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Release Date: 3 February 2015
Platforms: Steam, PS4
Developer: Alientrap
Genres: 2D platformer, action-adventure, Metroidvania
Game Modes: Single-player campaign, local 1v1 multiplayer (online multiplayer coming in a later update)
Price: $15

System Requirements
OS: XP/Vista/Windows 7
Processor: Dual-core processor (Intel Dual Core 2.0 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 5200+ 2.6 GHz)
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Launch Trailer
PS4 Trailer
PS4 Gameplay Trailer
Announcement Trailer

Trophy list - includes a Platinum trophy

​

Apotheon is a 2D platformer action-adventure game set in the world of Greek Mythology.

Zeus and the gods of Mount Olympus have turned their back on humanity. Now, Nikandreos must climb the sacred summit and strip the gods of their powers and bring them to his suffering people.

Apotheon features an eye-catching visual style, inspired by ancient Greek pottery paintings.

Its combat and platforming is freeform and highly technical, focusing on positioning and timing over contextual commands - just like a platformer should be.

​

Game Setting and Structure

Olympus is, as you’re probably aware, the mythical home of the Greek Gods. But in Apotheon, all the Gods have abandoned earth (even the little ones that live in streams, trees, and rocks) and so Olympus has become a pretty crowded place, with Zeus playing host to a lot of displaced divine refugees. Peaceful palaces have turned into bustling marketplaces, squatters have taken up residence in sewers, drunken Satyrs pollute sacred shrines, and armed guards patrol the clouds to keep the peace in the House of Zeus.

Once arriving on the Mountain, you the player can choose to tackle your ascent to the top any way you’d like. There’s a lot to explore, and you’re free to bring the fight to any of the Gods who reside nearby. Crash Apollo’s extravagant party, test your wits against the dangerous forests of Artemis, descend to Hades and back again, or maybe just break into some Agora houses to plunder some shiny Olympian treasure.

Wherever you decide to go first, there’s always a colourful cast of characters to help, hinder, or berate you with full voice acting. We’ve tried to stay as close as possible when it comes to the mythological roots of Apotheon, even employing a Classic Literature Consultant to make sure we don’t screw anything up too badly.

But don’t worry, if you don’t know who or what the Aloadae Otus and Ephialtes are, and why exactly Ares is so mad at them, we’ve got plenty of cool quotations from the ancients themselves to keep you in the loop (the Aloadae were two giant sexy men who kidnapped the god of war and stuffed him into a little bronze jar for an entire year). Greek Mythology is really weird, and we had to prove we didn’t make any of this stuff up.

Combat

The combat in Apotheon draws mainly from our collective background as multiplayer FPS gamers. We were never much for button-mashy or combo based fighters, which I think have a bit of a stranglehold on 2D action games (especially melee focused ones). Instead of giving players a shopping list of moves and combos to memorize, we just give a set of basic actions. You can move, jump, attack, block, roll, and throw. Learned skills like timing, positioning, and reading your opponent’s movements are at the core here.

Once you start figuring out where and when to use each of these base abilities, come up with your own tactics, and how different weapons interact with each other, the sword n’ board warfare of Apotheon really begins to open up. Perfecting a devastating diving attack for more damage. Knocking your enemy over with a low blow to the legs, then following it up with a killing overhead strike while he’s down. Faking out the other guy with a feigned stab, only to block and counterattack when his timing is confused.

Jumping, rolling, and parcouring, untouchable all around the map while showering your foes with exploding arrows. Shooting the chain off a hanging lamp and sending the burning oil to ignite whoever’s unfortunate enough to be standing below. Shield bashing your opponent in the face because he got inside your speartip range with his axe, sending him reeling across the room, then chucking the aforementioned spear into his chest and watching him cartwheel down a flight of stairs in a fountain of artfully-styled gore. It’s all very satisfying, in a classical way.

While the combat is definitely the heart of what makes Apotheon a fighter, the world and contents therein are what make it an adventure. This is the bronze age here, and none of this equipment is all that durable (we tend to treat all our weapons the same way one treats ammo in an FPS, to retread our influences). Swords break, spears snap, and shields shatter. You’ve got a big mountain to climb to take on the Gods of Olympus, and keeping yourself in tip-top fighting condition requires a bit of exploring, looting, shopping, and crafting.

