God I hate that I'm putting a thumbs down but, ARKOS is a tedious and I do mean in the best most purest form TEDIOUS ass experience. On the surface; you've got a boomer shooter-lite vibe, with graphics harkening back to the early days of the DOS era with that Catacomb-3D-esque color scheme, and some interestingly cute little wizard dudes to blast at, seems interesting right?

Well ♥♥♥♥ hold up cowboy that's about ALL the game has going for it. I will admit; the voxels and lighting look downright ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gorgeous. The art direction is on point; it's so adorable and memorable (for lack of a better term) - just LOOKING at the designs of things I can tell the dev had put a ton of time and honest heart into the conception of the world on display here. From the cute little wizard bastards, to the spiders hanging from the ceiling - to the cool as all get-out DND flavored 'staves' replacing your guns for your arsenal. But that's where it stops and it stops DEAD.

Episodes come down to a myriad of levels with Wolfenstein 3D/Catacombs-esque design, there is 0 vertical variation to design of the level spaces and it unfortunately adds to the tedium. And I know your thinking "well no ♥♥♥♥ dude" but instead of the dev taking this restriction and working with it - upon reaching Episode 4 I realized all of these restaurant place-mat mazes called levels there is 0 variation between them other than a color swap between the episodes themselves. No new level design tricks abound, no traps, no secrets, no new monsters beyond what you see in Episode 1 - or weapons brother I ain't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you nooooooooothing goes beyond the literal first episode. It shows ALLLLLLLLLLL its tricks

And I feel like the dev could tell because the total number per episode drops off fast; I otherwise opted to uninstall.

ARKOs - for all it harkening back to it's DOS era roots - should've stayed on the shareware list. Recommended on heavy heavy discount for total superfans of the genre, and even then it's a stretch. It's all dressed up with nowhere to go. Bland, tedious slugfest.

[h1] ARKOS - Pretty and Tedious [/h1] God I hate that I'm putting a thumbs down but, ARKOS is a tedious and I do mean in the best most purest form TEDIOUS ass experience. On the surface; you've got a boomer shooter-lite vibe, with graphics harkening back to the early days of the DOS era with that Catacomb-3D-esque color scheme, and some interestingly cute little wizard dudes to blast at, seems interesting right? Well shit hold up cowboy that's about ALL the game has going for it. I will admit; the voxels and lighting look downright fucking gorgeous. The art direction is on point; it's so adorable and memorable (for lack of a better term) - just LOOKING at the designs of things I can tell the dev had put a ton of time and honest heart into the conception of the world on display here. From the cute little wizard bastards, to the spiders hanging from the ceiling - to the cool as all get-out DND flavored 'staves' replacing your guns for your arsenal. But that's where it stops and it stops DEAD. Episodes come down to a myriad of levels with Wolfenstein 3D/Catacombs-esque design, there is 0 vertical variation to design of the level spaces and it unfortunately adds to the tedium. And I know your thinking "well no shit dude" but instead of the dev taking this restriction and working with it - upon reaching Episode 4 I realized all of these restaurant place-mat mazes called levels there is 0 variation between them other than a color swap between the episodes themselves. No new level design tricks abound, no traps, no secrets, no new monsters beyond what you see in Episode 1 - or weapons [b] brother I ain't shitting you nooooooooothing goes beyond the literal first episode. It shows ALLLLLLLLLLL its tricks [/b] And I feel like the dev could tell because the total number per episode drops off fast; [u] I otherwise opted to uninstall. [/u] ARKOs - for all it harkening back to it's DOS era roots - should've stayed on the shareware list. Recommended on heavy heavy discount for total superfans of the genre, and even then it's a stretch. It's all dressed up with nowhere to go. Bland, tedious slugfest.