Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows
Current goal: Go on an epic, retro-inspired barbarian journey
Earlier this week I wrote about how we now have not one but two new games that follow directly in the lineage of classic barbarian games like Rastan. There’s Volgarr the Viking II, the mega-powered hack-and-slash action platformer that will kill you, a lot, offering you the tremendous satisfaction of mastery as you eventually learn its perils and emerge victorious. And there’s Abathor, a somewhat less grueling (though by no means easy) barbarian side-scroller in which up to four players can tackle an epic journey across its dozens of increasingly wild and inventive stages. While both games are calling to me, I suspect that this weekend it will be the more immediately approachable Abathor I gravitate to first.
I was introduced to Abathor by a Twitch stream from the always-entertaining Macaw45, a barbarian game connoisseur who, early on in the game, expressed mild disappointment with how plain its stages were. However, as the epic journey went on and on (and on), that disappointment gradually shifted to enthusiasm and awe as Abathor became more epic and crazed. In the days since, he has repeatedly gushed about how incredible the game finally becomes. I actually stopped watching his Abathor stream before he got too far, having decided that I wanted to experience its surprises for myself. This weekend, I intend to do that, at least when I’m not visiting the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo here in New York City. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be an intensely retro-gaming-influenced weekend for yours truly, and I am stoked. —Carolyn Petit
