Funny, tough and surprisingly good: Rimlight Studios’ debut game Zheros is the first unmissable indie game of the year and one of the best beat ‘em up we’ve played in the recent years. A must-have if you grew up playing Double Dragon, Street of Rage and Final Fight.
A good debut for this young software house. Even with their limited budget, they were able to create a fun beat em up, with a convincing combat system. A bland level design and a repetitive structure are the problems that keep this game on the ground.
ZHEROS is a good game if you just want a beat 'em up without nothing surprising or particularly original. If you're ok with a simple concept, this will work.
Zheros is without a doubt a good beat 'em up, as its core is a pure '90s beat 'em up experience. It has great 3D environments as well. Unfortunately, it suffers from a few issues. The story is all told in cinematics without a single dialogue. Apart from that, the story is kind of predictable even without dialogues.
ZHEROS is fun to play for a while. Its combo system is entertaining to use, and its graphics look good. However, flaws in its design include frustrating difficulty spikes, some punishing later levels, and occasionally awkward controls, which results in a game that falls short of its potential.
The repetitiveness of levels and enemy encounters, the barebones story, and the constantly frustrating fighting mechanics – the game’s main draw – are all a reminder of how far gaming has come. Rather than build on a foundation set by juggernaut titles like The Simpsons and X-Men, ZHEROS copies their blueprints exactly as they were.
SummaryZHEROS is a 3D beat’em up, set on one goal: pure and fast action. Plenty of fights and an original style will take the player on a fascinating and twisted journey.