It’s been a short while since I’ve last played a platformer, with what roguelikes/lites and 3D action games stealing the majority of my gaming time as of late. And honestly, I have gotten a little fatigued of the former as it does feel like I’ve been playing nothing but those back-to-back. Not that they aren’t any less fun, of course; a good rogue game can engross me for hours! But when I got around to Monster Theater’s ‘Atomic Owl’, I was pleasantly surprised to see this roguevania actually come around to add in an old-school platforming experience so I could jump into the action and kick some tail.
Atomic Owl is a really neat game. Just like how I’m jumping into the meat of the review here, the game tosses the player right into the action after a brief introduction to the characters and world that Hildago and this funky green katana will tear through once the bad crow guy shows up to ruin everything. You’ll sever through multiple levels of forests, data streams, and cyberpunk cities as you beat up tengu, collect green Meza to gain permanent HP upgrades, and eventually die so that you can go back to camp and purchase some upgrades. The upgrades help, but your best chance at survival is dodging and fending off baddies from a distance via your arsenal of weapons.
This game gives you every essential mechanic you need right off the bat. That includes four weapons that you can swap to at any time to adapt to just about any situation. You’ve got your blade, your throwing hammer, a whip, and a great sword that can inflict major damage. That last one is very useful against tankier enemies that tend to hang around and block major exits. Actually, enemies will keep your path busy in general as flying tengu roam the screen, trying to catch you offguard to take away precious hitpoints and otherwise be a menace to your playthrough. Bullets will also begin to fill up the playfield over the course of the game and eventually, things become a bit of a bullet hell-like that can become a bit stressful.
Thankfully, in the non-roguelite mode, death only forces you to restart the last level you were in. Material you’ve collected from beating up baddies can be spent at the campfire for additional skills such as pulling in drops towards you or enhancing your weapons. But the best stuff can be found on the field from enemy drops, with perks coming in handy as they can either assist in healing you overtime or afflict ailments on foes such as burn damage. The combat system is, overall, pretty cool with how you can approach most encounters! But I won’t lie, it took me a minute to realise that I even had multiple weapons to switch between as the game hardly made much mention of this mechanic. When I meant that Atomic Owl throws you into the fire, I really did mean it—it’s a solid option for the platforming slash roguevania maniac alone as it treats the player like a veteran to the genres right off the bat.
Unfortunately, beyond the combat system, I’m not entirely keen on the game’s level design or the boss encounters. The vast majority of levels in Atomic Owl are either zigzags or are centred around a hub that connects to smaller challenges. A few of these encounters are quite fun, especially towards the end of the game as the stakes are raised (though I absolutely despised that “Master Hand” chase, my least favourite trope!). But the rest of the levels are more run-of-the-mill challenges I’ve seen plenty of across older vania-styled games. As birds, I wish the game took advantage of verticality more as besides the few moments you’re allowed to fly, it’s mostly boots-on-the-ground for the majority of the game. The bosses, too, can be fun to fight! But as they reach the end of their life bar, their frenzied states are less of a struggle and more of a guessing game as they proceed to do naught more than speed up their zones and eventually, spam the screen with projectiles.
Now I nearly forgot to talk about the character controller, or how Hildago controls, in all this. Our feathered protagonist is swift and very responsive to inputs and interactions with his environment. I don’t quite like how much forward momentum his jumps and clambers have as they’ve thrown me off a cliff more times than I can count, but otherwise Atomic Owl is quite competent in this regard.
Now Atomic Owl does have a story and I have to say I appreciate how much it loves itself. This game takes itself seriously from the beginning to the end, even with an intentionally-obnoxious sword that follows you around and undermines Hidalgo at every opportunity. The voice acting is quite enjoyable, despite the fact that the game will go from having voiceovers to losing it all within one conversation. A number of lines simply go unvoiced and, combined with a few goofs here and there (like annoyingly slow dialogue reads from NPCs in levels), Atomic Owl does come off to be rather unpolished as a result. Though truth be told, I don’t particularly mind the lack of voice acting either as, despite being something I enjoyed, I also ended up experiencing a bit of second-hand embarrassment over the script. Which came to me as a bit of a surprise, as my ability to be embarrassed died yonks ago.
Atomic Owl is an enjoyable little romp that has some good ideas and even goes as far as to trust the player right off the bat with the protagonists full arsenal. The visuals are lovely and the music was probably the highlight of the game. But middling level design, uninteresting boss fights, and a lack of polish do drag down what could otherwise have been a really good game. ∎
Atomic Owl
Played on
Windows 11 PC
PROS
- Great visuals and music.
- Fun combat system.
CONS
- Lack of polish across the board.
- Boss mechanics aren't very interesting.
- Level design isn't very interesting.
