[Review] Aztech Forgotten Gods - Nintendo Switch

Developed and Published By: Lienzo
Categories: Action
Release Date: 03.10.22

Aztech Forgotten Gods has you in control of a giant mechanical arm. Well, off he bad I am already sold. Lets just see if this holds up.

In this over the shoulder action game, you play as the young Achtli, daughter of a brilliant researcher. Her mother’s latest study is forced to stop, but late at night, she sneaks in to do a little more work…and you follow. After doing something you really shouldn’t be doing, and seeing some visions, you start hearing this voice. Of an ancient god. It doesn’t stop there either, you even see ancient Forgotten Gods. And you’ll need to stop them.

The arm I mentioned? This is where all of the game’s big mechanics come from. It punches! Ok, it doesn’t just punch, but it even gets you from place to place, and fast at that. This is more or less from your arm thrusting you in a direction, whether it be levitating up, or back and forth. When you use it, it can be a little unwieldy, but I can imagine that’s really how things would go if this was actually the case. Of course, you can just walk everywhere, but this is quite the vertical game, so you’re going to want to use the arm.

Combat leaves…much to be desired. It’s really just using one button and just mashing it seems to do the job. I think there’s a timing system for specific moves, but I couldn’t really notice any differences. Punching hard feels good at the very least.

The game’s camera is something that most, if not all of my big issues come with. It makes everything feel far, far too claustrophobic. It does really make flying around feel more spectacular, but if you need to do anything precise or fast, it’s just not going to work. For instance, the first real boss has a move that requires you to fly into specific holes to not get damaged. The camera is just far too close to make this work. I don’t think a close camera in an action game is a bad thing. God of War 2018 did it fine, but that was also more of a slow paced game. Aztech Forgotten Gods is a much faster paced game and that camera just does not work for what the game asks.

I shouldn’t knock a game down, especially an indie game for how it’s graphics are, but Aztech looks really poor for a Switch game from 2022. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the art design itself. The characters, the environments, the enemies and those gods. Perfect. The world and this industry needs more South American and Native influence. The graphics themselves however are a poor showing, almost seeming like a budget PS2 game. This wouldn’t be an issue if the game ran smooth, but I saw many a framerate drop or stutter, especially when flying. I suppose this is a good moment to say that the music is pretty good too. The game presents itself pretty damn well, but is just held down by poor optimization.

Aztech Forgotten Gods feels too much like the devs got a bit over ambitious. At least with the budget the game seems to have. It doesn’t look or run very good, but you can tell they’re trying something. I like how the combat feels, but anything more than a small enemy is an ordeal because of the camera, so I’d love it if they zoom it out just a tad. Enough to make your field of vision better, especially in boss fights. If the devs can do this, I feel I’d have a much higher opinion of the game, because the core, and even the replay value of having skill trees and challenges is up my alley.