ARES - Extinction Agenda - Small Review

Born from a group of indie developers, this megaman wannabe of a shooter caught my eyes on steam some time ago, but watching the videos on steam still didn't convinced me to pay full price for it. Well, like Bastion, i managed to get my hands on it for a low fraction of the original price. Sadly, unlike Bastion, this time i wasn't surprised for the good.

Ares features some nice graphics, this is something i have to concede, and one of the things that draw me almost instantly to the game. The main character is nicely designed and the enviroments look pretty and convincing. The downside is that there are only 5 stages, (yeah, that's not a misspell) and they are not longer than a megaman stage. So if you paid full price for it you will surely be feeling ripped off.

Graphics and music are quite charming...

My opinion on the control is mixed up. The pc version targeting system plays nicely controling the target with the mouse and shooting with both buttons, the downside on the other hand is that Ares movements are clunky at the best, and the platforming parts often become a harder challenge than the bad guy beating. In fact, in some areas i was forced to leave the mouse alone, and do the platforming with my right hand because my left wasn't managing it. In my opinion this is an unforgivable flaw.

The story is nothing to write home off, but it gets the job done, and the ilustrations and sounds are pretty good as is the soundtrack. Overall feels like a game with a lot of game designers and very few game developers.

... but try to jump and fire simultaneously. I dare you!

Even the new weapons being acquired during the story or the new suits from either stroy mode or dlc don't manage to give the game an extra replayability. When i finished my first playthrough (in difficult, that feels more like normal), with my weapons upgraded i breezed through level 1 and 2 in less than 6 minutes, so i guess that you can speed run the game without bugs on 25 to 30 minutes.

Overall, the game is enjoyable, but won´t give you more than an evening of fun. Buy it only if it really appeals to you, but wait for it to be on sale or you will feel scammed. If you have an xbox go play Hard Corps Uprising instead!