TAURONOS

Making badges on steam can be worth it sometimes. In this case, I got a 50% coupon for Tauronos. It’s appealing to give such a game a try when it costs me €2,50 and it seems to have its priorities straight. I can say with confidence that the game has been worth it after spending 6.7 hours on it.

The game is mostly a mix of exploration, survival, health/stamina management and being chased by a monster in some stages. You have a light around you that lets you see your direct surroundings but the rest of the stage is dark. You have to be careful of traps or you need to avoid getting lost in a maze. Clearing rubbles takes time and running costs stamina. You can become stronger when you find upgrades for your stats (armour, stamina, interaction time, strength of light and movement speed). There are 6 chapters with each one having between 5 and 8 stages. The game also has secrets where you can find extra lives, health regen, unlocks for a map editor etc. There are different difficulty modes with easy allowing you to continue after losing your lives. But you will have to start from the beginning of a chapter. Game auto saves when you clear a stage.

The most important aspect the game got right is the gameplay. It kept my attention because the levels are well designed, the stats and the upgrades work well with noticeable improvements every time, the game is challenging in the right way and it’s engaging exploring or managing your health/stamina. I played on easy and it feels like it’s just right in terms of challenge. Having to retry an entire chapter is a good motivator to do your best without the game being too punishing. The game seems like it could get frustrating if played on higher difficulties (I didn’t test this) and I normally hate being chased in games. This shouldn’t be a game for me on paper but it really works on easy at least. The chase sequences feel like puzzles and offer a bit of variety to the whole package. What’s surprising is a game like this having quite a bit of voice acting for the main character. I like it, it gives it a bit of personality. The achievements are also fun and will require playing the game twice. It’s great that you can get all the achievements on easy. There are luckily no difficulty related achievements.

With all that said, the game has a few minor flaws. I’ve experienced one bug where the playable character got stuck on a wall with one specific stage. I had to exit the stage and retry a few times until it worked. This can be more of a problem on higher difficulties as you lose a life every time you exit the game if you don’t select ‘continue later’ after finishing a stage. It’s not possible to select stages or retry the ones you’ve completed. If you missed secrets, though luck. You can retry with new game. The game also only shows you what you missed after finishing a stage, it doesn’t show you in advance. This coupled with not being allowed to select or retry stages forced me to write down the stages with the secrets I’ve missed for my second run. It sounds pretty bad but the game is not long and there are some alternative choices where you’re going to replay the game anyways. And lastly, the game lacks variety in terms of graphical assets and color palette. The stages look a bit similar even though they’re different in terms of gameplay design.

I’m impressed with Tauronos, I had a great time despite some of the flaws mentioned. The developer knows how to create a fun game and they made sure everything around it is of a decent enough quality. It’s one of those good examples where a budget is effectively spent while you can see it’s small. This game is worth a try if you like smaller experimental indie games and are on the patient side.

Tauronos is an indie game that combines elements from the adventure, survival horror and puzzle genres. In it, you play as a Greek warrior descending into the depths of an underground complex where a hostile minotaur is lurking. Also, facing the minotaur may or may not have a symbolic significance...?

The gameplay is generally slow-paced dungeon crawling from a top-down perspective. You move around labyrinthine corridors, try to avoid traps through patient observation, clear rocky obstacles and pick up upgrades which will boost some of your stats, such as movement speed, torch power and defense.

The minotaur is also present in some levels, slowly but surely moving towards your location like a heat-seeking missile. Given enough time, the minotaur's speed and aggression increases, until eventually it's impossible to avoid. The only way to slow down the minotaur is to close the hatch from where it spawns; other than that, you just have to keep moving and think on your feet.

The game's basic formula is pretty simple, but the developers have squeezed everything out of it to keep things interesting for the game's six chapters. It doesn't take long until the game starts playing some mind tricks on the player, creating and betraying expectations to keep you on your toes. Sometimes it forces you to go slowly and observe, sometimes it makes you rush ahead to avoid a real or implied danger. It has some psychological and even "meta" elements, which is always interesting, even though subjectively I didn't feel everything cohered together in a perfectly satisfying way in this regard towards the end.

