Aztech Forgotten Gods [Xbox]

Lienzo’s Aztech Forgotten Gods tells the story of a young woman named Achtli, whose mother discovers a mysterious ancient artifact in the form of a huge metal arm known as ‘Lightkeeper’ that she theorises to be a transporter of energy. After the city of Tenochtitlan comes under threat from the Forgotten Gods, Achtli must utilise this arm and the powers it gives her, in order to protect her city. You start the game as Zuma, the previous wielder of Lightkeeper, during her dealings with the Gods. She then stores Lightkeeper away within a temple in the hopes that if the threat should ever return, she will be able to come back to wield it once more - and if not, then maybe someone deserving of it will - and this is where Achtli comes in.

The controls feel a little bit strange, due to the camera panning in and out when you jump around, combined with how floaty and gravity-defying your jumps are. You can grind on rails, run along walls and you have a boost ability - using your arm similarly to how Iron Man uses his thrusters - that allows you to essentially fly around. Jumping around the world feels satisfying, and you can even jump on the flying vehicles moving around and catch a ride! The movement is one of the most enjoyable elements of the game, as whilst it does take a little bit to get used to, it feels great once you’ve got the hang of it. Coming back down to the ground at an angle allows you to do an awesome slide that is a lot of fun to do, and you can even drop down to the ground in a typical superhero pose, and these all add a little bit of flair.

The visuals are a bit hit and miss, with nicely detailed environments that sadly feel quite empty; and interesting character designs, but with frequent clipping of hair through bodies, and awkward looking facial movements during dialogue (something that feels pretty unnecessary due to the lack of actual voice acting). There’s a lot of dialogue, so all the mouth animations whilst speaking just revert to some strange flapping of their gums, with sadly no voice acting alongside it - which would have made a huge difference. The soundtrack evolves from peaceful tunes to rock-heavy tracks during combat, which keeps things feeling fresh and exciting.

You can find and take part in Fight Challenges dotted around the map, and these result in a bit of button-mashing and slight quick time events, though it feels like these are a little sloppy. The combat is sadly the weaker point of the gameplay, which is a shame really as it could have been something special. The enemies, both the small and the giant celestial beings you’ll come across, have cool and unusual designs - which were really interesting to see, despite not being all that much fun to battle.

You can access Memories from the menu once collected, and these can be found throughout the world, off the beaten path. There are customisation options for you to purchase using the currency you collect, and these allow you to personalise Achtli with different hair styles and costumes (with some looking far better than the base look, and clipping through her body less, too). There’s also a Photo Mode available, which is fun to play around with - though the clipping of costumes and hair gets in the way of this a bit, often ruining an otherwise great shot.

Overall, Aztech Forgotten Gods is a decent time, though it does feel a little lacking in some places. Available for £24.99 on Xbox, it feels a little expensive for the few short hours you’ll spend with it - and there’s not much to encourage a lot of replayability. We did really enjoy our time with Aztech, but would probably suggest waiting to pick it up during a sale if you can.

In the end, we decided to give Aztech Forgotten Gods the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.

Are you interested in Aztech Forgotten Gods? What do you think of it?
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- V x

Thank you to Lienzo for the Aztech Forgotten Gods Xbox review code!