-ups are all meaningful and satisfying, and it feels good to progress through its corridors. However, everything feels just a little “loose”, which I’ll try to explain in this review. The game it reminds me the most of is [i]Environmental Station Alpha[/i]. Both are Metroid-like games that feature a Protagonist with a short-ranged attack and a dash upgrade, and in both games you’re dealing with a science station that’s under attack. But where ESA had extremely tight controls, clockwork bosses, and satisfying sound effects, [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] dials it back just enough to make me hesitate to call it “Great.” I think the biggest aspect of [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] that could be improved on is the sound design. Sound effects can be a magical addition to your game. They can give flesh to an otherwise undetailed graphical presentation and add a very important feeling of weight to everything. As an example of where [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] fails in this aspect, early in the game you may come across this rock boss who should be menacing, but just feels wrong. He silently hits the ground to make stalactites fall from overhead, he silently rushes across the room to punch you, and he silently belches lava onto the ground. I’m exaggerating, I think there is [i]some[/i] kind of sound effect during this scene, but it’s barely noticeable. There are cases where silence might help an experience, I don’t think that kind of minimalist design conveys the kind of action [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] is going for. If the sound design was improved, I’m willing to bet the “feel” of the game would be completely different. The lack of good sound effects only draws attention to the weaknesses of the game’s animations. They’re not terrible by any means, but they could use a little work to help with conveying telegraphs and what the player should expect when controlling the protagonist. One of your first weapons is this giant laser, and the way its animated makes it feel sort of wrong that the beam doesn’t track your gun when you fire it. I had to kind of turn my brain off to what the game was telling me visually and think of it in terms of what was actually happening to get used to it and really start to see the good in the game. Putting all of these presentation issues aside though, [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] offers up a fantastic little Metroidvania world to explore. Everything loops in on itself, which helps to avoid making backtracking a chore. It’s not perfect by any means, some areas are maybe a little too open, but if I were to rate it against all other Metroidvanias, I’d say the larger world design at least would be on the top half of that list. Best of all, it starts out a very difficult on its normal difficulty, making it so finding power ups is meaningful and satisfying. Because of the difficulty, enemy health and ammo drops are important, so even the otherwise boring Item Magnet Upgrade was welcome. Eventually your character can become so powerful that you trivialize any remaining content you have left to play – and I personally think this is glorious. As fun as it is to start out weak and eventually dominate though, it’s an easy criticism I can levy against it as well. Right at the start you’re thrown against a boss that will probably kill you, again and again. There is little in the way of teaching the player the ropes before tossing them into the fire. No gradual escalation into insane difficulty like [i]Environmental Station Alpha[/i]. It’s not quite as bad as some of the harder games I’ve played, but if you’re the type to get frustrated at learning through death, I’d avoid this game. Break through that wall though and perhaps you’ll enjoy the contrast of how weak you were to how strong you become. I suppose I can’t make comparisons to [i]Environmental Station Alpha[/i] without also mentioning the Story. [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] is as basic as it gets. The title says it all, and unless I’ve completely missed something, there aren’t any major secrets to uncover. “Basic” is a good way to describe [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] in general, but it handles everything it does just well enough to make a worthy consideration – especially at its $5 price point. It won’t blow your mind in the same way as other options, and perhaps its weaker production values will be a deal-breaker for some. But if you’re out of Metroidvanias that are of the “Metroid-Like” flavor – ones that focus entirely on powering up through exploration – I say give [i]Escape from Tethys[/i] a try. It is a good game. 3 out of 5

I've played plenty of Metroid clones in my day, from Castlevania to Salt & Sanctuary to Axiom Verge to Xeodrifter and beyond, and sadly, Escape from Tethys is one of the worst. Much of the blame can be directed at the map design. Other Metroid-style games will tantalize the player with hidden or out-of-reach items, or mix things up with some puzzles. While those things are present in Tethys, they're quite rare. More often than not, your only reward for clearing one zig-zagging tunnel full of pitfalls and acid pools and annoyingly-placed enemies is another tunnel of the same. And another. And countless more. Even this wouldn't be so aggravating if not for the abundance of one-way paths. There's so many times where your map shows two areas that are connected, but when you get there, a strong wind or a too-high wall or [i]something[/i] that acts only as an exit, not an entrance, impedes your path. Have fun backtracking who-knows-how-many rooms to find the [i]actual[/i] entry point. This is made more frustrating thanks to the sometimes-unintuitive game progression. You'll come to a room with a uniquely-hazardous environment and you might think, "There's no way to survive with my current equipment. I'll come back after I get a new power-up." In actuality, sometimes the game expects you to just suck it up and bumble your way through while you cross your fingers and hope your shields hold. Everything in your brain tells you that this can't possibly be the right way, but the baffling level design says otherwise. Another thing that makes Metroid-style games exciting is the gradual acquisition of power-ups that increase your attack and movement capabilities, and also act kind of like keys to access new areas. Tethys isn't too good about this either. For every item that increases your exploration capabilities, there's two more that don't. And I could forgive these non-exploration items if they were at least cool upgrades. Instead, you get things like the stomp that creates a shockwave at ground level, but only if you stomp from high off the floor -- higher than you can usually jump. This makes it hard to set up and pretty useless, especially since most enemies in the game jump, float or fly. Speaking of those jumping, floating, flying enemies, you're constantly at their mercy thanks to your weak, short-range gun that can't be fired diagonally. Admittedly, this does keep the combat engaging since your positioning has to be carefully considered at all times, and you're often forced to use your limited-ammo sub-weapons to increase your range. There's just [i]so many[/i] enemies and they respawn every time you enter a room. Having to whittle through each and every one of them, especially during an extended bout of backtracking, can be exhausting. It can also be difficult to restore your health and ammo. Enemies do drop refills, but rarely, and each one only restores a single point. You'll need to find a save point to fully rejuvenate yourself, which isn't always convenient. There was one unexplored path I traveled where I passed through more than [i]fifty screens[/i] before I found another save point. By the end, I had 2 HP left and was dodging through minefields of floating enemies while literally screaming at the game to let me find a save station. Even Dark Souls isn't [i]that[/i] harsh: at least it lets you keep your newfound items if you die before the next bonfire! It's buggy too. Most are minor oddities, like audio/visual glitches, or the game's weird tendency to max out the in-game sound effect slider every time you start a new game or load a save. However, there's also a severe glitch where loading a game, then using the pause menu to quit to the title screen, and then loading a game again will soft-lock it. Just another reminder that there probably wasn't a big team working on this. So if you wanted to play a new game that feels like the creaky original NES Metroid except with worse items and level design, Escape from Tethys is the game for you! For anyone else, there's a wide array of far superior Metroid clones to choose from.