Review: TAURONOS (Nintendo Switch)

TAURONOS is a top-down action-adventure game where you’re trying to escape a labyrinth. While exploring this network of tunnels, you’re also being chased by a minotaur. As the story develops, your relationship and understanding of the minotaur grows. But are these mazes worth your time?

While trying to avoid the minotaur, you’ll need to look out for booby traps on the floor. There are hints on the floor to help you avoid them, but dodging the trap is somehow very difficult even if you understand the hints. Still, when you think you’ve walked around the trap on the floor, you sometimes don’t walk far enough around and still step on it when trying to avoid the next piece of the trap. 

Other times there might be rocks in the path that you have to clear by holding a button. You have to pay attention to the meter showing you what is left that needs to be cleared. Watching the screen most of the time, the path looked clear to me. However, it isn’t completely clear if even just a small pebble is still on the ground, and you cannot pass, which – like Wookies on Endor – just does not make sense!  At other times, while clearing the rubble, you’re also being attacked by booby traps. It becomes frustrating trying to dodge and clear rubble at the same time. Having to clear for a few seconds then back up and wait for the arrow to shoot before resuming to clear the path. It just felt so tedious. There were also times when rubble was in the way that could not be removed. This would be fine – if it looked different than other pieces of rubble. Instead, it just added to my list of frustrations.

There are extra things like secret passages within levels that you get credit for finding. Usually, these hidden places are guarded by ruins and other traps. Unfortunately, uncovering these bonuses doesn’t feel worth it for such a little reward. The reward would usually be something like more stamina but normally after gaining it I couldn’t tell if it made any difference.

As you can tell, I had a tough time getting into the game. At the end of each level, you can quit, and the next time you play, you can pick up from the next level, which is a nice touch; however, I never really felt the need to continue going. Each maze just feels as dull as the previous one. Sometimes as you’re about to exit a level, rubble falls in front of you, and you have to clear it out before exiting. This felt like a waste of time; delaying it just so the game would feel longer. Although a story isn’t always the most important part of a game, it’s nothing without decent gameplay; unfortunately, TAURONOS failed to deliver enjoyable gameplay.

Another issue I had was seen where the traps were overly frustrating. Suddenly, I was being shot with some arrows from the wall without seeing where they were coming from. It became more of a game to memorize where all the traps were in order to get through. It’s not how I want to spend my time playing a game.

TAURONOS it’s just a game that I could not get into. The puzzles seemed dull and very uncomplex. It felt more like a game that I had played on a mobile device years ago, not a game releasing on a console. Whether I am taking my Switch on the go or playing in my living room, there are many other games I’d rather play.

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