Ultros is a trippy metroidvania with a unique time-loop mechanic that features stunning psychedelic art. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Ultros Review Overview
Ultros Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Mind-Blowing Art Style and Direction Rich Worldbuilding Simple, Engaging and Rewarding Combat Top-Notch Music and Audio Design Abundance of Accessibility Options |
Some UI Elements Are Confusing |
Ultros Overall - 88/100
Ultros entrances with a mysterious story with very rich world building, all presented with masterful visuals, engaging combat and exploration, and topped off with immersive music and ambience. Ultros has all fields perfectly flowing cohesively with one another that allows it to have all cylinders firing at all times, leaving lasting impressions upon its players no matter which aspect of the game they look at.
Ultros Story - 8/10
Ultros’s narrative is full of beautiful environmental storytelling and mysterious plot points discovered from characters you meet along the way. Its usage of the changing pathways per new cycle influenced in the previous cycle allows for various player-woven stories that are able to captivate amidst the questions and confusion pertaining to the setting. Every aspect of the game, from the menus, to the items’ flavor texts, to the environments, and to the gameplay all serve to contribute to Ultros’ worldbuilding, and it all fits like a glove.
Ultros Gameplay - 8/10
The combat system in Ultros is simple, straightforward, and satisfying. It allows players to easily pick it up while having a high skill ceiling from the varying forms of enemies and their distinct attack patterns. The traversable world map of the Sarcophagus has various twists and turns with adequate platforming puzzles and well-placed secrets that make exploration feel all-around engaging. Paths change from your decisions from the previous cycle that open up new avenues of exploration and block old ones, allowing you to craft your own adventure.
Ultros Visuals - 10/10
Ultros is the crowning triumph of the dazzlingly vivid art style of El Huervo from his Hotline Miami fame. Filled with out-of-this-world environments, imagery, animation, and effects, Ultros wows at every instance it can, brandishing its visuals to the maximum. Every visual field is a masterpiece and feast for the eyes that kept me glued to every inch of the screen at all times.
Ultros Audio - 9/10
Ultros manages to properly instill a great sense of wonder, curiosity, and fear simultaneously from its amazingly trippy music and immersive ambience, all accompanied with brilliant sound design. Venturing into new territories feels whimsical and mysterious all the same, and combat with alien lifeforms feel very crunchy and satisfying.
Ultros Value for Money - 9/10
For only $24.99, Ultros sits at a near-perfect price for the experience it provides. With a compelling story, easy-to-grasp-gameplay, masterful visuals, and amazing audio, it checks every box for the perfect game. The only possible downside is that the faux rogue-like implementation may feel slightly counter-progressive and tedious when all your combat skills and movement techniques are taken away, and you’re forced to walk through the same set of starting environments each time.
Ultros Review: Psychedelic Ultimania
Ultros is an other-worldly experience and there’s no other less pun-ny way to say it. At first glance of the game’s colorful art style, I knew I was going to be continually mind-blown when I got my hands on it. The environments, the sprites, the characters, the portraits, the animations, the special effects, and the user interface elements are all glorious eye candy to me that kept my pupils glued to the screen at all times. Before playing, I had some reservations and concerns with regards to visibility due to all potential colors and effects clashing in the foreground and background, but Ultros at its default settings surprisingly does a great job at managing the contrast between player, interactables, hostiles, and environment. Though of course, accessibility options are still a must, and they provide extensive choices on which features to disable to implement to boost visibility. The game itself puts the majority of its focus and resources on its amazing kaleidoscopic artworks, but doesn’t hesitate to pull it back for players to have a better experience.
