Aztech Forgotten Gods is developed by the Mexican team over at Lienzo. Right off the bat it was apparent that the concept of this game was something very thought through and means a lot to them. The idea is what if North America was never conquered by the Europeans and was able to grow and thrive, not just to present day, but into the future. The Aztec empire has flourished to become a very advanced civilization, especially with technology. The world and esthetic Lienzo pulls off is a cool mix of authentic Aztec stone designs with something to the likes of Tron. A perfect term Lienzo described it to be is “Cyberstone.”
You play as Achtli, a young woman with a prosthetic arm who has joined her mother on an archeological dig. After an incident, Achtli finds her prosthetic arm to be replaced with a large stone arm artifact. She also deals with a new voice in her head telling her the secrets of the forgotten gods and an impending doom that will come to her city. Thus begins your journey to fly around your city, beating up giant monster bosses and learning more about the overall world and Achtli as a character.
The game is actually fairly well written and I think Achtli is a pretty awesome character, but, unfortunately, Aztech Forgotten Gods gets really boggled down by a lot of fundamental issues that stop it from being just an okay game, to something super special. As I said, the game is pretty well written, but we get all of it through text only. It’s apparent immediately that the game suffers from constant word boxes rather than actual conversations. It only took a single minute to get tired of the animations and sounds playing during the conversations. The characters are limited to a single repeating gesture and resort to only making “uh” “mhm” “ugh” and other groaning type sounds. They clearly had voice actors making these sounds, making them actually read the text to really show off the personality of these characters that’s written would go such a long way.
Like many indie games, the graphics take a bit of a back seat, but where a lot of them use this as an opportunity for a more creative artistic approach, others just decide not to make it a priority. “Aztech” really looks like a genuine Playstation 2 game, something like one of Naughty Dog’s “Jak & Daxter” games (which funny enough actually had voiced dialogue). Hard to say if that was the look they were going for, but for me, it really made the game kind of ugly to look at. Which is a huge shame, because the design of the characters and city is very cool and there was a lot of cool thought put into a futuristic Aztec city. If a sequel were to ever happen, I hope they opt for a cleaner and more polished look.
What I do love about this game is the flying! Soaring around the city is really fun and surprisingly intuitive. There is also a meter on your flying so it forces you to be more attentive on where you should fly and when you need to land. Sadly, this is where my compliments pretty much end. The biggest issue by a mile, is the camera itself. While you do have control over it, more times than not it feels like it has a mind of its own. Achtli often disappears from your point of view and for a third person action game that’s a huge problem. It makes everything else in the game that much more frustrating, especially when fighting the giant bosses. Thus, really hindering almost all gameplay elements and just making this an overall not-so-fun experience. I had high hopes for this one, but couldn’t overcome its rough obstacles, which is a huge shame when seeing so much potential everywhere.
6.5/10
For more information, please visit: https://www.playaztech.com/
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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