Ultros
ULTROS is a psychedelic metroidvania where you wake up stranded on The Sarcophagus — a cosmic uterus holding an ancient, demonic being. Trapped in the loop of a black hole, you will have to explore The Sarcophagus and meet its inhabitants to understand the part you play...
Ultros is a metroidvania, adventure and platformer game
developed by Hadoque
and published by Kepler Interactive.
Released on February 13th 2024 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 11 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Spanish - Latin America.
It has received 593 reviews of which 488 were positive and 105 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.8 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 13.99€ on Steam and has a 60% discount.
The Steam community has classified Ultros into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7
- Processor: Intel Core i5 (5th Gen)
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GT 750M
- Storage: 6 GB available space
MacOS
- OS: macOS Yosemite
- Processor: Dual Core 3.0 GHz Processor
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel Iris 1536
- Storage: 10 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Ultros is one of the most intriguing games ever, not only from a narrative perspective but also in terms of gameplay and how the two are intertwined. Completing it 100% is only for the select few but in my opinion Ultros is a must play for metroidvania lovers, atleast up to the first ending. As many of the reviews point out though this may vary depending on the person. Reason being the sort of reset mechanic that happens several times throughout the game. This initially worried me greatly so i sorta rushed the start to get a feel for this mechanic within the 2 hour refund window. In hindsight it is not that bad at all, especially because by the 3rd loop you know when and more specifically where a reset happens. [Spoiler]Basically after every bossfight you break a shaman pod and when you get back to the central location the loop resets . The fun thing about this is that the game opens up new pathways every loop so it really doesn't feel that samey as people make it out to be. These new paths do a good job of guiding you through the game's substantial map, which features a set of varied and unique biomes. Most areas play pretty differently so there's a lot of variety in that regard. You can discover most of said biomes on your first pass through but like any good metroidvania there's some stuff for later. Level design is pretty solid in general so exploring each area is pretty fun the first time. On loop resets your map discovery is kept, but unfortunately broken barriers also reset. This is the one thing i would have loved to see handled differently as it's a bit of a headache sometimes. There are other things that do persist though mainly the things that you plant. Because other than a metroidvania with roguelite elements this game is also a farming game??! This caught me pretty of guard initially but by the 3rd loop it became clear how much this would change the map in future loops which is super unique and also kinda fun (for the most part). It also ties into the games' narrative and symbolism super well so i must say that it worked for this game. The unfortunate thing though is that seeds get lost upon resets but luckily there's always the right ones nearby. These plants play a MUCH bigger role in the post game to get the true ending but at this point the mechanic becomes very convoluted as it's no longer as straight forward which plant to put where. There's tons of soil patches, 10 different plant types and the matter of composting it or not. To save yourself a headache i'd suggest using a guide after you get the first ending as that's still possible at this point if you're interested in getting the proper ending. I got about halfway this true ending when i decided that i was no longer enjoying the mechanic. Even with the proper plants in place there's still some fiddling about with your gardening tools and i felt like i was fighting the controls a bit. Up till this point the controls had been super smooth though, not only for the platforming but also in combat. The platforming is a bit basic but the environments add fun obstacles like scaled that tip or jumping pads. In combat it also responds quickly and while combat as a whole is rather quite easy there's still enough going on to be engaging. Bosses were fun and unique too, although not as hard as most other MV's. You can make it easier yet by spending points in the talent tree. You unlock these by eating your enemies' remains, with cleaner kills (using different moves rather than button mashing) yielding better spoils. These upgrades also get lost upon reset, except for when you use a special collectible item to lock these memories. These as well as lore bits are the games' true collectibles and finding enough of them to lock the whole skilltree was one of my primary motivators to progress in the game. Other than exploring the map and unveiling the story ofcourse! Said story is just impeccable. The way it ties the central mechanic into it as well as the environmental storytelling on display is just amazing. Your starting location tells something the game never explicitly mentions but which the eagle eyed players will soon pick up on. Most metroidvania's go light on story but this one i'd say it's the focussing point. And they nailed it, not only in the overal story but also the backstory of each character/zone. Speaking of zones the visual variety is great, you have gardens, luxury districts, living quarters, temples and even a distillery. The overal game is just beautiful but that's something nearly every person agrees on and is apparant from the very first time you see a screenshot or boot up the game. What you don't see initially but will hear soon enough is just how utterly INCREDIBLE the soundtrack is. The song 'broken promise' which plays in the rotten orchard especially is just downright beautiful. I'm picking up a copy of the game's OST which i'm listening to as i'm writing this and will continue listening to for a long time. In some ways i'm even happier i played the game because it introduced me to the OST so even if you don't plan on playing this game, do yourself a favor and give it a listen. Finally there's performance which at this point was spotless. I also had no bugs, like at all... I'm actually suprised about this given how many systems the game has to keep track off in terms of physics and all the different plants. At first i thought these were static in their growth but with the later tools you can manipulate these quite a bit so the fact that it worked as well as it did was suprising to me. I had no crashes either or any other technical hickups and loading times were super fast. So technically the game is incredibly polished. It's a super unique experience that is super enjoyable untill the first ending. After this engaging with the more finnicky gardening mechanics became more of a chore but not enough to leave a sour taste. I'm perfectly happy where i left it off and may revisit this title some day to finish it up.