Meanwhile, Ultros’ time-loop cycle mechanic could be a bit confusing for some, as it easily be seen as a rogue-like, a genre that has oversaturated the gaming market in recent times. At the end of each cycle, the character kills a shaman and gets sent back to the starting area with all upgrades and inventory gone. However, what Ultros does differently is that your decisions from the previous cycle affect your current cycle. Throughout a "run," you will find various seeds and garden spots to plant them. They will grow and bear fruit that provide nutrients and replenish health. After you complete a cycle, those planted areas will either be overgrown, or have new passages created from the plants. These garden spots are scattered throughout the expansive map, and to progress across each run, the player must carefully choose which garden spot they intend to plan, and when to do it. This is such a unique mechanic that gives way to emergent adventures all from the player’s choices to provide different experiences.
Ultros is a very distinct LSD-trip of a game, down to its story, its visuals, the gameplay, its music, and its sound design. All work in unison to provide a trip that will no doubt leave a vivid impression on players for those who play it.
Pros of Ultros
| Things Ultros Got Right |
|---|
|
Mind-Blowing Art Style and Direction Rich Worldbuilding Simple, Engaging and Rewarding Combat Top-Notch Music and Audio Design Abundance of Accessibility Options |
Mind-Blowing Art Style and Direction
Mind-blowing doesn’t even begin to describe the visual masterpiece that Ultros is. It’s an incomprehensible achievement for a game to consistently have this kind of art style and direction in its entirety, but Ultros accomplishes the feat triumphantly. Lush and mystical environmental art adorn the walls of the Sarcophagus, embellished with tons of other-worldly flora and hostile fauna. Characters and their portraits are well and diverse with their designs and poses, succeeding in breathing life and eeriness unto them. The character animations whether moving or in combat are snappy, fluid, and satisfyingly pleasing to the eye. The cutscenes interspersed across the game are beautifully haunting and animated that spice up the experience all throughout. Even the user interface(UI) is consistently themed with the art direction, and it’s all so wonderfully implemented.
The artist behind Ultros is no other than El Huervo, who gained acclaim from his cover arts of Hotline Miami 1 and 2. His art style filled with vivid colors is majestically psychedelic to say the least, and to have it be adapted and fully incorporated into a video game is a gigantic feat. Ultros deserves so much praise just for this alone, as the love, effort, and care are palpable throughout the entire game.
Rich Worldbuilding
Ultros aspires to immerse players by building its world everywhere it can, maintaining a consistent theme throughout the entirety of the game. From the menus, to all decorative labels in the UI, to items’ flavor texts, to the densely decorated environments, to the surreal music and ambience, and to the gameplay, all cohesively work as a unit to become Ultros, and that’s a commendable feat that must be highlighted.
Simple, Engaging and Rewarding Combat
Ultros has very basic but challenging combat that opens up the deeper one gets in the game. The primary skills of attacking and dodging are well-implemented, with dodge timings being fundamental and encouraged to perform quick counterattacks upon enemies. Achieving flawless battles where one doesn’t take damage and dispatch foes quickly enable better quality item drops that greatly benefit the players’ nutrition. Everyone is encouraged to be stylish AND efficient, and Ultros does it well with its somewhat limited and very straightforward combat mechanics that aren’t overcomplicated.
Top-Notch Music and Audio Design
Ultros is filled with subtly-disturbing and enthralling music that rings throughout the halls while you’re exploring, and it fills you with a sense of wonder AND dread that perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere of the game. The faint hints of "wildlife" aboard a ship, the beeps and boops of sci-fi machinery, and the characters’ lone footsteps are so well-done and implemented to maximize immersion.
Abundance of Accessibility Options
If any experienced gamer were to have even just one quick glance on a single screenshot of Ultros at any point in the game, they would go "Oh wow, great art style, but wouldn’t all the different colors and effects affect visibility?" That was the number one thought that went to my head, and going into the playthrough, I was heavily anticipating facing difficulties. However, even before I started a new game, I instantly discovered in the options accessibility features that immediately addressed these concerns, where it held very helpful options such as decreasing background color saturation to better see interactables such as items or enemies. It also has an option to replace the fancy immersive text strewn throughout the game and instead provide simple and straightforward letters, ideal for those who might have difficulty in discerning weird-looking text or those with dyslexia.
