1 week ago
3
Image credit: Eurogamer/Whitethorn Games
A gentle cadence and quirky characters can't counter Mythwrecked's repetitiveness, making this more Greek tragedy than odyssey.
As I drag on another hoodie and fight the urge to put on the heating, the soft sands and sun-bleached stones of Ambrosia Island are undeniably appealing. So, too, is Mythwrecked's promise of a wholesome, frictionless adventure - as we haul ourselves towards 2024's finishing line, I can't imagine anything more delightful than losing a few hours exploring a lush, tropical island.
If you go in with that mindset, knowing that Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is an uncomplicated, unhurried game that unfolds gently over ten-ish hours, then I don't suppose there's much to be offended by. You're Alex, a young woman shipwrecked on an island paradise where a gaggle of Greek gods are dealing with collective memory loss and friendship fallouts. Your job is to jog the former and foster the latter by scouring the island for lost mementoes to help your new pals remember who they are and why they loved each other in the first place.
The gods, reskinned in contemporary personas that will delight and irk in equal measure, are initially wary but open up as you converse and do favours for them, as well as uncover clues about their lives before you got there. Every potential pal is unlocked in precisely the same way (chat, do favours, get mementoes, chat more, do more favours, get more mementoes), which means that from as early as a half-hour in, you're done - Mythwrecked won't have any more surprises for you.
And look, I get it. Maybe this is exactly what you're looking for. Maybe you're a little burnt out on the AAA grind and are seeking a game that's gentle and predictable in precisely this way. Maybe you love the back-and-forth of fetch quests and treasure hunts across the petite Ambrosia. All of this is true of me, too, but ultimately, there's a fine line between predictable and boring, and Mythwrecked sadly falls just on the wrong side of it for me.
As pretty as it is, the world of Ambrosia is curiously forgettable. You're either stomping along the sand or stamping across non-descript grey stone, and although each god has their unique style and personality represented in their immediate surroundings, the world around them embodies little of it. This means no beach feels particularly different from the next, and no part of the citadel looks distinct either. Your journey from point A to B will inevitably be frustrated by a Greek pot that, to my chagrin, we cannot break, or be blocked entirely by the weird placement of a barrel or a dead-end. For the home of gods, it's all surprisingly pedestrian, tricky to traverse, and… well, dull.
Image credit: Eurogamer/Whitethorn Games
There is a fast-travel system, though. Kinda. While you can't instantly zip back and forth between places at a whim, there are nine magical doors across the island which will always transport you back to the shrine in the middle of the map near your home - a trick that Polygon Treehouse's debut game Roki pulled off to great effect when used in a point and click puzzle context. Your home itself is quite pointless as a space, mind, and I never bothered with it after I realised I couldn't do anything there but sleep. But I do appreciate the return of these magic doors, though, especially when I'm trying to find a god or complete a favour at a particular time of day.
That's right - there's a dynamic day/night cycle. Some gods are only available to chat at certain times, and some favours can only be completed during set windows, too. Unlike Animal Crossing, though, you don't have to leave IRL and come back (or sneakily change the time on your device). Across the isle are about eleventy gazillion benches where you can sit and change the time to whatever you want… which makes the whole cycle-thing a little redundant.
That's the problem here. While I appreciate these quality of life touches, they make much of Mythwrecked's mechanics unnecessary. You can also trade Ambrosia fruit, but just like the day/night cycle that can be overruled at almost any moment… well, there's almost no point to it. Firstly, the fruit grows everywhere; all greedy gods need do is step outside and grab one, ffs. Nonetheless, the story requires you to gather it up and use it to barter with the gods for anything from keys to cassettes to plots of land where you can grow even more Ambrosia fruit. This could've been an interesting wrinkle, but there's so much of the stuff (check out the map image below - all those yellow dots are a fruit I've yet to collect!) I bought every item I could the moment they unlocked, and still didn't run out. And I finished the game with 350+ of the bloody things left over.
Image credit: Eurogamer/Whitethorn Games
Collecting mementoes and completing favours is strikingly simplistic, too. There's a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing - this is not a game that respects your time - and I did find the piecemeal way the chores were doled out irritating towards the end, as often you'll complete a set of favours in one area only to be sent back there five minutes later for something else. Trying to work out which hidden memento belongs to whom is neat, though - I never went to the Oracle for guidance; working it out for myself was much more rewarding, especially when Alex is on the hunt for several gods simultaneously. Chasing the proximity signals was a cool mini-puzzle feature, too - I never tired of that satisfying beep as you got nearer and nearer to your prize.
The more you play, though, the less engaging it all feels. While Mythwrecked's cast is diverse, its world is not, with very little to make each area feel unique or worth exploring. The fixed camera that you're not allowed to manipulate is always getting in the way, too, sometimes creating unforced errors as you enter and exit shrine doorways. There are teeny steps Alex can't (read: won't) climb. Interactions with the gods are twee at best and cringey at worst, and even if you completely suspend reality, the relationships Alex rapidly forges with each individual god feel forced and saccharin rather than meaningful, not least because each character's vocal emote is grossly over-used. There's always a trickle of excitement as you collect enough seals to unlock a new area, but even that ends up being disappointing; the puzzles you complete to open the doors are uninspired to the point of insulting.
There are so many ways a little tweak here or there could have elevated the adventure. The mosaics we uncover for Aphrodite - what if they were all different, perhaps telling their own stories? The string lights we power for Zeus and Hades - could they have been different colours, maybe revealing hitherto hidden secrets when lit? What if the ghosts heard things as they roamed the island at night? The Lighthouse we call home and spruce up with home decor both scavenged and saved for - couldn't we at least have been able to decorate our own home on our own? As it stands, the stuff you find is auto-magically added whether you want it or not. You cannot remove or reposition anything. You can't change the colours or add your own little touch. There's absolutely no agency here, yet so much squandered opportunity.
If you've been looking for a simple, low-stress adventure to settle down with the kids this Christmas, then Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is as good a punt as any other, not least because it's entirely without swears, sex, or violence. Beyond that, though, with its overly simple puzzling, uninspired environments, and repetitive fetch quests, I'm sorry to say I'm not entirely sure who else Mythwrecked is for.
A copy of Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island was provided for review by publisher Whitethorn Games.
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