Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 26/Feb 20:14

Atomic Owl – Review

We’ve been racking our brains trying to come up with an owl-pun-filled intro to pitch Atomic Owl to you, but if the game’s awesome key art isn’t enough to pique your interest, then no amount of “superb owl” or “owl-right” is going to convince you anyway. So let’s get straight down to business: now that we dug up Monster Theater’s indie platformer from our backlog, is it any good, or did we end up not giving a hoot? (We still got one pun in, at least.) Story Central to Atomic Owl’s narrative is a long-running conflict between different species of birds, with owls and crows being at the helm of each side. Players take on the role of Hidalgo Bladewing, the prince of the owls. Our story begins with Hidalgo being ambushed by Omega Wing, a crow sorcerer. The nefarious corvid uses a magical dark energy, Meza, to imprison the prince and corrupt his allies. Two years later, Hidalgo is freed by his now-sentient sword, Mezameta. In the time that has passed, the world has been transformed, and it is now up to Hidalgo to undo the actions of Omega Wing. The prince sets out on a revenge-driven quest to defeat the sorcerer and rescue his brainwashed friends. Graphics The least we can say about Atomic Owl’s visuals is that they look very stylish. The game uses colorful, neon-infused pixel art that brings to mind the ‘90s. Environments are the star of the show here, ranging from cyberpunk-style cityscapes filled with glowing signs and ramen shops to forests, data-stream-like areas, retro-futuristic training rooms, and traditional Japanese-inspired settings. The anthropomorphized characters don’t necessarily scream “bird” at first glance, but they fit in well with the overall synthwave aesthetic. That said, readability can be a concern, as it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between enemies and friendly NPCs. In fact, readability as a whole is an issue for the precision platforming that Atomic Owl requires. As beautiful as the backgrounds are, they can become visually overloaded, making it difficult to spot platforms or even enemies. The game’s optional CRT and cinematic filters, unfortunately, don’t resolve these issues. Sound Music is perhaps Atomic Owl’s strongest suit. The synthwave, chiptune, lo-fi, electronic, and retro-inspired tracks infuse the game with a strong ’90s neon arcade vibe. The music shifts in tone depending on the area, with boss music in particular adding intensity to encounters. Even then, the music doesn’t overpower the game’s ambience. Given that those same boss encounters occasionally rely on audio cues, that’s a good thing altogether. In fact, combat sound effects provide satisfying feedback. The only thing that keeps Atomic Owl’s soundscape from being perfect is the game’s voice acting. Not only is the game only partially voice-acted, with some transitions between voiced and unvoiced dialogue coming across as very jarring, but the performances themselves simply aren’t very good. The dialogue often comes across as hammy or amateurish, and breaks the overall feeling of immersion that the visuals and music are building up so well. Gameplay As strange as it may sound, Atomic Owl is a platformer suffering from an identity crisis. It seems like the developers didn’t quite know what kind of game they were going for, as Atomic Owl combines traditional side-scrolling platforming with roguelike elements as well as Metroidvania influences. This translates into a game with a run-based structure, where death sends you back to the game’s hub area, where you can buy permanent upgrades with collected currency, while temporary power-ups, like elemental effects or triple jumps, only last for a single run. These progression mechanics feel decidedly roguelike, but levels and enemy placements remain the same throughout, resulting in a game that plays like a linear platformer without checkpoints, rather than a fully randomized roguelike. Because Atomic Owl commits to neither design principle, the game ends up feeling like a very watered-down version of The Rogue Prince of Persia. That’s a comparison that we do not make lightly, as The Rogue Prince of Persia is one of the best modern-day roguelike platformers out there. To be fair, Atomic Owl does at least try to make its platforming mechanics interesting. Hidalgo can jump, double jump, dash, including upward dashes, wall jump, glide in some cases, and chain movement abilities together to clear gaps, moving platforms, collapsing ledges, and enemy-filled rooms. The platforming requires precision, especially in later sections and chase sequences. At its best, Atomic Owl’s platforming really does feel tight and enjoyable, but there are many frustrating sections, where jumps feel needlessly fiddly or overly punishing. Much of that frustration can be directed to the game’s camera distance, although blind leaps of faith are required occasionally too. The thing is, because Atomic Own does not randomize its level layouts, you can’t chalk a bad run up to getting unlucky. Instead, a trial-and-error approach is needed, and this is by design. However, because the game pretends to be a roguelike, it suffers from a lack of checkpoints, resulting in having to replay entire sections over and over because you hit a wall. That same feeling of frustration applies to the game’s combat as well, albeit in a different way. Atomic Owl’s core combat experience is good: its mechanics are accessible, and there is a wide range of swappable weapons to choose from. However, combat difficulty is very uneven. Some encounters, even bosses, are ridiculously easy to overcome, whereas other rooms are suddenly and unexpectedly filled with enemy swarms or bullet-hell-like projectile patterns. Combined with our aforementioned platforming frustrations, this makes Atomic Owl come across as a game that doesn’t know whether it wants to be an accessible game or a punishingly difficult one, closing the loop on that identity crisis. If you do wish to subject yourself to Hidalgo’s adventure, then it shouldn’t take you too long. We cleared the game over the course of two evenings, in about six hours total. Because the game doesn’t commit to being a roguelike, it’s not exactly bursting with replay value either, but for €12.99, you could do worse. Conclusion Prioritizing style over substance is perhaps Atomic Owl’s biggest issue. The neon-lit ‘90s visuals, backed by a fantastic synthwave soundtrack, don’t just draw attention; they draw you into Hidalgo’s world itself. Unfortunately, Atomic Owl then undermines itself by not being able to choose just what kind of platformer it wants to be. Had the game fully committed to being either a roguelike OR a traditional platformer, we’d probably have enjoyed our time with it more.