The game's audio is good. There isn't a lot of music, but all of it is quite atmospheric. Arrangements featuring harp, strings, timpani and similar percussion instrumentation fits the ancient Greek setting. The sound design is perfectly functional as well. Sound actually plays a surprisingly important role in the game, as there are some traps that can be heard before they can be seen. There's also some decent voice acting. Occasionally a bug may cause sound effects to play multiple times at once, but that's the only negative thing I have to say about the audio.

The game uses an extra lives system which is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, knowing you have a limited amount of continues makes the game feel more tense and serious. On the other, the game's design is at worst essentially based on trial-and-error, which makes the idea of limited continues seem fundamentally unfair. For instance, there are insta-kill traps which are not easy to notice until it's too late. Your visibility is frustratingly poor in the game, and even with maxed out torch power I frequently walked on trap tiles all around the game. Getting cornered into a dead end by the minotaur can also be a guaranteed game over, depending on the tightness of the corridor.

Playing on "easy" difficulty allows you to restart from the start of the current chapter instead of having to restart the whole game upon running out of lives, and doing so is recommended because it's unlikely you can finish the game with the 10 lives you're initially given. Furthermore, given the slow-paced gameplay, having to replay lengthy sections is not necessarily a very enjoyable prospect.

The game took me around 4.5 hours total to beat on easy-difficulty. As for unlocks, the game comes with a level editor, which is a cool bonus for the truly dedicated.

I found Tauronos to be frustrating and unfair sometimes, but it has an intriguing premise and atmosphere, and it can get quite tense too. So, overall my score is around 6/10. It fills a pretty unique niche, so feel free to give it a try if it seems interesting.

Love the dungeon vibe and the general design idea!
Pretty tough too, so beware!

Overall this is mostly a well thought out game. Its got puzzles that aren't to complex, A captivating story line, and some amazing art and voice overs. The reason i chose not to recommend this game though is mainly because it is very easy (to get the evil win screen) and because there is a lack of community made content it means a player who wants to feel like they won could be forced to repeat the same levels and chapters over and over again until they finally find the objective. I hope im being direct enough about this. I dont want to spoil anything so im not putting the name of objective or an explanation to what the evil win screen is. (im going to change this to a positive review because i really appreciate it when developers listen to there community and use that to try and make there game better and because this game only needs some minor changes in my opinion.)

A short game (on easy, at least), and a mixed bag, but it has some merit.

The dark tone and feel is quite good. Looking out for traps while being chased is entertaining. Do I stop to heal or get away? Should I sprint now and get a head start or do I need to evade boulders?
There is room for improvement though: "Outside the box", the level where you just walk, is frustrating and boring, it almost had me quit. "The Sword" isn't much better with all the debris littered about. These feel like padding.
I would've liked more non-linear levels where I had to hide from the Minotaur. Mostly it seems to know exactly where I am all the time and we have a race to the end most of the time.
While the tutorial is quite good, the mechanic of closing the Minotaur access hatch is underutilized - I don't think it comes up all that often.
The upgrades didn't feel all that impactful (though that may chance at higher difficulties).

The game lacks a bit of variety (I know, easier said than done), that would boost it from okay to great, at least in my mind.

Hey>
I really enjoyed the game and especially since it had a controller option.
....You often are playing as just pants though.
The torso keeps disappearing every now and then.
Who knew you could get more topless.

A game where you play as Theseus as he navigates the Labyrinth to defeat the Minotaur. I found it to be really dull, frustrating, and poorly designed. You are essentially on a time limit in every level, as the Minotaur becomes progressively faster over time until it’s impossible to outrun. Despite this, areas are open-ended and you’re meant to explore every nook and cranny to find secrets and upgrades. This wouldn’t be too frustrating under normal circumstances — I initially thought the idea was that casual players could just rush to the exit while completionists would slowly map out the area, taking the deaths as they came until they found the optimal route.

