Review – Aeon Must Die!

Aeon Must Die! is a first person perspective, stealth and exploration-based game which has the player performing actions to save humanity from AI overlords. It pays homage to classics such as Thief and Dishonored. The project boasts quite an impressive pedigree – it’s been developed by Rob Streeter (Designer of Deus Ex: Human Revolution) who also serves as Creative Director on Aeon Must Die!, with music composed by Darren Korb (Guitarist for Tool, producer of albums for Nine Inch Nails), design work done by Matt Miller (Weapons designer for Halo 2), and art direction taken care off David Sirlin(Creative director of TowerFall).

Aeon Must Die! is a 3D action-adventure video game developed by the indie studio, Zeboyd Games. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X on October 23, 2016, and for PlayStation 4 on December 7, 2016.

The trailers and stills for Aeon Must Die! looked fantastic. A cyberpunk beat ’em up with ultraviolent art and music, animated like a cartoon with cutscenes that look like comic book panels, and a tale about having your body possessed by a revolting being? I couldn’t say no to anything that sounded like Cyberpunk 2077 crossed with Akira and Venom. I was excited to check it out, and I think I received about half of what I anticipated. That is to say, it provided me with all of the style I desired. I didn’t obtain a single droplet of substance, unfortunately.

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You become extraordinarily powerful when you overheat. You become quite fragile as well. That is illogical.

Despite the title, you play as the titular Aeon in Aeon Must Die. Aeon is a galactic ruler who was betrayed by some of his followers, causing him to lose his body and have to live in the body of the edgelord you see onscreen all the time. Let’s just say that the possession isn’t exactly mutually consenting, but both parties reluctantly agree to “operate together” since their combined powers can help them achieve their respective objectives. It’s a narrative with a lot of promise. On the other hand, the story’s execution was abysmal.

It might have been a plot similar to the latest Venom films, but instead we got something with Blade Runner’s complicated world building, edgelord speech from a Three Days Grace song from the mid-2000s, and, strangely enough, a character developing obstacle deriving from the actual graphic style. Strangely, everyone seems to be the same, making it difficult to grasp what’s going on since you never know who’s speaking at any one time.

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Terry Bogard of Fatal Fury provided Aeon with half of his moveset.

Surprisingly, despite this major flaw, I like Aeon Must Die’s aesthetics. Its contrast is off the charts, with incredibly dark blacks and ridiculously brilliant neons and flame effects, all of which encompass a vibrant yet derelict cyberpunk look. In all meanings of the term, everything is edgy. The general motions and animations are greatly inspired by cartoons and comic books, and they move at an unusually slow rate with fewer animation frames. Keep in mind that this is by design, not because of hardware or performance problems. Another fundamental difficulty with Aeon Must Die arises as a result of this. Sure, it’s beautiful to look at and animated in a manner that looks great onscreen, but the game is difficult to play due to the same decreased number of frames of animation.

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You may be thinking, “How can a game that looks this good be boring?” I’m still asking myself that, yet I’ve already played the game.

In principle, this game has an excellent fighting system. This is essentially a beat ’em up in which you only battle one character at a time and use very powerful attacks like punches, kicks, and grabs. The more you assault someone, the faster a fire meter at the bottom of the screen fills up, thus putting you in overdrive. You’ll gain a lot of strength, but you’ll also become quite fragile, to the point where you may die in one hit. To cool down, you’ll need to blow off some steam by employing some fire attacks.

In practice, you get a sluggish fighting system with an awful amount of input latency due to the lowered frames of animation and deliberate terrible framerate. Imagine dealing with a fighting system that takes a long time to register your assault, all while being vulnerable to dying in one hit due to your character going into overdrive after a half-dozen punches. It’s much too punitive and hazardous, and as a consequence, it’s far too difficult for a game that shouldn’t be this difficult. I understand it, you’re a weak “soul” in a new body, but you’re the Emperor, so why would your fury cause you to become MORE frail rather than LESS frail? Not to mention the game’s incredibly monotonous character as a whole. In between the irritating conversation bits, this is pretty much all you’ll be doing.

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There’s a narrative to be told here. I can’t say I was very interested in it.

There’s nothing more annoying than a game with so much promise, a game with so much flair, and such an intriguing idea, yet it turns out to be a letdown. Aeon Must Die has the appearance, the music, and even a clever battle system idea. Despite this, it turned out to be one of the most tedious and monotonous beat ’em ups I’ve seen in recent years. This is the archetypal game of “all flair, no substance.”

 

The high contrast cyberpunk visuals of Aeon Must Die were fantastic. Even with its poor framerate, it managed to appear attractive in a comic book-like manner.

This is where you’ll find the foundation for a fantastic fighting system. Unfortunately, the punishing nature of the gameplay, as well as the excessive input latency, detract from what should have been a knockout beat ’em up.

Synthwave that’s harsh and aggressive, including some incredibly loud and angry voice samples. It works far better than you may expect.

Aeon Must Die is the ultimate “all style, no substance” game, with its edgelord plot and very annoying and brutal gameplay.

Final Score: 6.0

Aeon Must Die! is currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

On Switch, the game was reviewed.

The publisher gave me with a copy of Aeon Must Die!

As an example:

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Look at them!

Aeon Must Die! is a third-person action game developed by Airtight Games. The game was released for PC on November 15, 2016, and will be available for Xbox One on December 6th. Reference: aeon must die trailer.

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