For some people, a comfy environment is all they need. You can put them to work in a paradise and they won’t complain.
That would explain the bevvy of farming sims on the market these days. Every time a publisher is presenting an event with upcoming games from their catalog, there is a bingo card to accompany the event.
And it will, without fail, include a “Farming Sim” spot. Is the game we’re talking about today a farming sim? No. But it does feel tedious to play once you strip away the charming outer layer.
Twins of Olus is a top-down hack and slash game with a Souls save system. You play as beetle Lions and specter Creo. The duo is bound by some unexplained force, tying them together for this adventure and allowing for some interesting gameplay mechanics.
Creo appears to be a calm, collected and slightly frustrated ghost, while Olus is a brash bug youngling who just got out of his larvae stage.
Creo acts as a lore dump for players to listen to, calmly explaining the strange world around them. It would appear that the ghost is a lot older than Lions, probably because he’s dead or something.
Maybe he’s not a ghost, he mentions “his kind” having certain abilities because they exist on a different plane, but I choose to believe it’s a tired ghost. I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong in the future when the full game is released and I am made a fool anew. That’s never a long wait.
Besides being a ghostly apparition, Creo also functions as a grappling hook, a turret and a health recovery system. For a floating gas thingy-ma-bob, he sure carries a lot of weight in the group. Lion is mostly good for dishing out majority of the damage and throwing switches.
And even though his two great swords are as big as he is, his attacks still feel like they have a short reach. So the combat feels a tab wonky. Not knocking it too much here, it’s not bad per-se, just took me a while to get into the rhythm the game expected from me.
You can switch between Lion and Creo at will. Controlling one character puts the other on autopilot. Which is great when your partner is a ethereal creature not of this world that deals psychic damage to those around you. Not so great when it’s the other way around.
Sure, Creo is invincible to all damage (so far), but if Lions goes down – it’s game over. And let me tell you, dear reader: Lions’ AI is as good at survival as a common hamster. Those of you who grew up with a buck-toothed bastard will know how much they love to get themselves killed in the most surreal ways.
Same goes for Lions, so don’t switch away from unless you’re absolutely certain he’ll make it through current encounter. Local Co-op is available, but I don’t have any friends, so I have nothing to say about it.
The pair explores a beautiful world filled with enemies, puzzles, collectibles and a few friendly NPCs. I won’t lie, some of the world is pretty charming. And not just because of the many birch trees, there is a sense of fairy tale wonder hidden around every corner.
A giant guardian obscured by mist, a giant, pun-happy skull bird, crows floating over water because they spawned incorrectly… Magical. Soundtrack is similar to Spiral Knights’ OST, so that’s a plus from me.
The world looks nice, but it is a bit of a pain to navigate. The entire first map is essentially a bunch of rectangles and square arenas connected by narrow walkways. So birch garnish does a lot to hide maps’ simplistic design. Checkpoints are also pretty far apart from each other and that reminds me of Dark Souls, so I guess we’ll talk about the similarities now.
You save by using observatory towers, enemies respawn after you use it. You drop most of your accumulated currency and have to walk to back and pick it up at your place of death. There are little Vilas selling themselves around the map, which physically follow you and provide gameplay-changing bonuses if you have the dough.
Okay, that last part isn’t so much Dark Souls as it is Hollow Knight. Which is basically Dark Souls in 2D. So I’m right, you’re wrong, shut up. Backtracking is a slow torture. Thankfully, you can teleport between observatories. Just hope you’ve unlocked them first. Optional sidequests will take you as far away from checkpoints as possible, so enjoy the walk back.
The demo is roughly 45 minutes to an hour long. Give it a shot, maybe you’ll enjoy the slightly desynced camera following your characters, making the action feel detached, more than I did. Or maybe it just takes time to adjust. I should know, I’ve beaten Grand Theft Auto 2. Try watching some gameplay footage of it and don’t forget your barf bag.
Twins of Olus is far from that, mind you. I’m just saying people can get acclimated to worse things. And this charming adventure shouldn’t take long to grow on you. Twins of Olus is in development for Windows PC (via Steam).
