Elta: Defy All Gods Preview
Look, I don’t care how “good” a game might (supposedly) be; you have to vibe with it in order to enjoy the experience. We’ve all played games with atrocious Metacritic scores, only to put down the controller wondering what the fuss was all about. Something about a game has to hook you. If the hook is strong enough, you can overlook some flaws. That brings me to Elta: Defy All Gods.
To be clear, I’m not saying Elta: Defy All Gods has flaws that need to be ignored. I’ve only played the tutorial and a prologue, essentially a curated hour-long preview of a 15-hour game. So, big picture, Elta: Defy All Gods might have big problems. But what I played left me impressed and excited. There were a couple of strong hooks, too.
Finding a Path
Elta: Defy All Gods is an action RPG inside the trappings of a 3D metroidvania. You play as Victus, an agile and elite warrior, sent to track down a deity and help free humanity from subservience. Your ally is the titular Elta. A god essentially stripped of their power, Elta takes the form of a diminutive dragon. As Elta regains their power, Victus becomes more capable and powerful.
At first, Elta: Defy All Gods might be mistaken for a standard action RPG/Soulslike. As the tutorial progresses, it becomes clearer that the game balances exploration and movement with combat. With Elta’s assistance, Victus has a deep and growing set of moves like jumps, air dashes, a grappling hook, and many more. The environment is a multi-level playground. In true Metroidvania fashion, it’s filled with environmental puzzles, shortcuts and secrets and Victus will find himself revisiting newly unlocked portions of old areas.
Generally speaking, movement already feels well-tuned and very satisfying, even for platforming-challenged gamers such as myself. Sure, there were a few places where movement felt a little imprecise or floaty, but generally I loved getting around in the world. However, the 3D map left a lot to be desired when it came to clarity, and sometimes the objective marker struggled to be understood.
Time to Fight
Elta: Defy All Gods is a combo-based brawler at heart. Neither Victus or Elta carries an arsenal of weapons. Victus uses the usual repertoire of light and heavy attacks, dodges and perfect dodges and some special attacks powered up during combat. From the very first punch, I was impressed. You might even say hooked. Sending enemies flying off of high ice ledges was always a good time. Combat effects and audio were effective as well.
I assume that over the course of the game, Elta: Defy All Gods’s combat evolves. What’s in place is great, but a little simplistic. Likewise, there were only a handful of enemy types in the preview.
Pick up a Paintbrush
One aspect of Elta: Defy All Gods that I really appreciate is its art direction. The graphics have a painterly, graphic-novel quality, where you can see the brushstrokes. In some ways, the art style feels like a cousin to The First Berserker: Khazan. Both in Victus’ massive armor and in the environments, the art helps the game stand out from so many in the ARPG genre. Elta the mini-dragon, is a large-eyed caricature, but I’m curious to see their development as the game progresses.
Elta: Defy All Gods kind of came out of nowhere for me, but what I’ve seen and played so far is encouraging. Movement and combat are already quite polished, and the metroidvania-designed world is interesting to explore. It’s nice to play an action game that doesn’t try to be the next big soulslike, roguelike or any other-like. I’m crossing my fingers that the entire experience lives up to the opening hour.
***PC code provided by the publisher for preview***
