Ultros, a fever dream – exciting, but not quite coherent

I wake up in an unfamiliar environment. The colourful world around me is dazzling. Am I dreaming? Everything seems so surreal. Shadowy shapes shuffle across the background. After a few steps, I recognise my reflection in a puddle. Is that me? Who even am I?

I walk on and come across a lifeless body, run through by a sword. I remove it. Suddenly, the person lying on the floor appears in front of me and starts speaking. I understand their language, but not what they’re talking about

Ultros starts off eerie. I have no idea what’s happening. My only goal? To find out what’s going on here.

Ultros’ plot is confusing and disturbing

Developer Hadoque reveals a little more about the story in the Steam description. Apparently, I crash-landed in the sarcophagus, a giant cosmic uterus drifting through space housing the ancient demonic being Ultros.

I’m trapped in the infinite time loop of a black hole. Only gradually do I get to know the people in the sarcophagus and realise what role I play. And that’s all I’ll say on the story for now. It’s disturbing and provides a glimpse into the depths of the human psyche. Typical of the genre, I have to find out the plot piece by piece myself. Much remains cryptic after a first playthrough. To fully decipher everything, I have to continue exploring the world after the end credits. There are alternative endings to discover. Only these reveal every detail of the story.

Not only is the story absurd, the characters are also wonderfully weird. There’s Gärdner, for example, who looks after the plants in the sarcophagus. His love of vegetation is almost pathological. He feels like the only constant in this space uterus. Qualia, on the other hand, is anything but constant and always appears confused. It’s other characters and the world of Ultros that fully shape protagonist Ouji. She herself never speaks and her name isn’t mentioned in the game.

My first run took 10.5 hours, but I also sped through quickly for this review. Hadoque gives a target time of 15 hours. I reckon I’ll have to spend another five hours to discover everything. And as the world of Ultros has captivated me, I’ll certainly do so in the future.

Metroidvania with rogue-lite elements

Ultros feels like a classic Metroidvania. Little by little, I explore a large map with different areas. Certain locations are only unlocked over time by acquiring skills.

I learn story-relevant skills by exploring the world and getting to the end of a loop – more on that in a moment. There I receive the so-called Extractor, a mask-like artefact linked to me and providing me various skills. One of these is the genre favourite Double Jump. Others let me fly for a short time and cut or dig up plants. Then in Ultros, I get to show off my green fingers as well as my exploratory skills. By gardening, I manipulate my surroundings and progress in the map as well as the story. Some of the puzzles that arise require a lot of thinking.

As great as these skills sound, I rarely need them. To progress in the story, I usually only need them in one area. Later on, they’re barely used.

If I’ve learned a new Extractor skill, the loop starts again when I enter a certain room. I then wake up at the starting location again. Other characters seem to have forgotten about me. Same goes for my skills – I have to recover them in another room.

In addition to the Extractor skills, there are also Cortex skills. They aren’t necessary to progress, but enhance the gameplay with new attacks, more health points or increased attack power. I learn them by eating the remains of my opponents. Depending on how I dice them up, they leave behind different-quality body parts, so variety in combat is rewarded.

Like the Extractor, I lose my Cortex skills at the end of a loop, having to fight for them once more. Luckily, I can find items that let me keep a selected Cortex skill in new loops.

Gameplay isn’t always that clear

As with the story, Ultros explains little about its gameplay. At one point, for example, I come across a machine. Activating it, a ball with an eye appears. I can move it with my attacks and the eye follows me. Initially, I don’t know what to do with it. Only after some trial and error do I realise that when I activate the machine again, it teleports me to the ball. OK, so I have to move the ball to inaccessible places with my attacks and then teleport there. Realising what the game wants from me sometimes takes a while.

At least the gameplay mechanic with the ball isn’t a one-off. Later in the game it’s even expanded on with a football-like activity. Other mini-games such as a version of Connect 4 provide variety in addition to exploring, fighting and gardening.

A cool combat system that doesn’t reach its full potential

Ultros uses sword-based combat. No blocking, but I can dodge. If I do so at the right time, I can execute a counterattack. Some enemies equip a protective shield that I first have to destroy with a charged attack, but I can also juggle opponents. To do this, I first have to fling them up with specific moves and then hit them again with a standard attack. Then I can throw them in any direction, even at other enemies. I use the Cortex, the skill board, to expand my moveset.

Battles are varied enough, it’s just a shame this doesn’t carry over to my enemies. It feels like I always encounter the same five or six baddies. Most of them are too easy for my taste as well. This goes for standard antagonists as well as bosses – and I play on the highest possible difficulty level. Too bad, Ultros is wasting a lot of potential here.

The world of Ultros – grotesque, yet so beautiful

The Ultros map, on the other hand, is outstanding. It starts with the psychedelic sci-fi style by art director El Huervo. Initially, the areas seem very similar. On closer inspection, however, this is because transitions between them are smooth, not abrupt. The same also goes for the Ratvader soundtrack. If I change areas, any shifts in music are barely noticed. In any case, the soundtrack and sound effects are brilliant and draw me even more under the Ultros spell.

The structure of the map is also impressive. Individual areas are neatly connected or separated from each other in a clever way. I enjoy exploring the world of Ultros, even if I have to go through certain areas several times due to the loops. The rogue-lite elements hardly bother me – usually I’m not a fan. Although I have to start from the beginning in loops, there’s always something different.

Planting flora is skilfully woven into the world. It’s optional at the start, then becomes mandatory in order to progress with the story. This also changes the world itself. Where there was darkness before, a beautiful tree grows within a short time. I can also pick and eat fruit off my plant creatures, which in turn improves my stats. The sarcophagus thus becomes a living organism that changes over time.

Despite all the positives, I also had to contend with bugs in two areas that prevented me from progressing. I wasn’t sure if I was stuck because of a bug or because I had to go somewhere else. It took me a long time to find out. However, I’m confident that Hadoque will fix these bugs before release.

Verdict: a world worth exploring

Ultros is one of those games that grabs me right from the start, even though it doesn’t give anything away. Maybe that’s why I like it. I like being thrown in at the deep end and exploring the unknown without context. And if the world around me is as stylish as the sarcophagus, all the better. The environmental storytelling and fresh ideas like gardening in a Metroidvania are ingenious.

Unfortunately, these ideas aren’t fully integrated. My escapades as a space gardener are fun, but they only help me progress in the story at certain points. Over time, certain skills become completely forgotten at the bottom of the uterus and feel irrelevant.

Same goes for the combat system. It would’ve had great potential, but in the end, it suffers from a lack of enemy variety. They’re always easy to beat in exactly the same way. What’s more, baddies don’t present me with any problems. For my taste, the game is too easy.

Despite my criticism, I enjoyed playing Ultros. If you’re into Metroidvanias, you’ll probably feel the same way. I can recommend the game for around 25 francs/euros, especially if you have a Steam Deck OLED. It’s verified for the handheld from launch. The game looks magical on the screen.

Ultros will be available for PS5, PS4 and PC from 13 February. The game was provided to me by Kepler Interactive for testing purposes.