We’ve tried to stay pretty light on the RPG elements, so there’s no stat leveling or ability trees or anything like that, but you will certainly be sneaking into a lot of locked places for treasure chests, crawling through monster riddled caves just to see what’s ahead in the darkness, making potions that summon skeleton warriors, and breaking a lot of pots for coins. I think there’s something very meta about smashing pots, in a game that also looks like it’s painted on one.

Development and Art Style

Back when we first started development in 2012, our original aspirations were much different. Apotheon actually started life as a sci-fi open world game where the player could sneak around a giant space station and cause trouble with lasers and rockets. While trying to flesh out the narrative setting, we starting going in the direction of a sci-fi mythology, with technologically advanced godlike beings pulling the strings behind the curtain. Coming up with a unique mythology was troublesome, so we opted to simply transpose classical Greek mythology into a futuristic setting, with Zeus and friends puppeting hapless mortals from their sub-orbital space colony called Olympus.

After doing some more research into the source material, it seemed interesting enough by itself to not even need the tacked on sci-fi elements. From there it was only a hop skip and a jump to get to the Apotheon you see now.

Most of what we know about these Myths is told through the earthenware of the time. Pottery that sort of acted like story or comic books, depicting famous characters and heroes of popular legends. It made perfect sense that we adopt this artwork for our game, as it and the narratives they tell go hand in hand.

Surprisingly, the art style hasn’t been utilized as much as would be expected, considering the influence of the Myths themselves in popular media. Aside from a few cinematics or flavourful intro sequences, not many games have made use of it at all. The black and red figure art of Greek pottery is almost the perfect art style for a 2D game. It is bold and instantly readable, with heavy use of symbols, ideal for conveying information to the player. It is flat and uses many patterns, perfect for efficient texture tiling for environments and levels. And most importantly, it is linked with some of the most interesting narratives in human history!

Reviews

Destructoid: 9.5/10

The game more than backs up its aesthetic prowess with rewarding combat and exploration systems in place. While the combat hardly changes over the course of the adventure, Apotheon asks the player to apply their knowledge in such a wide variety of ways that it constantly feels fresh and exciting. The ancient Greeks valued balance and harmony in their art, and Alientrap has accomplished just that.

GameInformer: 9/10

Not only is Apotheon a tireless devotion to ancient Greek art and culture, it’s also a damn fun game and one of my surprise early favorites of 2015.

Eurogamer: 8/10

If it played just a little tighter, Apotheon would be brushing up against greatness. As it stands, it's stunning to look at and a pleasure to play, and what flaws it does have can be easily overlooked by anyone looking for something smart and stylish.

IGN: 6.9/10

Unfortunately, a ho-hum story and frustrating controls prevent me from doing the same for its moment-to-moment gameplay. No matter how pretty it is, unless it nails the feeling of movement and smooth combat, an action-platformer can’t be much more than an enjoyable diversion.

Incgamers: 8/10

A combat-heavy, side-scrolling jaunt through the wonderfully unhinged realm of Ancient Greek mythology. Apotheon unites presentation and theme to tremendous effect through its stylised, Grecian pottery worlds.

Gamefocus.ca: 94%

What’s not to love about Apotheon? Its stylistic visual design will render you speechless at times due to its magnificence, and an impressive diverse combat system never leaves you dissatisfied. Alien Trap Games have essentially created a beautified classical canvas for players to create their own experience with the tools provided.

Indie Game Bundles: 8/10

Overall though, I love everything Apotheon has to offer. The endless struggle to find a useable weapon and shield, the crafting of potions capable of amazing feats, and the terrific speed of the running and combat. The entire game feels very fluid, and comes together to form an experience that I’ve never had before and doubt I ever will again.

Softpedia: 4/5

The action feels satisfying, combat is fun, and there are also a few nice surprises when it comes to gameplay, both as far as boss fights are concerned and in the presence of puzzles, particularly in the levels involving Athena, making the whole package even more attractive.

GamersFTW: 8.8/10

Apotheon is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. The beauty of this game mixes well with fast-paced original gameplay to create a truly great game. The game has its negatives but they are greatly outweighed by the positives in the game. Apotheon is a great game that any gamer will enjoy and will have many people coming back for more.

​

 

[Footos22]

Nice OP.

Can't wait for this tomorrow. Love Greek mythology. Love metroidvania type gameplay.

 

[FZW]

in my veins...

