Game #1139: UltraAge

  Nobody makes durable weapons anymore.

 Ultra Age was one of 2021's most interesting surprise, as it was a smaller-budget action game from Asia that didn't receive much attention.

 The game's story is... all over the place, it has to do with clones, eternal life and other stuff that is not very interesting. And I doubt the translation was the problem, I simply think it had a boring excuse for a plot. What matters is that this is a very linear action game in which you play as a character named Age. Your weapon breaks early in the game, so now you get to create new weapons from crystals, albeit more fragile versions. Basically, your weapons break.

 And that would be a reason to dislike the game, but in an interesting twist.. it's not half bad. There are a total of six different swords, with different upgrade trees and combos, albeit you can only equip four at a time. What makes the system tolerable is that stocks for every weapon are quite common, so you shouldn't run out of stock at any moment. Each weapon has a unique attack switch, as well as a unique super move you can unleash once the weapon is about to break.

 The game is fairly simple, alongside the previously mentioned mechanics you get a weak and a strong attack, as well as a whip you can use to bring enemies towards you or teleport towards them. There's a dodge, and dodging at the last minute grants you a brief period of invincibility.

 All the mechanics make for an entertaining hack-and-slash. Usually weapons that break are a chore, but in this case it was never an issue. Maybe I'd consider relying on a different weapon if I felt my resources were running out, but at no point ever did I ran out of any one weapon. Some weapons are better against flesh enemies, other against robotic enemies, another one destroys blue armor... so you'll be shuffling weapons out of convenience too. It's fun, y'know? The combat engine isn't as free-form as God of War, much less DMC, but it makes for a fun time.

 You'll also get four different powers, which you can upgrade too: Radar, Time-Shift, Healing and Rage. Rage grants you strength for a short while and healing heals you. Radar is kinda funny, 'cause it can be used indefinitely and picks up upgrade material without having to go pick it up. What makes it funny is that upgrading it makes you get more points per pick up, making it so that waking towards them grants you less than spamming the radar button. Curious. Time Shift is even funnier. When you pick up crystal weapons a "12:00" timer appears on top of them, signifying that 12 hours need to pass before you can pick it up again. The game is about 4:30 hours long. And the game is very linear, so there's no going back. That timer is nothing but a weird form of world building, showing that you need to use time-shift to pick up more weapons. It's quite silly!

 Something I noticed is that the game uses a 'randomly generated dungeon floor' way too many times. Every room and corridor is recycled and looks the same, and it feels so out of place considering it's usually a single floor long and happens midway through most chapters. You get to go through three of these before the final boss.

 I found it rather disappointing that there's no New Game Plus+, as it would've been nice to replay the game with all my upgrades intact. The game's difficulty is alright, the hardest part about the game are the bosses, and it's just a matter of learning when to dodge as they follow pretty straight-forward patterns.

 Ultra Age was a fun hack-and-slash. Weapon movesets could be a bit more extensive, it could use more enemy variety and, well, more levels, but considering its budget... they churned out something pretty good.

 7.5