…Except the game also uses a lives system, and if you run out you have to restart the entire game from the beginning. So you really cannot afford to explore, because there is no safe way to do so and lives are a precious resource. Compounding this is that the areas are not intuitive at all; there are hazards that trigger with no warning, including obstacles that block your route back. So if you didn’t bother to explore absolutely everything before going down that unmarked one-way corridor, sucks to be you! It basically all just comes down to luck of the draw; you have to pick a path at random and hope you don’t charge down a blind alley. Even more frustratingly, the game tells you what powerups are in a level, but only after you complete it, and you cannot return to previous levels. It all seems designed on roguelike principles, except the point of roguelikes is that every run is different so it doesn’t feel like you’re just bashing your head against the same wall until you memorize the perfect way forward.

Also, the dialogue and voice actor are ridiculously melodramatic. The atmosphere would have been a thousand times stronger with a silent protagonist.

Pixel Art: 1/5......(Drab)
Immersion: 1/5....(Nothing but slowing walking through maze)
Gameplay: 2/5.....(Hard...Slow...Boring)
Controls: 2.5/5.....(Awkward)
Value: 0/5........(Should be free)
Difficulty: 4.5/5...
--------------
Overall 1.3 (Difficulty always excluded)


I really don't know what to say...

I read great reviews for this game and after trying it, I have to say it is NOT worth playing in my opinion!

All I can say is the graphic design is ugly, the sepia tone bland!

You walk so very slow...slow very boring!

Paid only $1 and that was too much!

A legit good top-down cavern puzzler with a really good low-res art direction.
I'm not touching the journey-as-metaphor aspect.

I loved this game. I finished it in two days and then came back the third to beat it again and 100% it, really fun. I was actually feeling stressed while being chased by the minotaur, as you should feel if the game does it right. I reccomend this game to people who wants a quick story and adventure but also to people who like finding secrets and unlocking all achievments. Great game!

!SPOILER!
If you, the creator of the game, read this, could you please add the sword to the map editor? If you have, please tell me where I can find it because I'm not able to.

Purchased this game after talking to the dev in one of the discords I'm in. The game was nothing like i've ever played on PC, which was a good thing. It was definetly a change of pace and honestly, I had a lot of fun with it. I streamed it one night and the viewers were really engaged and excited. I recommend this game to anyone out there!

I was offered a code for streaming(press kit) but turned it down because I had planned on buying it anyhow. Really enjoyed it on my first game, there is permadeath, the controls felt good. the voice acting really fit the character, the graphics were crisp and complemented the game play, There are hidden secrets to explore, monsters to avoid and what appears to be a very deep plot despite the simple appearance. I look forward to full controller support, I think I will enjoy the game more, my left hand started to cramp up a bit, but the plot twists within the first 2 chapters I finished will keep me coming back I think. I missed a lot of things, so I look forward to going back now that I understand more and really searching the maze.

Tauronos is a gorgeous indie game. I've played 2 hours straight on my first run, it really captured me. It's rich in atmosphere and suspense. The gameplay, pixel art and the sound effects coalesce into a wonderful and tense experience. There are power ups that give you a nice sense of progression while the environment keeps you on your toes. Don't ignore your character's monologues and watch out for dead ends!

WHOAH, this was not what I expected at all! It's a dungeon crawler with voice acting, great puzzles and wild power-ups. Kind of amazing, the depth of it. Almost all of the levels have additional power-ups or new types of puzzles. The art and music are really atmospheric. Love this one, gonna sink more time into it and maybe finally beat the damn minotaur.

I have been following this game since the demo on an gamejolt and I really enjoyed the game then. Now that the full version is out I can't wait to get through the entire game. The art style in this game is very interesting. Very minimal colors besides foliage just brings to life the situtation you are in as the main character. The chases at the beginning of the game appear to be very simple, but amp up if you aren't ready to finish the level. It is unnerving to only hear the roar of the monster to know when it is at your level. Other then this, the old school puzzle solving and maze navigation is a challenging without being rage inducing. I am so excited to see how this all ends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEs0UDjV0eQ

Wow, so hard this game, really challenging. You really need to have a good memory for the maze.
In general, is a good game, but I think there can be some improvements
- The game is hard, even on easy (the mode that I played) = but I like it, if it too easy you get bored of the game
- I really like to play as the minotaur, so I loved when I killed that petty human 😊
- The last map on second chapter, when I played as the minotaur, I got stuck, I couldn’t move, so I was obligated to leave the game and lose a life ☹
- It is normal that after a time, the minotaur is much faster than me??
- It’s hard to get used with the way I move, keyboard + mouse, more practice
Nice game, I hope they get good reviews and they are continuing to do nice work with the game.
Best regards,

It's just okay. Very mediocre, not very well made (touching a still ball-and-chain gives you damage and having your ankle get within 5 inches of a spike takes off half your health if not all of it). Above all, though, a lives system is inexcusable in 2017.

