Ham! So much ham! I can’t remember the last time I’ve experienced this much ham in such a short amount of time. For reference: it took me a little over twenty minutes to wrap up the demo of Perseus: Titan Slayer, and you know what? It might’ve been the most cliched, angry version of the Greek Pantheon I’ve seen in ages, but I had fun.
Perseus Titan Slayer made for a strange demo. Its interface is ugly, its systems are badly explained, it takes a good few minutes to even realise what exactly it is. But realise I have: this is a budget roguelite hack’n’slash game. Its loot merely changes your stats and allows you to socket gems that bring you some kind of impactful bonus–additional burn damage during attacks. It reminded me of Path of Exile, one of the biggest hack’n’slash games out there but under a particular set of conditions. Imagine if someone tore apart Path of Exile’s item economy, its potion system, the impactful nature of its gemstones, the haunting music, the interesting world-building–you get what I’m saying. What struck me as recalling PoE was in elements of the interface, such as what I hesitate to call its hotbar, and in the overall graphic style. There’s weight to the animations, which also reminds me of Path of Exile. The music…I’ve already forgotten it, which isn’t a good sign.
As far as roguelite or roguelikes go–and I can’t tell you which one Perseus Titan Slayer is because I didn’t die and so I don’t know if there are any perpetual resources that you gather in-between, I’ll assume there are–as far as these go, Perseus wasn’t all that difficult. I had to be a little careful, had to drink my potions during a boss fight with Medusa and maybe it’s just that the demo wraps up before the game stops pulling its punches – but I didn’t have that “death is a hair-trigger from claiming me” feeling that often goes hand-in-hand with the greatest examples of the rogue-like genre.
All these caveats aside, this does scratch that hack’n’slash RPG itch I get now and then. The weapon animations were eye-catching and elegant, using abilities had that crunchy feeling you want abilities to have in the genre, and the ludicrous over-the-top nature of the voice-over had me grinning in disbelief throughout. The rogue-like experiences a much quicker power scaling than something like Path of Exile would, and I suspect that by the end of a run in Perseus, the impact of your abilities will be fierce indeed. That said, there really isn’t anywhere near a sense of depth in the demo that you have in most non-rogue-like hack’n’slash games.
That said…I’m not sure this is going to be an objectively good game, folks. After writing most of my impressions down, I decided to see when it would be releasing and just what this game was pitching itself as–to my shock, it’s coming out on February 13th, which–shocker!
I mean, I looked at the Reviews the Store Page on Steam shows off and they are, I kid you not, as follows:
REVIEWS
“Best New Game Trailers (Week of 10-24-22)”
IGN“BATTLE THE TITANS IN PERSEUS: TITAN SLAYER, NEW GAMEPLAY PREVIEW”
gaminglyfe“’Perseus: Titan Slayer’ Is A Hack-And-Slash, Roguelike Coming To PC In 2023”
worthplayingYou know what? I’ll add to these: “Perseus: Titan Slayer Is A Game That’s Coming Out in 2023”
These aren’t reviews, my dudes. I don’t mean to be mean, but even looking past this section and onto the “About the Game” section, the information is so spare. It’s so…spartan! I understand the necessity for brevity more than most but there are times you want to add some frills, like to the names of your four distinct weapon types. Maybe don’t call them “Sword, Bow, Dagger, Katana”. Naturally, you can’t judge a game by its marketing department – but they do hint at something being a little off.
The Grimoire Reliquary 
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