Abyss Odyssey (PlayStation 3) Review

The concept of Abyss Odyssey is simple enough; players will descend through the abyss, fighting enemies and bosses, gaining experience to level up, collecting loot, and purchasing items and upgrades to power up their characters. The game does tend to feel a bit clunky, with a slight delay to the controls which makes the platforming sections not as enjoyable as they could be. Combat is easy to get into, with the Square button being primarily used for standard attacks, and the Triangle button being used for special moves. These moves can be linked together to cause more damage, with upgrades being able to extend the combos even further. With the ability to change the direction of standard attacks, cancel attacks with a dodge to continue a combo, and throw enemies if they are blocking too much, there's a good amount of variation that makes battles fresh each time they occur.

Enemies that have also been damaged can be captured when the mana bar is full, which can be switched out between the main character. These monsters have completely different move sets, with plenty of variety, but don't quite feel as good to play as compared to the three main characters. They are also purchasable at the shops sometimes, as well as other items such as new weapons, accessories and potions. There are also areas that transform the main character into a random monster, which involves trying to take out multiple other enemies. This is almost like a bonus room that can help descend the abyss faster. Another interesting point to take note of is that the areas are randomly generated, which adds variety every time the abyss is entered, although the differences aren't too noticeable. Enemy designs are very well done, really feeling like something out of a nightmare. This, combined with the ambient music and creepy backgrounds, really adds to the style the game is going for.

Unfortunately, the game does suffer from a lot of problems that easily could have been sorted out before release. The main issue that poses a problem is that the co-op feature just doesn't work for a number of different reasons, mainly because of the friendly fire aspect always being enabled. With the way some of the areas are laid out, it becomes impossible for the player to not hit their partner multiple times, making it so one person does all the work, while the other just sits there and constantly has to block to not take damage from their teammate. This makes co-op much more frustrating than fun, and completely ruins what co-op mode should be like.

Some people may also experience other issues in co-op that may occur when entering one of the monster rooms, which can result in one player getting stuck and cannot progress through the game, even when moving onto the next area. This unfortunately reduces the replay value, which is a shame because playing with a friend is usually a nice feature, and could have been avoided if friendly fire could be turned off and if the bugs were fixed. These issues perhaps could be sorted through a patch, but as of now, aren't pleasant to deal with. Single-player is much more enjoyable but does still suffer from frame rate drops when entering new areas and when multiple enemies attack at once, and the game even freezes on occasion, too.