Apotheon manages a pretty neat trick - it's even better the second time you play it. Or, at least, it was better the second time I played it. I think it's because I was more comfortable with the controls, so I could focus more on the strategy and nuance of its surprisingly deep combat system. Another factor might have been that I was focusing on getting a 100% completion, so I was spending more time peeking into nooks and crannies and I got to see more of its remarkably designed world and Greek-mythology in-jokes. It also didn't hurt that I was much better equipped, thanks to all the treasure I found.
It is a foregone conclusion that I'm going to play this game again. Not necessarily because it's good, though it is, but because I fell just short of my 100% completion. I got every achievement except one - beat the game on "Olympian" difficulty. I don't really have an excuse. I beat the game twice on normal, got every treasure chest, and completed all of the optional side missions. I guess I was just intimidated by the though of skipping up to the highest difficulty after only playing it once.
I'm not sure I need to have worried, though. I played about a half-hour on Olympian (my two completions came to 19 and a half hours, because the world hates me, apparently) and it wasn't too bad. Enemies are a bit tougher, and you don't auto-heal, but considering how I finished my last normal playthrough with a maxed-out stock of health potions, maybe I have room to be less conservative.
Overall, I'd say Apotheon is a hidden gem. Good gameplay, fantastic graphics, entertaining story (that only made me want to scream in rage because of my own personal hang-ups) - the only real complaint I have about it is all the times it crashed to desktop. Buying this game, for me, was totally a case of judging a book by its cover, but after 20 hours, I can definitely say that it worked out for the best. Maybe old proverbs don't know everything after all.
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