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I just want to explain the negative reviews so people won't skip because they will be scared. 1. The loops and reset and starting from scratch is really not bad. You can lock some skills so you do not start each reset without them. Also the loops make sense lore wise so they are not as annoying as in roguelikes/lites 2. Planting seeds was not so fun for me but it's not annoying, nor it is difficult to understand. You can't plant wrong, because when you make mistake, you can dig up the seed and try some other seed. Also after some time you do not have to wait one loop for seeds to bloom fully. 3. Annoying background not knowing what is interactable is weird statement. I never had a problem and never miss something. I usually didn't notice the background awesomeness from time to time and also there is accessibility options and you can make background less vibrant. 4. You need different attacks so you get high quality food from enemies. Not a big deal. You can go and repeat attacks, get lower quality food and STILL not feeling like you do not have enough resources. 5. There's a gradual acceleration on running, which is fine on its own, but you're punished for using the roll for movement, since it robs you of any built up speed and resets acceleration. yup if you have ADHD and have to roll during running because you are used to "dash" system in other games and you are not willing to understand that this game works differently, it may be a problem. 6. Wall jump is not jumping higher but almost at the same height. Not true, you can climb. Yeah the verticality gain is lower but again, it's not like other games. 7. Getting lost. This one is funny as hell. When I was playing, I was amazed how the devs led my way. It was intuitive where to go. I had only one problem and that is killing last shaman. I didn't know where to go because I left one zone unexplored and forgot that I have places to go there. 8. Weird esoteric story. C'mon what do you want? Another clichè story about princess and castle? --- I had to write some defense since these people scared me and I hesitated to buy this game, in the end, I have to say I enjoyed it as much as hollow knight (can't say that one is better, hollow knight was stretched af and I was exhausted when I finished it.) Speaking about playtime - every loop takes probably one hour so it's great for bite sized sessions. There is a lot of challenge. Not skilled based but more brain based. Like.. did you know you can finish the whole game pacifist way? Enjoy the game
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It's really an arborvania - a large chunk of your tools revolve around planting and cultivating things and it goes hard on the depth surrounding them. It's a fascinating game that takes a little time to show its hand, but when it clicks it's fantastic. It's absolutely not a traditional -vania though, so go into it with no assumptions about how things work. For me, it definitely wasn't what I expected, but I love what it actually was.
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Ultros looks like a metroidvania, but is not entirely one. You get double jump relatively early... and soon after that it's taken from you. Yeah. It's a time loop where you're constantly thrown back to square one — which includes losing your abilities and even your weapon, so you have to get them again each time. It feels disempowering, to say the least. So much so that I considered refunding when it happened for the first time. But the game's acid aesthetics convinced me to push on, and in the end I think it was worth it. The game is visionary and has a bunch of unique ideas. Just don't go in expecting a classic metroidvania. It's also a roguelite — in that "the cycle starts anew" and your progress is reset after killing each boss. Except not really: each cycle also changes shortcuts and generates new events, and the level design around the zone you begin in is nothing but stellar, skillfully guiding you down a different path with each cycle despite the world being technically open. It's one thing to design a metroivania around the player having or not having an ability; it's a more daunting thing to design it around juggling abilities and constantly getting and losing them. Much more unexpectedly, Ultros is also a sort of Farmville-like sim. You can plant and grow trees in the game. They produce healing items, but each of them also has an ability — like creating ledges over time or breaking through walls. Choosing the right trees to plant in the right places is your key to accessing every room on the map. Growing them takes time, but you can use compost to speed the process up. And also you can dig seeds out and re-plant them... Another incredible challenge the game throws at you is the Living Network. You will at one point find a net that can connect buds that are close enough to each other. When connected, they bloom, and when connected to save points, they make them teleportable. The game then suggests you connect all the map — which means going through it via unique paths, finding shortcuts and growing the right trees. The trees part was too much busywork, but generally it's an incredible idea for a metroidvania, making you look at the map with different eyes. I hope more games do that. The fights and levelling system are also unique. You heal by eating various fruit and body parts, each of them nourishing you with some of four imaginary substabces. When you get enough of which, you can unlock skills. By finding Mnemonic Mycelium, you can lock a skill in for future cycles. As for the fights, they're very easy. It's hard to die in this game. But they do things like reward you for using unique attacks instead of mashing the same one. And did you know you could tame some opponents by feeding them? Yeah. Overall, I applaud a game that isn't one more Dark Souls/Hollow Knight. It's unique and bursting with original ideas. Not all of them are executed perfectly, but they aren't annoying either. So I think Ultros is worth buying and playing to support the future development of these ideas, if nothing else. P. S. A friend of mine asked recently if "casual metroidvanias" exist, as he doesn't like hard challenges and action-packed combat. Ultros was the closest that came to mind. (You can make it harder for yourself, but overall it's chill.) And that too is unique.