Graphics: That sort of "pseudo-pixel art" where your character and the environment are 69bit sprites or what have you, but they didn't feel like putting in the effort to have multiple sprites so that they wouldn't be turning and making their pixels diagonal. The kind of thing where you can tell they chose pixel art because it would be easier to make and not out of love for the era or as a challenge to themselves.

Controls: Controls are fine. Nothing to complain about because there's not much there; WASD to walk, mouse to turn, E to interact and shift to sprint. My character said something about fighting the Minotaur so perhaps there's combat at a point later than I got to.

Price: 5$ is a bit much to ask for what seems to be a first try of sorts. Seems like the kind of thing you'd make for a project in a game development class. I've seen better games for less. It'd definitely be worth 2$ though, but no more.

Story: You're in a labyrinth for some reason. There must be a good reason though, because at the very beginning you're at the entrance with daylight behind you. There is a minotaur who is also in the labyrinth. Personally I'm a huge mythology buff so it's good enough for me.

Dialogue: Voice acting's surprisingly good, actually, which is the only reason I mention it. Audio quality is good. Greek mythology references are sprinkled into your dialogue which I like. Your character narrates to himself while in the labyrinth.

Gameplay: Don't get caught in traps, which is harder than it sounds because of the aforementioned weird little things from the first paragraph. A Minotaur chases you, and does damage if he catches you (which he won't because you walk faster than him, much less run). To make the Minotaur more of a joke, you can put him out of commission by reaching his entry point and interacting with it before he can beat you up. As I mentioned before, the lives system is just a bad choice.

~~In total I'd give it a 5.5/10 maybe. Buy it if the price drops.~~

Edit: So this was the first game I played on my mission to play brand new indie games and review them, and it appears I've severely overestimated the average indie game's quality. I'd like to retroactively give this game maybe a 7/10. Still a bit overpriced, I'm sorry to say. Having a story at all gives it a couple points alone.

Turonos is an interesting little puzzle game. All the features you expect are in there and the overall feeling is that of a polished game.

Pros:
- engaging gameplay due to the darkness and the constant need to flee
- elaborate levels that require at least two playthroughs in order to uncover most of the secrets and powers
- engaging puzzles without being difficult. I don't really like puzzle centered games and that is why this one has just the right content. Just enough to give you something to quickly think at while running, but not difficult so you would have to stop and risk being mauled to death.
- good sound fx and nice pixel art (with bonus decent voiceovers)
- low price

Cons:
- sometimes cluncky controls. I died lots of times and took me up the half of the game until I realised how exactly I should approach the debris removal. I wish the devs would alow you to also hold the movement key in the direction the debris is while clearing the debris with "E". Right now, when you are running like a maniac you aproach a debry and press "E" without any result since you must release the movement key first.
- a couple of times the levels felt big or convoluted just for the sake of adding extra game time rather than giving any meaningful game play.

Overall I recommend this game taking into account all the above mentioned points.
Go ahead and buy it, especially since it is on discount!

This game quite challenging with some surprise, looks like easy until you try it by yourself and got die by just an obstacles, fun fact, i got so many dies in this game, now you guys now if im suck at gaming haha!

Awesome pixel art, rich atmosphere and quite interesting story! Didn't expect to get voice acting and was a pleasant addition, reminds me of Bastion narration. The devs added everything I expect from good games these days!

Tauronos is a rather unique game and will have you exploring a labyrinth, while trying to stay out of the Minotaurs reach, and avoid traps and obstacles. There are some levels where he does not appear and you will have to cleverly avoid traps using hints on the floors and walls. I made it chapter 2 so far and have really enjoyed it. You will find upgrades to enhance your characters abilities, such as faster movment, faster interact speed, among others. The lighting and sounds are very atmospheric and there are complete voice overs throughout the game. All in all a really great game for a low price. Recommended!