Aztez is a black-and-white brawler for PC and consoles

Aztez proves that you don't need little things like color to make a cool-looking action game. Well, maybe that's not entirely true. You do need one color: red. Red, as in blood!

Ozzie Mejia

March 17, 2014 3:00 PM

3

Aztez proves that you don't need little things like color to make a cool-looking action game. Well, maybe that's not entirely true. You do need one color: red. Red, as in blood! Aztez certainly isn't short on red or blood. The appropriately-named Team Colorblind will bring its unique black-and-white (and red) blend of 2D beat 'em up and turn-based strategy to PS4 and Vita, as well as PC (with Oculus Rift support), Xbox One, and Wii U.

Originally conceived in 2008 as a PC title, Aztez takes place in 1428 AD and centers around expanding the mighty Aztec empire through intense 2D combat. Combat will include complex combos, using four different weapon sets that include the spear, the club, the ritual knife, and the legendary obsidian sword, among others. Artist/combat designer Ben Ruiz likening the combat system to Devil May Cry and Bayonetta.

The other major aspect of Aztez is turn-based strategy, in which players will manage their empire and make crucial decisions on where they should attack next, leading to potentially different outcomes. Ruiz states that this aspect of the game is to help encourage replayability.

"We decided early on that we didn't want to make another beat 'em up that forces you through a linear narrative and rote platforming segments," Ruiz said on PlayStation.Blog, "so we've created what we feel is an infinitely more interesting vehicle for thrilling combat; a randomized, historical Risk-like. Haha! It might be an overly unusual combination, but the way we see it, it can't be any worse than grabbing more ledges or pushing around more blocks. And besides, if you do well in our strategy game, you might get to do some pretty profound history rewriting."

Aztez and its uniquely bloody blend of 2D combat and strategy are set to arrive later this year.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?