Epigenesis is pretty much what handball would look like in the future, with some added guns, high platforms and plants that make you stronger. The visuals are reminiscent of Tron, and overall quite appealing. The two teams to choose from are the Omani and the Argos. The Argos are very closely in design to roman gladiators, while the Omani are more robot than anything historic.
The game is very fast-paced, with some exhilarating jumping from platform to tower to platform, and is certainly where the game excels. Once one becomes accustomed to the constant jumping, the game becomes something of perfectly timed bounces, and skillful aerial manoeuvring. The weapons one is supplied with, a pushing projectile and a pulling beam, are not too game changing, and I have played a whole match without getting hit or having to use my guns at all. I understand that for some proper tactical play they would be useful, but tactics are hard to achieve when the player base is so small. Every game session that I had checked on the multiplayer servers, had a very small amount of players, and I was disappointed by this. They ranged in number from zero to two. However, the multiplayer matches that I did get into were quite enjoyable, and relied heavily on teamwork and tricking the enemy team. Considering the maximum/optimal size for a game is ten players, I never did get to experience the true experience of what it would be like to play online.
The bots were easy to outsmart, perhaps because there were only two levels of difficulty; once I had found my route on the map, repeating the same routine was simple. I knew where and when to jump. The bots didn’t learn and didn’t have this intelligence, so I won every game. The ball-stealing mechanic, where the player bashes an enemy holding the ball was interesting to use and did work most of the time, but the relatively high speed of the game made it difficult. That said, timing is a big part of Epigenesis, so it did not take away from the game. Once one has control of the ball, scoring is a rather simple matter. With caution, it is easy to advance from the central platform on which the ball resides, and bring it to the goal. Mostly, the enemies would not hit me with their weapons, and if they did it was while I was stationary, which allowed me to double-jump back to the platform and not fall to my death. The biggest threat to shooting a goal was a simple misjudgement on the jumps, and landing a metre from the platform I was aiming for. But again, with caution it was easy to avoid this.
The game lacks not in terms of detail. It lacks in being captivating. After an hour, I had had enough and went to play something else, till I put it back on the next day. Again, I played for a while, but the novelty of flying over platforms to dump a ball in a ring, chased by stupid AI opponents wore thin. The fact that so little people play the game is nothing the developers can fix. Perhaps adding some new game modes or more maps would improve the time one spends on the game, but perhaps that is just wishful thinking.
Overall, I liked this game, for the couple of hours that I played it. Beyond that, I probably won’t play it much anymore, unless some improvements to replayability (not strictly a word) and player-base are made. Nothing is bad about it, some things are good, but most of it is just mediocre.
Final Verdict: 72/100
+ Fast, Fun Action
+ Interesting game style
- Mediocre Enemy AI
- Little multiplayer fanbase
- Get's repetitive