Minos Review: The Minotaur is a Great Strategist

Do you remember the Minotaur? A creature that legends describe as monstrous and born from the union of Pasiphae (wife of Minos) and a sacred bull, an authentic divine punishment inflicted by Poseidon. A mythological being who was confined in Daedalus's labyrinth due to his ferocity and was later defeated by Theseus thanks to the well-known thread of Ariadne, which then allowed him to find his way back.

And, as expected, this myth has become a source of inspiration for the Polish studio Artificier, which seized the opportunity and crafted a real-time strategy game with tower defense elements. To be more precise, Minos is a roguelite in which, as Asterius (still the Minotaur, by the way), we must build labyrinths and defend our personal sanctuary from reckless adventurers. 

It's curious how the developers have somewhat changed the game, transforming the beast we've hunted in various video game interpretations into the authentic protagonist who must defend himself and eliminate invaders. Minos is therefore a title in which we must design labyrinths starting from a random and limited number of contraptions, making the best use of available resources to eliminate as many conquerors as possible (as we already told you a bit in our preview).

After donning the Minotaur mask (no, we didn't actually do that), we plunged into this new challenge after hiding an infinite number of deadly traps. 

A Roguelike that Recalls Greek Mythology

Earlier, we only gave you a brief hint about the myth of the Minotaur, also because discussing it in depth would make this reading rather verbose and detached from Minos. And indeed, although there is a strong inspiration from Greek myths, this adventure develops in a rather original and unprecedented way. In this iteration, Asterion will live his personal epic, and as he delves deeper and deeper into the labyrinth's corridors, he will collect scrolls and notes that will allow him to reconstruct the entire story.

By our side, we will always have Daedalus, a man we could almost define as a father figure, who will guide us through the new mechanics to prevent anyone from leaving the "den" unharmed, and perhaps with our head under their arm. What should we do? Build real labyrinths, erecting walls (changing the very morphology of the level) and placing traps to literally pulp the aspiring plunderers.

In the labyrinths, we can also collect a good amount of gold and gems to buy new traps or accessories that will make the undertaking a little easier. However, even the most brilliant planner makes mistakes: in case of death, in fact, we will lose everything we have greedily accumulated except for experience, which will be very useful for unlocking brand new abilities and improving stats. As a good roguelite, death does not equate to a game over, and the experience gained will allow us to delve into new levels with villains ready to hunt us down for the hoped-for rewards. The ultimate goal always remains the same: survive the required number of rounds. 

Minos gives us full freedom to build our "dungeon," erecting walls in the first phase that will guide the various tomb raiders to their death. Once the path is prepared, and Asterion is hidden in a strategic point of the labyrinth, we can start the second phase where we make them fall into a trap. Of course, we can also fight them face-to-face, but the chances of losing will be very high. Among other things, strategic kills will fill a "blood vessel" which, once full, can be offered as a sacrifice to obtain a new trap to place.

In summary, this experience is divided into three phases: building the labyrinth (and leading enemies along specific paths), placing the various traps (which can be moved and reorganized without limits), and controlling the Minotaur. Let's be honest, Minos is an extremely challenging game that offers a decent variety and an ever-increasing challenge. At first, everything seems simpler, but as we advance, we will find villains ready to attack from long range, with some even having the "presumption" to deactivate traps.

The time we spent with the Minotaur made us reflect; it put us in a condition where strategy played a decidedly more decisive role than brute force. It is a title that constantly stimulates and provides many ideas to make the labyrinth a fortress from which no phantom could emerge unscathed. 

Minos Puts the Player's Endurance to the Test

If you are familiar with strategy games, perhaps with some tower defense elements, then you know that sometimes sessions can be particularly long. This means that the "hit and run" concept will sometimes be questioned even when we have unlocked various shortcuts. No big deal, Minos offers many elements to discover that will give the player an infinite number of different strategies to implement. And this is a good sign, but sometimes we found ourselves experimenting with certain mechanics because the game itself did not put the player in a position to learn. The lack of explanation for some features made certain moments frustrating, resulting in game overs under specific conditions.

From a strictly artistic point of view, we believe a decent job has been done, with characters created with great style and 3D labyrinths that are decidedly well-structured and simply designed. The various camera views, perfectly orientable to provide a more suitable overall vision, have also been convincingly implemented and suffer from no problems whatsoever. On the musical front, nothing exceptional, but it perfectly matches the events to create the right tension during the most exciting moments of gameplay.

We would like to point out that Minos supports (in the PC version we tested) Xbox and PlayStation controllers (in addition to mouse and keyboard, of course, the first choice for this genre of product). But as often happens, there is no support for the Italian language: so if you don't speak the idiom, some mechanics might prove more difficult than expected.