Arthas - The Game

Where do I begin with Arthas - The Game? It's worth noting a couple of things to build this analysis's foundations. First, this is not a title about a famous lich king from a prevalent franchise. Second, this action-adventure game is a satirical take on a popular Ukrainian streamer, probably raising more questions than it answers. Is it possible for the uninformed to get joy out of this?

It's challenging to grasp Arthas - The Game if you don't speak Ukrainian or be part of the deep meme culture surrounding this streamer. Watching the trailers before you get stuck into gameplay makes the title look like a cheap, hastily developed game to suck in a few bucks. The whole thing looks ridiculous, but perhaps it's meant to have that silly vibe. We need to make sense of it.

Welcome to Ukraine

So, as aforementioned above, Arthas - The Game is about a streamer whose real name is Vitaly Tsal, commonly known as Papich or Arthas. The core gameplay deals with his exaggerated life, taking on all the haters and bullies of the internet, streaming daily but taking up arms in his spare time. Players will be put in his shows to overcome challenges and go on adventures with their friends.

Honestly, anyone without an understanding of this man or streaming antics will be lost from minute one. Arthas - The Game has been hacked together as some meme to the culture surrounding the streamer. The gameplay is laughably bad, with the visuals looking like something out of Pingu, the narrative nonsensical, and the combat mechanics are broken in nearly every sense.

Whoever developed the game has extracted soundbites from the streamer, adding them into the game as dialogue. It makes the game even more obnoxious with variable volume, random screaming, and esoteric conversational exchanges. The saving grace for Arthas - The Game is watching these characters look incredibly silly, where voicing animations and fighting movements flail like an octopus on adrenaline.

Everything about Arthas - The Game is meant to bring absurdist comedy value around the streamer. However, there's no way a foreign audience will understand what is happening here. We can see a poor attempt to make a meme game around a streamer that very few people will have heard of on a global scale, and that's all.

Wrong Turn at Northrend

If you're like me, you might have thought Arthas - The Game would be a side title about that famous lich king. However, you'd then question what you got pulled into. It would be a circus of a third-person action-adventure game like Fortnite if high school students developed it.

Round-Up - Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Players can laugh at the absurdity
• Get a glimpse into Ukrainian internet culture
• Somewhat varied gameplay

Cons:

• Nonsensical to those who don't know the streamer
• Combat mechanics are broken
• Character animations are poor