Astor: Blade of the Monolith

Astor: Blade of the Monolith is an action game with a nice combat system, but unfortunately it tends to repeat game situations a little too often during the approximately 15 hours needed to reach the end credits.

Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a decent, old-school action RPG that is enjoyable but could have been more innovative.

Astor: Blade of the Monolith reflects one of the coolest aspects of video games as a medium with a deep history of iteration. You can take a familiar set of concepts, add new context, and come up with something that stands on its own rather than feeling like a ripoff. Astor does this with an impressive sense of knowledge and understanding of not only Zelda-style exploration, but character action-style combat. The latter is much more niche and specialized, therefore harder to pull off. It’s not quite a bullseye, but gets respectfully close and has me curious about further updates, as well as what this studio does next.

Astor: Blade of the Monolith is a fun and simple experience that doesn't set itself apart from the others, but that doesn't prevent the player from enjoying it.

Once you’ve unlocked a good selection of weapons, finishers, and special attacks, Astor: Blade of the Monolith becomes a pretty enjoyable affair.

Astor: Blade of the Monolith has a certain charm and fun element to it, but the game’s simplistic combat and repetitive foes take away from the overall excitement. I would like there to be more reasons to use powers against foes, but the variety of enemies is not big enough to support this. Although it provides enjoyable moments, vibrant visuals, and an intriguing setting, it falls short of being truly remarkable or memorable, yet there is a game that can be enjoyed even if it does not leave a lasting impression.

While Astor doesn't manage to stand out from the crowd or offer a flawless experience, it remains an honest and enjoyable title.

Astor: Blade of the Monolith is an evocative and charming hack-and-slash adventure with plenty of bright ideas but sub-par mechanical execution.

There’s a good experience buried beneath all the issues in Astor: Blade of the Monolith, I think. There’s no reason why some reworking of the combat, reordering certain elements to speed up the pacing, and putting some duct tape over the narrator’s mouth wouldn’t do wonders, but in its current state these flaws are simply too glaring.