Abyss Odyssey

Abyss Odyssey is a fever dream of a game. It feels like it was crafted by a designer who mashed all his favorite, seemingly disparate genres together and then wrapped them up in a stunning turn-of-the-century motif, creating a bizarre, beautiful, and defiantly unique interactive experience. It works -- most of the time. Diving into the Earth one randomly created chamber at a time and taking on whatever foes happen to lurk there can be a lot of fun -- and stressful to boot, given that death is semi-permanent. If your hero dies, you take control of another character and must try to return to a checkpoint to restore your hero to life.

That said, some players may take issue with the way the game is meant to be played. Losing progress can be frustrating -- even more so once you realize that the designers actually intended for players to die frequently and keep fighting the same enemies simply to level up their heroes. What's more, the interface is a bit finicky, making it difficult to attack with precision and avoid traps with deftly timed jumps. These issues make it harder to appreciate the blazing originality of the rest of the experience. Abyss Odyssey likely will find itself a cult hit among a particular audience of gamers. Others simply won't get it and will be too frustrated to bother trying to understand.