Review friv game of Aeon Must Die! - Roll up the recalcitrant in the asphalt
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Despite all the litigation that fell to the lot of the Estonian team Friv2Online, the friv game was still released under the Focus Entertainment publishing house. The negative background in the information field, due to which the project is subjected to severe criticism, did not affect the final quality of the product - Aeon Must Die! emits retro vibes that make you want to throw your smartphone out the window and sit all night with soda and chips on the floor in front of the TV.
World of Aeon Must Die! furnished in a sci-fi raypunk setting. The super-race of symbionts-nihilians has been making an aggressive campaign through the inhabited worlds for centuries and inhabiting the bodies of their inhabitants, led by a certain Doctrine of the Void. When Emperor Ivory's right hand offered starborn as hosts, Aeon deemed them unworthy, the final straw in a long-brewing conflict, followed by a duel and the overthrow of Aeon from the throne of the self-proclaimed ruler of the universe.
The general turned out to be right, the body of Eon could not stand the fight with the star-born shell of Ivory. Betrayed and broken, he fell into the abyss and connected with the player's avatar, dying at the bottom of the pit. But to the horror of Eon and his bearer, a full-fledged symbiosis did not happen - the emperor transformed the body, endowed it with the power of flame, but could not take possession of it, remaining only a voice in the head of our hero.
Both characters come to understand that it is impossible to survive without each other in the conditions of the revolution - the world of starborn has changed with the advent of nihilium, the overthrow of the emperor has untied the hands (and other limbs) of the followers. Eon convinces the wearer to help him take revenge on Ivory, promising to give him all the powers that are subject to him, and the wearer agrees, not least because Ivory has taken possession of the body of Nebula dear to him - the strongest of the starborn.
Reluctantly teaming up, you set off on a flying bike for an incredible neon trip with high-quality synthwave in the background and visual stylization of comics in the foreground. The plot will gradually reveal the features of the universe, shed light on the ideals of generals and factions, and you will have your own dialogue with the arrogant Eon, gradually imbued with each other's motives.
In Aeon Must Die! will have to fight. Fighting is the basis of the gameplay, albeit heavily diluted with stylish cut-scenes in the best traditions of the genre. Meanwhile, there are no traditional jumps, crouches or blocks, the combinations are simple and easy to remember, and attacking moves are based on alternating normal and fire attacks that will heat up or cool down the wearer as they are used.
Even dodge and parry skills come at a cost in the temperature management system, which replaces the hero's life bar. If your character is completely cold, he will weaken, and the only missed hit will be fatal for him. It is similar with ignition, with the only difference being that overheating will allow you to spam with the strongest fire techniques without fear of overcooling.
Aeon's opponents also revolve around this atypical mechanic - the art design of Aeon Must Die! built around color identification of enemy types and their attacks. The red ones will seek to rekindle your flame, the blue ones will try to put it out, the green ones will push you to the nearest of the rapids. Purple illumination will warn you of an upcoming unblockable attack, while yellow illumination will alert you to the enemy's readiness to repel yours.
To be honest, getting used to this is quite difficult. Largely due to the glut of backdrops with similar colors and not always clearly readable animations of opponents. No, the animations themselves are great in the friv game: the 2D models and graphical effects look and move great, but the colors are sometimes confusing. Especially when there are many opponents.
You almost never fight one-on-one, and even though the opponents do not rush at you in a bunch like in Beat 'em up games, they cluster in anticipation of their turn on one of the four corners of the arena, initiating some kind of attack from time to time. It can be prevented by capturing and then throwing the enemy into a specific corner (which will entail a change in the enemy, and the knocked out one, if he has health left, will be sent to rest).
Opponents can build barriers that narrow the already tight battle corridor, various modifiers (like cold rain or fire) affect your already unstable temperature, but you will also have a trump card in the person of a reasonable Geruda bike, which you can call for help in battle.
Having found special modules during the campaign or completing side tasks, players modify Geruda, gaining additional (and not always successful) key combinations to activate it. Despite the attractiveness of the combat system, this feature was implemented quite badly. For example, in order to make the bike rush along the support row, you will have to give up the main cooling attack button for a few precious seconds (hold it down and accumulate power), which seems to me completely impossible in the face of constantly growing enemy aggression.
One of the selling features of Aeon Must Die! became the progression of the enemy. Each story match entails an increase in cohesion, tactics and retribution of opponents: the higher the cohesion, the more often rivals from different factions (there are three of them in the game) help each other in battle; the higher the tactics, the more skills your opponents use; and as retribution increases, the AI learns countermeasures for your favorite moves, learns to avoid and parry them.
However, the player also becomes stronger. Willpower points are given as a reward for completing missions, and bonus points for a high rating. We spend them in the tree, acquiring new tricks for the skill list, and all newly acquired skills can be honed in the practice section in combat with a dummy.
After receiving a fatal blow, a resurrection follows, for which you pay Aeon with one point of will. With the loss of all nine, your will will be completely crushed by the emperor. He will get the body, and you will lose the game. But at least here Limestone decided to do without hardcore. Not only are echoes created at certain story stages (read checkpoints), you can try to regain your will by overtaking and defeating the enemy who defeated you.
Ordinary opponents will have to be looked for in the breaks between chapters, and some of them, especially arrogant ones, will not even run away. The game will assign a name to each victor and give some kind of boost, and you will be provided with a spectacular scene of a meeting with an old enemy.
To be honest, I'm a sophisticated person. When the friv game's opening scenes evoke the mood I felt decades ago when I first launched Contra: Hard Corps or Comix Zone, the title screen, lovingly stylized, sounds a fit synth (and the plot leitmotif is an electronic cover of "Polyushko-Field"), for me the game is already partly played out.
Aeon Must Die! beautifully combed and implemented in accordance with the principle of easy to learn - hard to master. And even if some individual elements (for my taste) are not well thought out in it, and the complexity sometimes goes off scale for some unthinkable values, the complex feelings from the storyline, design and combat system as a whole overlap the negative experience.
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