Send me an angel
The original Aggelos was a pleasant surprise when it came out. The mix of Metroidvania with the aesthetic of Wonder Boy was a solid combination, and the combat was a blast. So, when a sequel was announced I was hoping for a larger adventure with expansion on the original’s ideas. Aggelos 2 mostly delivers on that idea with a few minor hindrances that keep it from feeling like a proper sequel. Still, if you enjoy these types of games, it brings enough to make it worth checking out.
The sequel takes place hundreds of years after the events of the original and you play as Aggelos, an angelic warrior who is tasked with stopping evil from taking over the world. Sound familiar? The hook for the second game is that eventually you gain access to a demon form as well as a whole second world, similar to the light and dark world in Link to the Past. This adds new enemies, new challenges, and a new play style. The plot is mostly here to move the game along and never felt like a necessity.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: XBOX, PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
The game play here is pretty standard fare for the genre. It kicks off with Aggelos having very few abilities, but the game starts dealing them out post haste. I appreciate this as things get going rather quickly. Within a few minutes you already have a more powerful attack as well as the ability to glide through the air with your wings. More are dispersed as the game progresses, and once you unlock the second map, a whole new set of abilities appear. The game does a great job of constantly offering up something new for the player.
Combat is familiar and like everything else opens up plenty of new stuff along the way. Melee combat feels good, and the enemy variety is great. Boss fights are really fun and visually interesting. Each one also comes with a health upgrade. There is also a parry mechanic, which is easy to use. The game offers up variety without ever overwhelming the player, which is a tough line to walk, and they nailed it here.
As mentioned, the game basically has two maps, one for each world. They have their own secrets and bosses to fight. I did prefer the abilities of the angel form as healing is much easier in this mode. There is now a map, which is essential with how large this game is. The main story will take players between 10-15 hours to complete, which isn’t too bad for a game of this type. There are also eggs to collect as well as health upgrades.
The game does have multiple endings, and getting the good one is a lot. There are several things that must be achieved in order to unlock this ending, which can be tedious and confusing. The teleport system is also flawed as I had to unlock the ability to move between certain points, which makes earlier exploration a chore. The dungeons could also use a few more checkpoints, the game feels padded due to this and had me quitting at times because I didn’t want to traverse back through something I had just done.
Visually, the game looks good. It features the same art style of the original game. The biomes are fantastic and varied. I also love the amount of enemy and boss designs; the game is super colorful and great to look at. I loved the diversity between the two worlds, but I was hoping for a little more of a visual upgrade from the original game. It looks and feels a lot like the previous entry. The music is just kind of there and fits the mood, but there wasn’t any theme that I found myself humming after powering down.
Aggelos 2 is a great sequel to a solid game. It suffers from backtracking and not quite upgrading the experience in the presentation department, but the updates and enemy variety kept me coming back. I love the genre, but there are a lot of titles now using that same template and failing regularly. It is great to find one that held my interest, I just wish it had a few more upgrades over the original.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.