HomeFeaturesUltros
Take note, Metroid likers, Ultros is one trip you won’t want to miss in 2024Two hours with Hadoque’s new psychedelic adventure
Two hours with Hadoque’s new psychedelic adventure
Image credit:Hadoque
Image credit:Hadoque
Ultrosis one of those games you can’t help but pay attention to. Back when it wasfirst revealedin May at Sony’s pre-notE3 PlayStation Showcase, its colourful, fever dream visuals fromHotline Miamiartist El Huervo instantly made it stand out among all thedrab multiplayer shootersjostling for attention. Then, between talk of it being set inside a cosmic uterus known as The Sarcophagus and having to use seeds and plants over successive runs to alter the shape of the map to your whim, it only became more intriguing. Now, after playing almost two hours of this Metroid-y roguelite for myself, there’s still a lot about it to take in and digest, but holy moly what a thing to behold at the same time. This is surely going to be one to watch for Metroidvania likers when it comes out on February 13th next year, because cor, this is looking really quite good, folks.
Image credit:Hadoque
For example, the way your hero moves and fights is pleasingly familiar, erring more towards the weightier,Hollow Knightend of theplatformingspectrum than the lithe, nimble slips and slides of Ori or Rayman. Their bold green visor, luminous elongated elbows, trailing red cape and pitch black legs make them easy to pick out against the busy flora behind them, and after building a little momentum to their maximum running speed, they can glide smoothly from one platform to the next without feeling awkward or stilted. It’s not long before they pick up their first weapon, either - a short, sharp blade that they prize out of the chest of what could easily be one of Doctor Who’s Oods in a shroud.
Combat isn’t a mindless, hack and slash affair like it often is in other Metroidlikes, however. It can be, if you don’t mind mashing your enemies to a pulp in the process and only gaining minimal spoils from their mangled, gribbly carcasses. But you’ll earn better rewards if you take the time to execute different moves and avoid repeating yourself. Dodge rolling through an attack will let you counter and plunge your sword into an enemy’s weak spot with Y, for example, while hitting certain enemies in mid air will initiate a ‘juggling’ sequence, letting you launch them into the distance like some chitinous Sonic The Hedgehog. Your basic X attack can also be combined with most cardinal directions on your d-pad to add even more variety to your growing moveset. Keep things clean and varied and you’ll earn a ‘perfect’ variant of your foe’s particular item drop - a reward that might be met with a roll of the eyes in another game, but here it makes a surprising difference.
Image credit:Hadoque
Image credit:Hadoque
You see, the items you earn from enemies in Ultros double up as both your healing items and the EXP you need to unlock new abilities. Chowing down on some Puppaluppa Limbs, for example, will give you both a small health boost and slowly top up all four of your main ability bars, whereas munching on rarer delicacies such as an Uloborus Spinner may give you a bigger bump to just a pair of your stat bars, but a larger kick to your HP bar. Battered variants can also be won for less than perfect scraps with your foes, but sloppy encounters will merely earn you a Bloody Pulp, which will only restore minimal amounts of health and nothing more.
It’s an interesting system, and one that asks you to juggle keeping yourself alive with becoming more powerful. But if you’re worried about deliberately hampering yourself in the process, you needn’t. I was perhaps overly cautious in how much I consumed early on in my playthrough, but as Ultros quickly makes known, this isn’t your daddy’s classic Metroidvania. There’s roguelite DNA running through these psychedelic veins, and upon reaching and destroying one of the seven MacGuffin glass chambers that are supposedly keeping everyone imprisoned inside The Sarcophagus, I was zipped right back to my starting field of jumbo dandelions, my abilities reset and my pockets empty. Thus, I learned that gluttony was absolutely the way forward in this strange place, and if you’ve got a nose for exploring, you’ll eventually find little mycelium locks that let you retain certain skills between loops. And besides, enemies appear so often in these colourful chambers that you needn’t hold back - everything lives in fertile abundance inside The Sarcophagus, so you might as well let rip while you can.
Image credit:Hadoque
Image credit:Hadoque
If Ultros can thread this needle without stinging its players in the process, then I think this really could be one of the most promising and memorableMetroidvaniaswe’ll see next year. I mean, what other game can claim to have a boss that looks like a winged, wolf Xenomorph that has a purple void for a belly and two neon pink lightbulbs on its back? EvenElden Ring’s expansion wouldn’t dare to get that weird, I’m telling you now. So mark your calendars for February 13th, folks. This is one freaky pulp adventure you’ll almost definitely want a taste of.
