Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone

Whatever the target market, it is not at all easy to debut with an excellent product; yet that's exactly what the guys from 10Birds did, two and a half years ago, with Ire: Blood Memory. A little Dark Souls, a little Monster Hunter, the debut title of the South Korean studio showed that it is now possible to offer this type of experiences also on mobile, where they are clearly supported by an adequate touch control system and the thickness that you would expect from games like that. Well, with Animus - Stand Alone this talented development team has taken another important step forward, abandoning the survival mechanics in favor of a hardcore action RPG approach and carrying out a substantial revision of the controls and the combat system.



Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone

The result is in fact a spiritual sequel, let's say, of their previous project, which repeatedly reuses the excellent assets created at the time (mainly the rich bestiary of the enemies), aiming, however, at a premium model and therefore at an experience that is not is in any way fragmentary, allowing us to start over from the last checkpoint, after yet another game over, without having to use virtual or valuable currency. In the game we wear the heavy armor of Morgan "the pilgrim", an extraordinary warrior who finds himself trapped inside a wasteland and inhospitable., full of terrible pitfalls to which we will have to try to survive, in the perspective of a campaign consisting of several chapters and extra missions.

With 3 you can buy the content you love on the Google Play Store with phone credit

For 3 customers using an Android device, having games, apps, music and much more is even easier and more fun. On the Google Play Store, in fact, it is possible to obtain the contents by paying for them with the residual credit of your SIM or through your postpaid telephone account. To do this, simply choose "Debit on account 3" or "Activate Billing 3" as the payment method for your Google account. This configuration can also be done just before purchasing any content, by accessing the menu next to the price of the content you are about to purchase to change the payment method. For more details and to discover the active promotions, you can visit this link.



Alone in the immense emptiness

A short tutorial introduces us to the controls of Animus - Stand Alone, as mentioned a streamlined version of what we have seen in Ire: Blood Memory. The biggest buttons are those of the two main attacks, with the first one on the left performing a devastating special which can be done once the rage gauge is fully loaded. In the upper row we find the healing potion (we will have three available for each mission), the shield and the lateral discard, the latter maneuver absolutely fundamental to escape from blows that can inflict considerable damage on us, or in some cases even kill us instantly. .

Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone

At the top, finally, there is the lock-on button, which allows you to focus on an opponent and possibly move on to the next target, trying in this way to manage situations in which you are outnumbered. The system works surprisingly well, with a set of priority inputs (see the one for dodging) that do not oblige in all cases to wait for the end of a movement to be able to get away. The only limitation of this setting, if we really want, is the lack of an option that allows you to enlarge or reposition the icons, in order to enhance the lateral difference with respect to the parade, which unfortunately turns out to be ineffective as soon as you collect more than two hits in combo. The game also supports MFi controllers, although this feature seems in need of some refinement in terms of responsiveness and customization for the moment.



Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone

The black warrior

The missions of Animus - Stand Alone are set up as short excursions within fairly repetitive scenarios, which therefore cannot boast a great variety but act as simple backgrounds for battles. Generally you have to face low-ranking enemies, albeit equally dangerous, and then get to challenging boss fights to be repeated over and over again, until we have memorized the numerous attack patterns of the enemy and devised the necessary countermeasures. Between one stage and another we will be able to manage the loot and the coins collected to improve our equipment, sell or disassemble weapons and armor that we consider useless, but also spend the unlocked experience points to enhance certain characteristics of the protagonist: health, stamina , the duration of the dodge, the eventual recovery.

Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone

From this point of view, the experience developed by 10Bird appears decidedly mature: not only the skill tree is convincing, but the equipment changes the aesthetics of the character and using different weapons results in unique approaches to gameplay. To give an example, the combination of sword and shield offers a decidedly different feeling compared to the thundering double claw: interesting and precious facets, which contribute to building a basic solidity able to surprise especially those who would not expect depth from a mobile game. such.


Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone

Wonderful creatures

Although the Animus - Stand Alone bestiary is largely recycled from what was seen in Ire: Blood Memory, there is no doubt that the developers have done an amazing job on the design of the protagonist and his beautiful armor, as well as for the many different enemies and bosses that we will have to face during the campaign. To balance the details of the polygonal models with the need for a frame rate of sixty frames per second, we have chosen to take care of the scenarios less, equipping them with very few interactable elements and trying to exploit the bloom to enhance certain landscapes.


Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone

In the end, this is an excellent compromise, and although some users complain of excessive battery consumption, on the iPhone 7 we have not encountered particular problems, or at least nothing incredible compared to mobile games with a certain level of graphics. In addition to the visual impact, the 10Birds guys also took care of the sound sector: the effects of the weapons, the grotesque moans of some enemies and above all the epic music contribute to create a great atmosphere. Too bad only for the balance of the difficulty, which seems to suggest at some point the need to carry out some grinding: this leads us to think that some microtransactions have been inserted to further monetize, in spite of a sale price so justified but definitely higher than average on the App Store.

Comment

Tested version iPhone (1.0.4) Digital Delivery App Store Price 8,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

9.0

Readers (3)

8.8

Your vote

Animus - Stand Alone succeeds in the not simple task of offering an excellent hardcore action RPG experience for iOS devices. A mobile Dark Souls, if you want, characterized by a deep and multifaceted combat system, in which the equipment, the skills but above all the familiarity with the opponents and their attack patterns make the difference, allowing us to win really challenging duels and engaging. At a certain point the balance of the difficulty makes it necessary to repeat some missions in order to have some chance against the toughest bosses, and this creates some perplexity given the presence of even small microtransactions, but this aspect fortunately does not affect the extraordinary quality of production. license plate 10Birds.

PRO

  • A true Souls for iOS
  • Excellent control system
  • Great graphics and sound ...
AGAINST
  • ... shame about the lack of variety of scenarios
  • At some point it takes a bit of grinding
add a comment of Dark Souls - Animus Review - Stand Alone
Comment sent successfully! We will review it in the next few hours.