For the past few days, I’ve been able to play Okhlos, the latest Devolver Digital published indie game from developer Coffee Powered Machine.
Okhlos could be described as a RTS, with a little less strategy, and way more blind rage. You play as a nameless Greek philosopher that has been wronged by the gods for the last time. You raise a group of angry citizens, and send their rage out on the world. The mob is controlled with the mouse pointer; left-click to attack, and right click to block. As the philosopher leading the mob, your job is to recruit folks to join your cause, and choose the targets for your mob to wreck havoc on.
Each level is split up into randomized areas where you will have to kill a certain amount of enemies before a gate opens and the player can move to the next area. The enemies come straight from ancient Greek lore, like soldiers from the movie “300” (many references to that movie in this game), to centaurs, giants, and many more. The angry mob follows a banner, and when enemies are in reach, you unleash the mob’s furry. After each area, you can spend units to gain powers, and also gain heroes, like Oedipus.
I really dig the look of the game. The characters are 2D sprites, and all the houses and objects are polygonal with pixel textures. The game looks like a PC game from the mid-’90s. It is backed by a really cool soundtrack. I can’t comment on if it is authentic ancient Greek music since I’m not familiar with any ancient Greek music. But the music is a driving, electronic beat that fits the action well.
So far I think the game is pretty fun, but I could see it becoming a bit shallow. In later stages of the game, the mob grows from its initial size of 25, which helps keep the game fresh. It is a quirky game that is made enjoyable by taking down large hordes of enemies, and the gods.
If you want to see the game in action, check out the first 25 minutes of the game below! Okhlos is going to release later August 18th for PC.
