The story of Antro is that you play as Niitch and it’s up to you and the group you’re working with to overthrow the company known as La Cúpula.
That’s the story of Antro in a nutshell and that’s really all I will say without spoiling it for you. What I do want to touch on with the story is that it’s told very well. The story elements are told through narration as you play through the game, but also with hand drawn animated cut-scenes that are a work of art, literally. It looks like these were hand drawn, and then animated.
Along with the beautifully drawn cut-scenes, the story of the game is told through voice acting. The voice acting really helps to give the story of the game some weight behind it and I don’t think it would be as good as it is without it.
Antro is a side-scrolling platformer with a heavy focus on auto running. You can do a bit of exploring to find collectibles, but the bulk of the game will be auto running segments with a few puzzles sprinkled in.
The puzzles in the game take the form of button press sequences as well as a few environmental ones that have you pressing certain switches and using your environment around you to get to where you need to go.
When it comes to the auto running sections, that’s really where the game shines. The music ramps up and your character just starts running. You have to take down enemies, jump across platforms, crash through glass windows,and make sure your jumps are precise. One wrong move, and you have to start the entire section over again.
The button press puzzles can be a bit challenging and at one point, really had me about to quit, but I was eventually able to get through it and press on through the rest of the game. That’s really all there is to say about the game in terms of how it plays. I mean it’s pretty straight forward. As simple as the game seems to be, it’s a really fun experience.
Antro is just stunning in every aspect. The character you play as is blocky and generic looking. The environments you traverse are 3D but have a cartoon-like look to them while at the same time having a sense of realism. The smoke effects and lighting really help the areas you traverse come to life and look gorgeous. I found myself just stopping at times to marvel at how amazing the game looks. The game does a great job at using scale and can really make you feel small and insignificant, but in a good way.
Antro is a side-scrolling platformer and playing it on the Xbox Series X, I was expecting the game to perform very well and it did. There aren’t any bits of slow-down, no graphical artifacts and the scrolling with the auto run sections are as smooth as a hot knife through butter. Even the load times are next to no time at all, which I will admit was surprising with how good the game looks.
The music in Antro is audio gold. As you play through the game, the music will go from being ominous and then cranked up and hard hitting as soon as you find yourself running like your life depended on it. The music during the auto run platforming sections hits hard. It’s up-beat with a techno-futuristic sound that fits the game perfectly. The background music does a great job of keeping you in the action and helps to motivate you to move on through the game. With the ominous sections where the game isn’t as action packed, it still gives you a sense of something not being right and the motivation to keep playing to see how the game ends.
As amazing as the music in this game is, that’s about it for the sound department. I mean there are the industrial sounds of fans, lasers, and things of that nature that do help bring the environment to life, but nothing to really expand upon. Sound in Antro really is all about the music, and I am totally okay with that.
Antro is a game that I found extremely frustrating at times to continue to play through. There are button pushing sequences that had me nearly throwing my controller, same goes for some of the auto-running platforming sections. But on the other side of the coin, I am glad that I was able to complete the game.
The game is well worth picking up. It’s one of those games that you play through and it will continue to stick with you well after you’ve beaten it.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.