Developer Hadoque Hadoque Publisher Kepler Interactive Kepler Interactive Release February 13th 2024 February 13th 2024 On Windows, macOS Windows, macOS From Steam, Epic Games Store Steam, Epic Games Store Price 20/25/$25 20/25/$25 Reviewed on Intel Core i911900K, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3080, Windows 10 + Steam Deck Ultros is one of those games that's born to stick in the memory. Not only is it one of the most visually vibrant games of the year so far with its neon colour palette that's an instantKOtomyeyeballs, but the way it twists and rewires core tenets of the Metroidvania rulebook also make it one of the boldest and most daring examples of its genre. I'll say it now it doesn't always stick the landing. But if there's one thing Ultros does constantly throughout its 15odd hour runtime, it's that it's always, always interesting. And for that, it has my respect even if by the time the (first) end credits rolled, I was ready to never touch it ever again. To begin with, Ultros is a feast for the senses. As our caped, almost insectoidlike heroine awakens from her slumber in a field of mad, impossible plant life, we gradually learn that we're trapped in a timeloop on board what is clearly some kind of ship in the vastness of space, but also a place that's intermittently referred to as both a sarcophagus and cosmic womb. It's a premise that's almost as baffling to wrap your head round as its visual frenzy. Whatever this place is, it's abundant with multicoloured trees, vines and fungi, and the creatures feasting off its riches feel like they've been pulled straight out of some multidimensional fever dream. Yep, those are giant eyeball fruits you're looking at and they give you a really quite tasty health boost and help you unlock new skills very fast indeed. You'll want to chow down on lots of these. | Image credit Rock Paper Shotgun/Kepler Interactive Everything about your predicament feels constantly on the verge of being too overwhelming to continue, and I suspect there will be plenty of folks who feel that Ultros is ultimately a little high on its own supply. But despite its busy visuals and surreal setup, Ultros is a remarkably easy game to read and navigate thanks the stark black silhouettes outlining its eyepopping backdrops. Moving through Ultros is a breeze in that respect, regardless of whether you're fully tooled up with your unlockable Cortex abilities, and it grounds the game in a way that make its momenttomoment platforming feel solid and tangible even when its plot feels like it's about to float out the window in a haze of cosmic nonsense. At the heart of this timeloop is the eponymous demon Ultros, a raging threeeyed purple orb whose true nature and purpose is never fully explored or explained, but is only merely hinted at during the enigmatic encounters you have with the ship's handful of remaining residents. Some have become more deranged than others thanks to this neverending time prison, and they're helpful and violent in equal measure, acting as both bosses who stand in the way of your goal, and guiding hands who occasionally fill your pockets with useful seeds and tools. Let's first dissect its combat, which begins as a simple hack and slash affair, but gradually evolves into a cleaner, more precise school of swordplay techniques as you unlock new abilities. It's never so meticulous that it crosses over into Soulslike territory, but it does actively encourage you to vary your attack strikes and move combos in order to reap better spoils from your foes. These monster gibs don't just offer better healing bonuses when your health is low, though. They also feed into four coloured bars that unlock new moves. For example, mashing your basic attack over and over will only reward you with a 'bloody pulp' that has minimal nutritional benefit, but take down an enemy with three distinct strikes, say, and you might get a 'perfect' sample that gives you a much bigger boost. Different abilities require different amounts of these four coloured bars to be filled in (I hesitate to use the word stat bars, as your base stats remain the same throughout), so you'll need to literally feed your mind so you can grow as a warrior. This is one of Ultros' more complex enemies, but these more challenging beasts are few and far between. Most are much smaller and easier to kill. | Image credit Rock Paper Shotgun/Kepler Interactive To begin with, this tension between healing and personal growth gives Ultros a luminous lick of strategic thinking. Do I power up now, but leave myself with no recovery items? Or do I hold back at the expense of its very good dropkick, additional combo strikes and sneak attacks? It's a knotty dichotomy to contemplate, especially when each new timeloop puts you back at square one on the old ability chart. Alas, that edge becomes dulled over time. The more timeloops you go through, the lower each ability's requirements become, thus requiring fewer nutritious noshes to gain back, and enemies are often such pushovers that you'll be swimming in limbs and bloodied torsos in no time. Add to this collectible mycelium nodes that let you remember abilities between timeloops, and your incentive to engage with its combat outside boss battles rapidly diminishes. Even when she's fully tooled up, though, our heroine can still feel quite stilted and frustrating to control. Wall jumps are fussy to execute with any degree of skill or accuracy, and even her double jumps never feel like they reach as high as they should. Let's put it this way she's a far cry from Ori and Sargon, and feels more akin to Team Cherry's similarly mysterious Knight. But the chief offender in Ultros' fussy department is definitely your tethered extractor tool. Like your sword, this is an object you'll have to manually collect every time you begin a new timeloop, and one whose functions are restored with every new boss you take down. Thankfully, these do persist through each loop, but it's this not your Cortex abilities that makes it possible to reach the farthest corners of the ship. In fact, your Cortex abilities aren't important at all in the grand scheme of things. They simply give you more options and make things easier when it comes to fights. Ah, Feastro The Bowel (left), you were good fun as a boss fight. Most of the time, though, Ultros' weirder sights (eg that poor dissected lad on the right there) aren't explained or given any further context. They're sadly relegated to just pretty (if wild and sometimes disturbing) backdrops. | Image credit Rock Paper Shotgun/Kepler Interactive The Cortex tree is where you unlock new abilities, and you'll need to eat the right kinds of foods to top up their respective coloured bars before you can learn them. | Image credit Rock Paper Shotgun/Kepler Interactive The extractor, then, is really what makes this a Metroidvania, but at times it feels so thoroughly busted that you want to throw it back into the void from whence it came.
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