 

[alexein]

ready, cant wait to try it.
I love the art style , the greek mythology (thank saint seiya) and free for ps plus, perfect.

 

[brandonh83]

Crazy that this comes out today... and it's a Plus freebie.

 

[JaseC]

Reminder: PC users can buy it from the official website and, in addition to saving 10%, play it now.

 

[ced]

Interested in trying it tonight.

 

[One Foul Note]

Reminder: PC users can buy it from the official website and, in addition to saving 10%, play it now.

Wait what? When I brought it via the humble link on their site and it wasn't letting me play it early (only the free version of Capsized). Perhaps they only let people who brought it before a particular date have early access to the final game.

 

[Xater]

I am confused by the thread title. In what way is this like QWOP?

 

[MMaRsu]

Nice OP. Looking forward to playing this, I love Metroidvania's!

 

[Tevren]

Nice OT. Looking forward to giving this a go when the store updates.

 

[SolidChamp]

This looks like it would have been a great experience on PS Vita.

Wonder why they didn't go that route?

 

[JaseC]

Wait what? When I brought it via the humble link on their site and it wasn't letting me play it early (only the free version of Capsized). Perhaps they only let people who brought it before a particular date have early access to the final game.

Well, I did pre-order it about a year ago, which lead to me to believe that perhaps only the first batch of keys were tied to the beta sub, but at least one person in the previous thread bought a key and was given access to the beta:

The keys via their site are already playable still or were those only for the really early keys?

Edit: NVM saw you said first batch. Dang.

\/​

It may just be the first batch. I pre-ordered about a year ago so I assume I would've been among the first group of people to receive a key.

\/​

Started to play this and I am impressed. It is way more ambitious than I expected. I went in expecting an action platformer with a cool artstyle but it feels more like an action RPG open worldish platformer. And it actually has a really good KBAM control scheme, something I didn't expect.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

I am confused by the thread title. In what way is this like QWOP?

Probably the paper-doll style animation or something. Not the controls, obviously.


Really hoping this game is good. Love the way it looks, like the way it's structured, but I primarily judge 2D games by feel, and generally I don't like sloppy, limp-feeling physics and animation like this game appears to have based on footage. Glad I get to try it out on PS+ in any case!

Also, their quote about how combo systems require memorization doesn't inspire a ton of faith in their combat design, but sometimes something different is a welcome surprise.

 

[theechrisfox]

The trailer kinda reminds me of Outland. I freaking love Outland. I think I'm gonna love this even harder.

 

[WITHE1982]

I am confused by the thread title. In what way is this like QWOP?

To be honest the first time I saw the trailer the character movement immediately reminded me of QWOP. I think it's the look of independent limbs that does it.

 

[Lunar15]

Putting QWOP in the title makes this seem like something completely different. I wasn't really interested until I actually looked at what it was and saw it was basically Greek Metroidvania with a bunch of other cool stuff.

 

[nikos]

Being Greek, I'm obligated to play this. It also looks good, and it's free on PS+, so I'm definitely in.

 

[aeolist]

capsized was fantastic, been waiting on this one for a while

 

[Mikey Jr.]

Shit, forgot to turn my ps4 on.

 

[aeolist]

 

[Enduin]

This looks so good. I didn't realize it was coming out already. Art style is unreal and the gameplay looks really solid as well.

 

[Heart of Black]

I already beat it in August of last year, and will definitely be down to play it again once it releases.

They even tweeted that I was the 1st to beat the beta.

Also this game was in my Giantbomb top games of 2014

 

[Xater]

Putting QWOP in the title makes this seem like something completely different. I wasn't really interested until I actually looked at what it was and saw it was basically Greek Metroidvania with a bunch of other cool stuff.

Yeah I think it makes a very weird first impression. If I knew nothing about it I would think it's an action game with QWOP mechanics.

 

[JaseC]

I think a better idea would have been to riff on Jaffe's comment of God of War 3 looking like "a painting come to life" considering the obvious influence ancient Greek art had on the visual style.

 

[eFKac]

Very excited to finally get my hands on this tomorrow!

 

[ryseing]

I am super excited for this.

Based Plus.

 

[Gaz_RB]

Refreshing the PS Store impatiently...

 

[Sinatar]

Terrible title.

QWOP? Really? Way to turn everyone away at the gates.