It’s commendable how the developers approached and acted upon the concerns of having a full game with such a vivid art style, and were able to give leeway to those who might not be able to play through their(the developers’) intended visual experience for players.
Cons of Ultros
| Things Ultros Can Improve |
|---|
|
Some UI Elements Are Confusing |
Some UI Elements Are Confusing
Though Ultros has the highest of highs with regards to its visual direction, a certain few of its UI choices are proven to be more confusing than immersive. One example would be understanding how to unlock moves in the skill tree through the food-nutrients system. At first glance it’s rather unclear as to what’s being consumed, what needs to be earned, and whether one can unlock a move or not. It’s also rather easy to mistakenly eat a food you might be saving when trying to upgrade the skill tree, as there is a very quick shortcut from the screen to immediately consume. From within battle, the steps between food selection and consumption should be quick, but when leveling up, there should be a confirmation screen at least.
Another nitpick might just be a personal issue, but I had thought that all the food I had on my item wheel were being listed with the numerical "0" at the bottom right to indicate that I’m out of them. However, it turns out that it was merely a part of the item frame UI design, and that having no numerical values just means you have one of them. Only when you get two or more of the items will the menu show a numerical value. This is very confusing to say the least. Please either have the numbers be consistently showing, AND redesign the item frame a bit so as to not place a suspicious looking zero near the bottom right corner.
Is Ultros Worth It?
Everyone Deserves a Psychedelic Trip Every Now and Then
Ultros is worth every bit of the $24.99 asking price, as it manages to wow players by its absolute cohesiveness with its story, visuals, gameplay, and audio. The narrative is compellingly told through the characters and the beautiful environments, while the combat is enhanced by the vivid visual and sound effects that further immerse players into the experience. The music is top-notch, with a trippy vibrant vibe that invokes the sense of mystery and adventure into The Sarcophagus.
The only nitpick I could possibly think of would be the use of the time-looping "cycles" mechanic that resets the player back in the beginning devoid of their skills.
Ultros Overview & Premise
You are Ouji, a sojourner who crash lands into The Sarcophagus, ending up stranded. Those who find themselves in there end up becoming trapped in an eternal loop of a black hole. This could be very well caused by the ancient demonic being known as ULTROS, which lurks within the cosmic uterus, The Sarcophagus. On your travels to survey the area and seek refuge, you’ll meet the inhabitants, who will offer you guidance in accepting your faith.
It will be up to you whether you wish to break out of the cycle or relinquish your freedom and be part of the evergoing link from destruction to rebirth.
Ultros FAQ
Who’s Ultros’ Artist?
The main artist for Ultros is El Huervo, real name Niklas Åkerblad. He is a Swedish artist known for his colorful and vivid paintings. In the video game world, he is widely known for making the Hotline Miami games’ cover arts. Besides making art, he’s also a music composer and has created tracks for Hotline Miami as well.
Is Ultros a Roguelike?
Ultros is NOT a rogue-like, though it may seem that way due to the loss of all skills and reverting back to the beginning at the start of each cycle. Many others liken it to The Legend of Zelda’s Majora’s Mask, where even though players seem to loop back in time, past decisions influence the future from each reset, allowing for changes in the environment and adventure.
What are Ultros‘s System Requirements
| System Specs | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 7 | Windows 11 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5(5th Gen) | Intel Core i5(6th Gen) |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics | GeForce GT 750M | GeForce GT 850M |
| Storage | 6 GB available space | 6 GB available space |
Ultros Product Information
 | |
| Title | ULTROS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | February 13, 2024 |
| Developer | Hadoque |
| Publisher | El Huervo, Kepler Ghost |
| Supported Platforms | PC(Steam, Epic Games), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 |
| Genre | Metroidvania, Adventure, Platformer |
| Number of Players | Single-Player(1) |
| Rating | ESRB T |
| Official Website | Ultros Official Website |
