Aveyond: Rhen's Quest

The task of saving the world usually falls on a handful of brave heroes in video games, even if they are nothing more than peasants at the beginning of the story. With enough training and a healthy attitude, anyone can defeat the bad guys and battle hordes of powerful demons. Thankfully, the said heroes also get stronger and wiser along the way as well, so the final battle is not that one-sided.

Aveyond: Rhen's Quest is a top-down role-playing game that challenges you to be a savior one more time and fight off all sorts of demons and monsters. Together with a few allies, your character must face terrible foes on a regular basis, as well as meet fascinating people and help them with their problems. Obviously, you also get to handle powerful swords and spells along the way.

The plot revolves around a powerful god by the name of Ahriman, who decides to open the Demon Portal and let all the monsters into the human world. A band of heroes steps up to save the day and defeat the evil wizard, but their journey is long and full of difficult tests. In order to close the portal and kill Ahriman, you must find the Sword of Shadows, the only weapon powerful enough to accomplish the task.

Besides the loot you get to plunder from chests and the corpses of your enemies, it is also important that you level up and improve your abilities throughout the journey. By doing so, you can increase your stats and learn new spells and special skills, which come in handy during the combat. Speaking of which, the difficulty level is not exactly high, but some of the encounters can be rather tricky if you do not take the necessary precautions.

The game sports retro 2D graphics and a cozy top-down perspective, which is great if you are a fan of old RPGs that look the same. Don’t expect too much detail when it comes to level design and the like, but you can certainly imagine yourself exploring all sorts of medieval locations. The moody soundtrack keeps you immersed in the atmosphere at all times.

All things being equal, there are probably better RPGs out there than Aveyond: Rhen's Quest. On the other hand, this is by no means a bad game, especially if you are a fan of the genre. As long as you can accept the weak story and the simple gameplay mechanics, this can still be quite the adventure.