Asterix & Obelix XLL 3 - The Crystal Menhir

Review

Julius Caesar conquered Britain and Gaul when he was at the helm of the Roman Empire. Well, most of Gaul, with the exception of a small village located in the North-East of the country. A small village with an incredible Druid who had a recipe for a magic potion;  whoever drank this potion would receive incredible strength for a certain period of time and become some super-fighter, the likes of Cassius Clay on Steroids. With one punch, your adversary would instantly go flying, bounce off the moon and crash-land back on our beautiful Earth of ours (usually headfirst!).  Not only that, but one of the villagers fell into the Magic cauldron when he was little, making him the only Gaul who retained this power eternally. His name is Obelix, and with his astute friend Asterix, they went on many adventures to make millions of people smile (young and old) in comics, movies and videogames. Here is the latest adventure in Asterix & Obelix XXL3 – The Crystal Menhir.

Asterix & Obelix XXL3 – The Crystal Menhir is a Co-op/single-player Beat’em up game developed by Osome Studio and published by Microids on Steam on the 21^st of November 2019. The game is also available on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

I have fond memories of reading the adventures of these two Gauls during my youth, and it was a pleasure to be reunited with them in this game.

Avina Gantis, the high priestess of the Island of Thule, an old acquaintance of the Druid Getafix, was kidnapped by the Romans. Thankfully, in their last meeting, Avina gave Getafix a present for him to keep; a Crystal Menhir with three missing shards. Our two friends, Asterix and Obelix, need to collect these three missing shards, and the menhir will point to the direction where Avina Gantis is being kept.

The first mission will have our two heroes retrieving the postman’s satche,l which is locked in the nearby Roman Camp. As you move towards the camp, you learn a few things about our two characters and their dog (mostly about their fighting and how to use their super skills). On the top left of your screen, you’ll have the avatar of the character you’re playing at that time, a few hearts (your health) and a power gauge underneath the hearts. You can swap between both characters at any time you wish. The difference is that Asterix will have a gourd of magic potion while Obelix will be able to send his dog in to attack the Romans and that the power gauge will be smaller while playing with Asterix than with Obelix.

You’ll see plenty of wooden crates lying around, and most of them will contain Roman helmets. Collect as many of these helmets as you can and use them to upgrade both character’s skills at the Ekonomikrisis shop.

The game is basically to follow quests, and very quickly Obelix will be carrying the crystal Menhir. A yellow exclamation point icon will indicate which direction you must follow for your current quest. In each of the areas you visit, there will be a few hidden objects to collect, such as several laurel wreaths, some dice and bones. If a bone is laying underground, Dogmatix will have a bone icon over his head; follow  Dogmatix around and use the Menhir to hit the ground hard to find the bone. As this fun Story progresses and you find the shards, the Menhir will have few different abilities, which I’ll let you discover for yourself.

I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay! Great fights, and each time you stop a Roman in his tracks for good, the power gauge will fill in, and you’ll be able to use one of your four super attacks. If you are playing Asterix and have a few gourds to spare, as soon as he drinks one, he will go absolutely bonkers and you’ll see these Romans flying up like rockets. With Obelix, you can use his Menhir for shaking the ground, as well as removing tree trunks and wooden towers too. As you have more shards, you can use another three abilities. There are a few casual puzzles; nothing too difficult at all, but it adds more content to the game.

As you move through the areas, you’ll also be able to talk to other characters, some of whom will  have side quests, such as collecting a certain number of objects or getting chickens back to his owner (I had a good laugh at that one!).  On top of that, you’ll encounter plenty of Romans with whom you can polite on your way to the next camp.

Camps have either an object to retrieve or will require you to liberate someone. When you fight in the camp and die halfway through (which can happen in the normal difficulty but not as much as in the hard difficulty) you’ll have to restart from scratch. Make sure to collect the golden lighting icons, which you’ll need in order to regenerate your power gauge faster, and check out the wooden signs with the eye on them; they will show you the next sections of the camp and the location of the levers to open the gate to the next section. Oh, and pick up these food platters as they will give you back a few of your lost hearts!

There are not too many different Roman units, as you would expect, but they will be harder to defeat as you progress.

Great graphics and the sound effects are superb. If you are a fan of the comic books, you’ll enjoy the story with its light humour. You have the usual settings, and you can use the keyboard (rebind keys as well) or gamepad to play the game. I found a few glitches, especially with Obelix; more than once he seemed to be stuck between stairs and doors, for some reason. However, you can swap to Asterix and everything will go back to normal.