Achilles: Survivor is a fantastic addition to the bullet heaven genre

Achilles: Survivor isn't a particularly original game, but it's so well-rounded, thoughtful, and fun, that it doesn't matter. It proves the old adage: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Story & gameplay

Achilles: Survivor is a bullet heaven game, which means it is the inverse of a bullet hell. If neither of those terms are familiar, don't worry, there's no homework involved.

A bullet hell is a game where a single can hit can – and often will – kill you. You have to balance constant dodging with finely timed attacks which you control yourself. A bullet heaven, by comparison, is more of a power fantasy. Your powers grow exponentially, a single hit won't kill you, and your attacks are automatic, leaving you to strategize movements and enemy patterns.

It takes a moment to get used to, but if you're already familiar with titles like Vampire Survivors, which remains the definitive example of the genre, you'll soon figure out the basics. From there, it's all about grinding and getting better.

Luckily, the grind itself doesn't feel like a chore. Achilles: Survivor is balanced so well that even repetition feels rewarding and fun. At its best, there's a sense of constant progression that is epic in scope. After all, you've just mowed down thousands from the hordes of hell – what's a few hundred more?

There isn't a particular story to speak of, though it's clear the game designers have a soft spot for Wolfgang Petersen's mid-2000s epic, Troy, from which Achilles: Survivor cribs liberally. There are humorous additions in the character roster as well, including the chance to play as a literal chicken, which is reminiscent of the carefree attitudes of old-school titles from thirty years ago.

Most of the gameplay loop repeats around choosing a hero and a level from epic battle arenas of ancient mythology, and finding out ways to defeat enemies with increasingly absurd powers. The more enemies you kill, mines you build, and souls you gather, the more powerful you become. On paper, it sounds so simple that it might appear superficial, yet Achilles: Survivor never feels trite.

Instead, there's a joy in discovering how different powers work together. For autistic gamers like myself, it's immensely pleasurable to min/max your character traits and simply watch as the masses wash upon your blades in torrents of blood. Is it big or clever? Absolutely not. But it is fun with a capital F.

In fact, the act itself is so captivating, that when I sat down for my first session, I ended up playing for nearly four straight hours. I didn't mean to, it just happened. I lost track of time. Each match is around 20 minutes in length, yet the call for one more round is so enticing that Achilles: Survivor can easily rob you of an afternoon in the blink of an eye.

Technical aspects

This is an indie game, so it comes with certain caveats. It's just as pretty as need be, so don't go expecting incredible visual feats. That said, Achilles: Survivor looks lovely, and the enemies are – for the most part – easy to tell apart. The bigger they are, however, the harder it becomes to tell where their hitboxes begin and end. It's a frustration, even if a minor one, but a frustration nonetheless. Sometimes it's also difficult to tell where your character is in the madness, especially as effects can grow into a particularly large mess of sprites and flares.

At the same time, I was happily surprised how well Achilles: Survivor ran, even when there were hundreds of enemies on the screen at once. Vampire Survivors, with its simple 8-bit graphics, struggles at times when things get particularly hectic, and while Achilles: Survivor did have the occasional stutter, I expected a lot more considering how much more demanding the visuals turned out to be.

The soundtrack and sound effects aren't particularly memorable, yet they do their job fine. For me, I found myself playing my own music or podcasts in the background, allowing Achilles: Survivor to turn into a winding down experience, where I could mellow out from overstimulation during the day. How something as chaotic as this works as form of meditation I will never know, but that's just how my brain works.

Accessibility

Sadly, as with all indie games, Achilles: Survivor has nothing in terms of accessibility. What you see is what you get, and if you have worse cognitive disabilities than I do, you're not going to have a good time. Even though Achilles: Survivor can technically be controlled with one hand, its visual output and mechanics aren't fit for anyone who can't parse certain colors or constant flickering on the screen.

It's not possible for indie studios to cater to everyone, but it would be nice if there would even be an option to switch between color palettes or highlight your character in a way that made the gameplay a tad more hospitable.

Verdict

In an already gargantuan offering of bullet heaven titles, Achilles: Survivor stands out as a stellar example of how far great design can take you. It is a expertly crafted, highly addictive, and always compelling action title that you can pick up and play without a care.

It won't change the way we look at the genre, but it doesn't need to, either. Instead, like the film it so strongly emulates, Achilles: Survivor is more than enough by being a quality title that is more than worth the asking price.