Usually, I’m a little skeptical when I see the phrase ‘Triple-A Indie Game’ but Ilios: Betrayal of the gods certainly fits the bill. It is a very interesting Kickstarter for multiple reasons, not least it’s €90k goal.
The game is inspired by the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer but with a Steampunk twist. That idea alone was enough to make me give this Kickstarter a second glance. I wasn’t too surprised to see Castlevania and Bayonetta cited as inspirations. One look at the enemy designs had me thinking of the angels in Bayonetta.
Ilios is clearly a narrative-driven adventure, and is blending quite a few genres together. It’s an action adventure/platformer/beat’em up, which is quite a lot of genres to be dipping into. The game is 2D and is created with frame by frame animation that really does look stunning. The steampunk artwork running through the historical Greek backdrop isn’t out of place and certainly adds some intrigue.
Your character is a prince during The Sack of Troy. He is fatally wounded and his sisters are kidnapped. In a moment of desperation, he reaches out to the god of the sea and is bestowed divine powers to help him slay gods and get his sisters back. The historical element adds some great depth to Ilios and the whole concept just makes me go ‘wow’.
The game still hasn’t been Greenlit and funding is currently sitting at €25k with 22 days to go. It might be a little tight, but there’s still a chance they will meet their goal. I think one small deterrent is that the rewards start at €5 (wallpapers) and go to €20 (with an Early Bird option of €15) and since it is in Euro that is a bit more expensive. Ilios has quite a high Kickstarter goal and it’s too early for me to be predicting it to fail, but it’ll need a large burst of backers to reach €90K. Fortunately, I think this game has wide appeal, so maybe if it is introduced to the right group it will take off.
What do you think of the game? Personally, I’m enthralled with the concept, but I’m not a huge fan of Beat’em up style games.
