ThereвЂ™s a strong emphasis on learning the gameвЂ™s environments and opening up shortcuts through them to make your life a little easier. Sometimes this sort of thing is straightforward sometimes it involves several screens of exploration and combat in order to reach the solution! For example, you might need to use Arias to hack through a vein door in order to proceed, but several screens later youвЂ™ll find an orb that Algus will need to light - but no means of switching to Algus beyond the vein door.ДЄs such, using Arias, youвЂ™ll need to find a means of opening up an alternative route through which Algus can proceed so he can do his magical thing. Algus, meanwhile, is able to shoot orbs with his magic missiles in order to open up new areas or reveal platforms.ДЄs is often the case with multi-character games like this, there are frequent scenarios in Astalon: Tears of the Earth where youвЂ™ll need to use a specific character in order to open up a route for the other two to progress. Arias can hack through вЂњveinвЂќ doors with his sword, for example, while Kyuli can kick off a wall in order to reach slightly higher platforms than others.

Instead, character swapping can only be done at various campfires throughout the gameвЂ™s world, which also act as save points.Д¬haracter switching is also necessary for exploration, since each of the characters has their own unique set of skills that helps them get around or clear routes for the others.

YouвЂ™ll find that each character is more suited to dealing with particular types of enemy than others - but you also need to bear in mind that you canвЂ™t just switch at will. Each of the three characters has their own distinct way of attacking: Arias has a melee attack with his sword, Kyuli fires a high-speed arrow across the entire width of the screen after a momentary wind-up and Algus has a quick to fire but relatively short range magic missile.

You might have to leave the screen and return by another route to reach the object or switch you require, but the actual solution to each of the gameвЂ™s environmental puzzles can pretty much always be found in the same room as the puzzle itself.ДЄs you progress through the world of Astalon: Tears of the Earth, youвЂ™ll encounter various types of enemies. This is a distinctly old-school piece of game design, but itвЂ™s also convenient for the player - if you see, say, a barricade that you canвЂ™t get past, then the means of getting past that barricade is always on the same screen. Rather than making use of scrolling environments, you progress through Astalon on a room-by-room basis, which allows each new screen to feel like it has its own distinct, self-contained challenges. Particularly in a game like this, which is most certainly not afraid to knock you around a bit.ДЄstalon: Tears of the Earth unfolds as an exploration-centric platform game. The fortunate side-effect of said pact is that until Algus fulfils his mysterious promise to Epimetheus, all three heroes will be able to come back from the dead as many times as they need to in order to explore the tower fully. Naturally, things arenвЂ™t quite that simple we learn almost immediately that Algus has, unbeknownst to the other two, made a pact with Epimetheus, the Titan of Death, for reasons initially known only to himself. And they fully intend to investigate it - hopefully putting a stop to this environmental menace in the process. Three plucky heroes - armoured warrior and heir to the Crystal Sword Arias, curvaceous rogue Kyuli and mysterious wizard Algus - have arrived at a mysterious tower that they believe to be the source of the water pollution that blights the world. Astalon: Tears of the Earth unfolds in the sort of post-apocalyptic setting that has inadvertently reverted to a medieval-style high-fantasy world.

Astalon tears of the earth release date