Marko: Beyond Brave review

Games based on either Norse or Greek mythology tend to be a bit ten-a-penny these days, so whenever I get to dip my toes into seas less sailed I take notice. For example, we’re seeing a lot of developers these days pay a little more attention to Slavic legend, with titles like Blacktail and Gord delivering deeply atmospheric experiences. Marko: Beyond Brave is the latest indie to catch the wind, a Metroidvania-style adventure from Studio Mechka.

It’s immediately eye-catching, with hand-drawn visuals and silky smooth animations easily elevating my first impressions. As the titular Marko, last survivor of three courageous brothers who went out to defend their village from a mutated beast, you’ll embark on a jumpy, slashy, puzzle-y quest to save your world from Entropy, a corrupting force slowly destroying the land.

As stories go, it’s fairly straightforward. You can find special stones here and there with lore on them, but it’s generally fairly forgettable. Unfortunately that’s a bit of a theme in Marko: Beyond Brave. It doesn’t really do anything we haven’t seen before in the genre, and it makes a few missteps to boot.

For a start, the map is a little annoying. It’s quite small and makes it tough to work out where you are, and it’s not awfully clear on where you’re supposed to go. There isn’t a lot of “flow” to the level progression, and it’s easy to get lost.

It’s not helped by the platforming, which manages to be stiff and uncomfortable despite the lovely fluid animations. A lot of this is down to the jumping, which just never seems to be satisfying. I had to retry multiple simple jumps because no matter what I did, Marko just couldn’t reach the ledge, despite having reached the same ledge before. You’re not always told where you should be jumping, either, leading to some frustrating deaths. You’ll unlock various traversal moves throughout the story, but nothing feels fresh or new.

Combat doesn’t fare much better. The basic attack is a sword combo, and you’ll soon unlock the ability to throw polearms at distant enemies. More and more combos and abilities will be unlocked as you progress, but nothing is a match for the hitboxes in this game – especially where bosses are concerned. Sometimes an enemy attack will hit you at a range where you were previously safe, and sometimes your attack just won’t reach them despite being close.

The first “boss” is a giant frog whose tongue can reach almost the length of the screen, and you’ll need to jump to avoid it. It’s simple, even rote, but at first was frustrating because the tongue stayed extended just long enough for me to land on it when coming back down, which caused me to take damage. It was a really easy fight made weirdly tougher because the timing just felt off. It only took three attempts, but it was enough to have me feeling a little pessimistic going forward.

In combat, all of Marko’s special attacks use Courage, as does healing. You can only get Courage from hitting enemies, and it doesn’t refill at save shrines. And guess what? Some enemies and obstacles can only be overcome with Courage, so if you run out there’s no option but to head back into a previous screen and kill something to refill. This is not good design, and led to a lot of sighing and eye-rolling.

Marko: Beyond Brave is a good-looking Metroidvania that fails to impress in any other way. It’s not a bad game but iffy design choices and some clunky combat and platforming really hold it back. If you’re absolutely craving a new Metroidvania adventure then it will kill a few hours fairly inoffensively, but there are just so many other choices out there that it’s a hard one to easily recommend.