 

[hew9753]

I've been looking forward to this. I hope the combat is solid.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

Given how little buzz the game apparently had (I saw maybe a 2 page thread pre-release) and that this thread doesn't seem to be very popular, I agree that removing the QWOP joke might be smart.

 

[Fushichou187]

Holy shit at some of the meltdowns re: the OT title. jeeezus.

It's a new game for the PS4. It comes with your PS+ sub. So if you have both of those things and you haven't been following any of the information about it since E3 last year, then watch a gameplay trailer or two and decide if it's worth your time. Acting like the title of the OT is sacred is the most GAF-ass GAF thing I've heard all day.


anyways, thanks for the OT! I just finished up DA:I the other day and have been playing through some other games in my backlog that I had been neglecting but will surely give this a go when I get home this evening. I'm a sucker for unique art styles and platformers that offer a healthy dose of exploration will always have a place in my rotation.

 

[Freakinchair]

I clicked on this thread expecting some stupid freeware QWOP variant and what I see is a game that I will probably buy as soon as I can. Title almost made me miss this.

 

[thesaucetastic]

Yeah the title really doesn't help. I thought it meant the game turned out to be janky, which disappointed me.

 

[chubigans]

Yeah I expected to ignore this game based on the OP title alone. Really glad it's not like that.

 

[Tucah]

Game looks rad, can't wait to give it a shot later whenever it pops up on PSN. Pretty bad OT title though.

 

[mauaus]

Day ONE dont agree with the QWOP reference, might drive people away :S

 

[Fushichou187]

Day ONE dont agree with the QWOP reference, might drive people away :S

Those that can't be bothered to summon even a modicum of effort to sort out what the game is on their own but are instead wholly swayed by a title that is less than half a tweet in length don't deserve to play it anyway.

 

[Vasilisk 2038]

Interesting game, and amazing artwork, I can't wait to try it!

 

[Enduin]

We need some more gifs/webms, these are all I could find for now.

 

[Skilletor]

I don't know what QWOP means, but I've been interested in this since I saw a video some time ago. Would have bought it full price, so glad I'm getting it on PS+.

 

[mauaus]

Those that can't be bothered to summon even a modicum of effort to sort out what the game is on their own but are instead wholly swayed by a title that is less than half a tweet in length don't deserve to play it anyway.

Guess you are right but its still doing the game a disservice

Edit: QWOP for reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJeJtK7Q2kk

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

Those that can't be bothered to summon even a modicum of effort to sort out what the game is on their own but are instead wholly swayed by a title that is less than half a tweet in length don't deserve to play it anyway.

People use titles all the time to determine whether they are interested in a thread. This is a completely reasonable thing to do on a forum.

Taken to it's logical conclusion, your position suggests that every GAFfer should personally look up every game they see mentioned here. That's not feasible. In fact, the whole point of a forum like this is to crowdsource information, condense it, and filter it.

There are basic standards for a thread title. One of those standards is accuracy.

 

[Skilletor]

People use titles all the time to determine whether they are interested in a thread. This is a completely reasonable thing to do on a forum.

Taken to it's logical conclusion, your position suggests that every GAFfer should personally look up every game they see mentioned here. That's not feasible. In fact, the whole point of a forum like this is to crowdsource information, condense it, and filter it.

There are basic standards for a thread title. One of those standards is accuracy.

Truthfact. If a title mentions a game is an FPS, I'm not going to click on it. I couldn't care less about an FPS. Or if somebody doesn't care about JRPGs, they're probably going to avoid threads about them.

 

[mauaus]

on another note, man the game looks sexy, those gifs have me hitting F5 on the PSN web store

 

[Surge]

Definitely going to try this out later.

How is the game on Olympian difficulty?

 

[Dog Problems]

Terrible title.

QWOP? Really? Way to turn everyone away at the gates.

Haha, if I hadn't already known what this is that would have made me ignore the OT.

 

[frontovik]

Looks phenomenal. I've always had a fascination with Ancient Greek history and mythology! I'll definitely pick up a copy.

 

[UnlovedJew]

Hope this game turns out to be a nice surprise. I love me some 2D platformers and that art style is rad.

 

[super-famicom]

Yeah I think it makes a very weird first impression. If I knew nothing about it I would think it's an action game with QWOP mechanics.

I watched the trailer for this yesterday, so when I saw QWOP in the title, I immediately thought "What? The controls are like QWOP?!"