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A very interesting take on metvan I've never seen before. For those saying that it's a rougelite or rougelike, they haven't played the game or played it enough because it's not. It has some elements with it's cycle loop that plays into the story but I would say it's almost genre defying in this sense because it doesn't fit a traditional metvan progression system but also is certainly far from a rougelite... if anything it has a carry over story similar to that of story driven rougelites like hades, but it's mechanics and progression are very different... in a very good way. A very unique and fresh twist on the genre, it's certainly made for people that love the genre and have played all it has to offer, in terms of creativity, ultros completely kills the competition. Simply put, i have never seen a game with so much debate over it's genre and progression where almost nobody really knows what the game has to offer, its completely unique and you will probably never play anything like it---except for maybe future clones of this style because of how cool and fun it is to play. The art style, i think, is a big selling point to the experience. The game is handcrafted excellently. I was originally gonna play the game on shrooms with a buddy of mine but decided against it as you are almost looped into the phyc experience while sober. Really does feel alien, especially with the text, story, and gameplay feeling so different and un-understandable, it really does immerse you in a different world. It feels like the devs were able to pull the dimension from an acid trip and put it into visuals, really great work on the art. Something else I've noticed with regards to the handcraftedness is how everything feels so meticulously thought out and planned. For example, when planting a tree and coming back to that location for a new cycle, it now perfectly unlocks the next area, or not having the extractor at a specific part, everything is catered to different mechanics and no double jump---i never feel stuck or lost and the large map makes it so exploration is constantly at the front end of the game, and the environment feels like everything was thought of in making that experience feel organic. As for the characters, I really like a lot of their personalities, and the way they play into the broader ecosystem has the npc elements of the world really come to life. You aren't just a brute mindlessly killing, as you advance the story you can cultivate the environment, leave food in soil for compost for new exploration, tame various alien pets---capturing a lively ecosystem in 2d games is a task for sure, since you lack a lot of the "realistic immersion" so coveted in gaming. That being said, i find 2d games often more immersive and ultros is no exception... it actually might be an exception in how well it pulls off the immersion. In very few games do you not feel like the agent of interaction that the world revolves around, in very few games do you actually feel like a part of the ecosystem in a real way. Their are certainly broader themes of environmentalism throughout the game, and the way the mechanics don't shy away from it either is important to! Making sure to kill the species around you in a specific way, or making sure to plant a specific kind of tree to get an item or faster route, or anything like this---its a game that rewards the player for taking care of their environment. Nature isn't simply a tool for your exploitation, where you run in and kill everything in site and burn it all down, it's more so something that you need to interact as a part of and give back to if you want to progress (great game design in that aspect). A critique that I've seen levied at the game is the lack of mob variety, but I completely disagree with this in the context of the game. First off, their is a decent amount of mob variety, but a look at the design of this game makes it obvious that it wants you to be a genuine part of the games ecosystem and handle every mob in a unique way---knowing this makes it obvious why there aren't just randomly genned slightly different critters to be mindlessly killed, because you need to recognize and form a connection with each unique monster type, some of them you need to use a specific mechanic on, some of them you can feed and they'll be your friend, most of them you can do a lot of unique things with, keeping the variety low makes each one actually have personality and makes them feel special. Overall, I think the major thing that ties the game together as that the devs actually gave a shit about the environment crafting... when building metvans i think the immersion, ambience, and "vibe," of the game are the most important elements, and in this way, the unique art style, creative game mechanics, world interaction, cycle loops, mobs, and gameplay come together to make an extremely tightly knit and cohesive experience. I would recommend this game to anyone that likes 2d games, metvans, rougelikes/lites, or any isometric type genre as I think it excells in everything it attempts to create a great player experience.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 13 December 2024 01:11 |
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| SteamSpy data | 19 January 2025 09:32 |
| Steam price | 23 January 2025 04:15 |
| Steam reviews | 21 January 2025 12:00 |
Online players
20
Developer
Hadoque
Publisher
Kepler Interactive
Release
13 Feb 2024
Platforms
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