Greek myths are a very grateful topic, on the basis of which countless books, films and, finally, games have been created. No wonder, after all, every story has a fictional potential. However, I did not suspect that they could be presented in the way Zeus Begins does.
Anyone who has at least a little bit into the mysteries of literature, and however careful during lessons, should associate the name: Parandowski. Well, this man here largely laid the foundations for the knowledge of Greek mythology for generations. Why am I mentioning this? Because I wanted to bring up a fundamental myth, namely the creation of the world. To put it simply: in the beginning there was Chaos, then Uranos and Gaia and the Titans. Uranus was a degenerate dad, so Gaia turned on the father of Kronos (one of the titans). The heir did not turn out to be any better and, according to the prophecy, he was soon looted also by his son, Zeus. Let me stop there, because I have to jump to a completely different topic. A long time ago, when Amiga reigned in our home market,Franko The Crazy Revenge . The game was a simple side-scroll in which the title character wandered the streets of Szczecin and ruthlessly smashed crowds of opponents. The obvious question that should be asked now would be, “But how does this relate to the Greek creation myth?” The Dude Games studio’s production Zeus Begins provides the answer.
Ancient killing
The gaming market has seen more than one bizarre, sometimes even overcomplicated product. Well, let’s be honest, the producers can get overwhelmed sometimes. It must be admitted, however, that among these freaks there were also pearls that were written in big letters in the history of electronic entertainment. I think that while the production of The Dude Games studio is far from being a legend, it certainly offers a really interesting, although not very long, gameplay at a satisfactory level. As you can guess, in the game we play the title character, Zeus. Yes, it is about the ruler of Olympus and Lord Piorunów. The story tells the story of our protégé’s revenge against his degenerate father and the path of Zeus to power. At first glance, it might seem like the perfect stuff for a game like God of Warbut none of those things. Well, this time the developers decided on a completely different procedure and it is at this point that it is worth mentioning the previously mentioned Franko The Crazy Revenge . Zeus Begins is actually a flesh and blood beat ’em up brawl where you walk straight ahead and thresh countless enemies. Instead of the awe-inspiring god of thunder with a long and silvery beard, we get something like Patrick Swayze from the movie Bouncingwhich, in addition to fists and kicks, has unique powers in its assortment. Developers from The Dude Games studio served us a solid portion of the murder, broken into several stages, each of which ends in a boss fight. It is worth adding at this point that the battles are not particularly demanding or complicated. We simply approach the opponent and tap one or two buttons until he finally falls. The difficulty may only result from the sometimes felt lack of precision in controlling the character, because the opponents themselves are also not particularly complicated. Sometimes it will be necessary to move away from the incoming missile, but nothing more. As you go through the stages, you collect gold, life-giving bottles and special coins. Thanks to the latter, we can repeat the levels, as in the good old slot machine. But that’s not all.River Raid glides through the clouds, fighting against hordes of harpies and other flying creatures using lightning bolts. Not bad, right?
Retro full mouth
Graphics and sound are at a really decent level. Both the visual and the sound of the game Zeus Begins bring to mind the glory days of slot machines or even the famous Pegasus, thus referring to the classics of the beat ’em up genre. Pixelart graphics are an obvious choice and in this case it looks good. Both the models and the animations look fine, although of course they are not very aesthetically pleasing. The maps themselves are repetitive and quite clunky, which is a bit dazzling. However, taking into account the overall production, let’s assume that it was supposed to be so. As for the sound, it fits well with the whole retro background of the game Zeus Begins. I admit that when I launched the production of The Dude Games studio, for a moment I felt like I was again that little boy who spent hours at Pegasus. Nice feeling.
We would like to thank The Dude Games studio for making a PC copy of the game available for review
