Apocryph is a retraux-style first-person action game developed by Bizgur Games, one loosely inspired by old-school first-person gorn-fests - with the developers citing Hexen, Heretic, Strife and Painkiller as inspiration.
Set in the titular Apocryph, a dark, brutal fantasy world, you're the Arbiter, a member of the Xilai religious hierarchy - an order of Templars sworn to rid Apocryph of evil. With black magic and maleovalant monsters infesting all corner of Apocryph, you'll be kicking ass in journeys leading from abandoned fortresses to dungeons while beating up assorted monstrosities with different weapons.
The game was made available for the Nintendo Switch and Windows PC.
A Holy Battle Awaits...
- Adjustable Censorship: The "Corpse Decay" level, that you can access just by pausing the game, allows you to tone down the onscreen gorn.
- Airborne Mooks: You battle bat-like creatures with wings made of light, who attempts to flie circles around you in a few areas.
- Arm Cannon: You can collect dual gauntlets capable of firing energy bolts at onscreen enemies.
- Big Red Devil: One of the later enemies, gigantic red horned devils with a single eye.
- Creepy Cemetery: In a game already running heavily on a Gothic Horror theme, the level in a haunted graveyard somehow managed to be creepier, being entirely devoid of light with a sinister-sounding soundtrack in the background. The fact that it generates an unlimited amount of skeletons doesn't help.
- Dem Bones: Sentient, walking skeletons are the first enemies encountered by the Arbiter. They're expectedly not too difficult to smash into a pile of bones by repeated punching.
- Dual Wield: The victory screen shows your character wielding a sword and a magic staff in each hand. In the gameplay itself, there's a pair of wicked-looking curved blades glowing with energy you can use.
- Expressive Health Bar: There's a portrait of the Arbiter in the middle of the status bar. Unlike other examples of this trope which use this method, there are only three steps of bloodiness—it begins getting bloody at about 66% health left, and becomes significantly more bloody at 33% health.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Boneflames Bracers are a medieval Magitek example, being twin gauntlets that generate and shoot fireballs from the wrist.
- Giant Mook: The hulking, ogre-like brutes draped in chains, who can take far more punishment that other smaller enemies.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Like in Heretic, it's most direct inspiration:
- Comfort Zone
- Handful of Pain
- Heaps of Corpses
- Only Death Can Slow Me Down
- Immortal and Eternal Reaper
- Kill It with Ice: The Ice Sword freezes enemies instantly and works even in the Fire and Brimstone Hell levels. Once frozen, a second attack allows the Arbiter to kick enemies into Literally Shattered Lives.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Blasting an enemy from close range via Magic Staff will lead to their bodies exploding everywhere. Including on the ceiling.
- Magic Staff: Being a Templar, the Arbiter can gain one called a Cobalt Staff which can shoot energy blasts at enemies as his first ranged weapon pickup. It can also be upgraded to fire spreadshots.
- Man-Eating Plant: Giant pitcher-plant heads that pops up from underground menaces the Arbiter in a few areas. Unlike most games where these enemy types are usually immobile, here the killer plants are ridiculously fast - slinking underground if left idle, and re-emerging in just a couple of second near the Arbiter to chomp him down.
- Power Fist: The Arbiter's first weapons are spiked gauntlets, before he obtain weapon upgrades in later levels.
- Sword Lines: The Ice Sword will emit silver lines with every swing. It even appears when you're simply walking around and not hacking up enemies.
- Zerg Rush: What the enemy design lacks in variety, the make up in quantity with massive numbers of skeletons, ogres, or other monsters trying to overwhelm you from all corners. You'll need to keep retreating while shaving their numbers down with ranged attacks.
