A.R.E.S. is a fun game though it doesn't have anything that really makes it stand out from the rest of the platform games. It's a sci-fi futuristic platformer with cumbersome controls. It's not a horrible game by any means, but it lacks the ability to keep your attention and wanting more. I did beat the game, but it sat in my library for a very long time prior to beating it. Look somewhere else for a good action platformer.

A valiant attempt by the developer, I guess, but this game just did not do anything for me. Weak story, mediocre game-play, and something about the jump physics made platforming very frustrating. If you already have it as part of a bundle (which is how I got it), then check it out and see for yourself.

Otherwise, I see no real reason to get it on its own.

I tried to like this game, but it just really doesn't appeal to me.
The controls feel slow, and the jump is absolutely abysmal. Several platforming puzzles lead to frustration just because of how short the Character's jump was.
You're also told early on that you can change suits, but the game does not give any explanation as to why you'd want to do this, and how each suit affects you. From what i experienced, there isn't any discernable difference between the suits anyway, aside from the berserker suit.
The enemies are more of an annoyance than anything else, and it's very difficult to dodge their projectiles as your character is rather large. And even if you do get hit a lot, you can easily craft a cheap healthkit that heals most of your bar. Speaking of the crafting system, you can also make grenades. But i rarely found myself using them, aside from when they were required to bypass obstacles, they can also be used to perform an air dash move, but this needs to be charged up and so is only useful in specific situations.

All in all, I think this game isn't really that good. If you like platformers such as megaman, then i'd recommend buying it during a sale. But other people probably won't enjoy this.

It's Megaman but it is only 2 hours long (if that), it focuses on score attacks, and it ends just when you thinking it’s getting good. It's the poor man's Megaman substitute and not worth it in my opinion. It has more promise than it can deliver in its sad 2 hours.

A.R.E.S. is a Megaman clone. The whole package looks pretty good and seems worth a buy, but after playing through it I was rather disappointed.

The game's visuals are pretty solid, the controls are fine, and the music is great. The title screen track just sounds awesome. Hell if I remember what the story was about.. It runs fine too.

The title screen and the music playing immediately give the game a Megaman feel - well, more of a Megaman X feel.
The game itself plays like you'd expect a Megaman game to, except that you control your shots location with the mouse/
analog stick. You go through levels and kill bosses, unlock new weapons and some suits, blahblah.

Its not really bad, but it just doesn't feel satisfying. Something about this game feels off and only left me wanting to play an actual Megaman game.
I can't really point out what about this game isn't good, but whatever it is just ruined it for me. I did play through it completely once, but its not something I'll ever do again and I wouldn't say it was even a fun use of time.

One of the few purchases I probably regret - even if it was only a couple dollars during a sale.
As cool as it might seem to have a Megaman-styled game on Steam.. it really isn't worth the time. If you want to play
Megaman on PC then emulate it or wait for Mighty No. 9 because that one looks like its gonna be good :)

Personal Rating: "Grab it during a sale"
Traditional Rating: 5/10
Genre: Action Platformer/Sidescroller

When I first heard about A.R.E.S Extinction Agenda, a small flutter of excitement overcame me. You see, I grew up on Mega Man and his countless adventures on the NES - with some of those games still to this day being able to rekindle a gaming joy within me when I feel the current slew of gaming titles are doing nothing but putting a damp squib on my desire to play and complete them. There is just something inherently appealing to me about 2D platform side-scrollers that I will always love (again this is probably due to my younger years harboring an almost fanatical fascination with games like Contra and Mega Man) so I didn't hesitate for a second to add A.R.E.S to my collection. At the time it was touted as Episode 1 in an ongoing series of episodes and the price-tag of $9.99 back in 2010 I felt was a little steep for what was essentially a downloadable first chapter.

It appears something went awry as we are already half-way through 2014 and A.R.E.S has yet to see an Episode 2. Searching the game developers bare-bones website, http://www.x10interactive.com , it appears not much has been going on for quite some time which leads me to believe they are most probably now defunct which is sad in any event but after playing through A.R.E.S (once back in 2010) and now recently in 2014 (for the Steam Trading Card business) I can’t help feel that they had much of a future to begin with. A.R.E.S for all intents and purpose tries so desperately to mimic the successes of the past games yet doesn't even come close. The entire game feels like a cheap imitation of a mid-nineties Mega Man game and the kicker is that is poses very little to no challenge at all. Even ramping up the difficulty levels does very little to put it on par with some of the more challenging Contra and Mega Man fare released almost 20 years ago.

Whilst the 2D artwork may look nice and the techno buzzing soundtrack amiable providing the listener with tunes to hum to while playing, the platform jumping and shooting mechanics are somewhat borked and will have you flinging more than a few unkind words around the room. Boss fights are an absolute joke and require very little tactical thought on the player’s part where it is simply a case of find a corner and blast away until the enemy is no longer.

I had high hopes for A.R.E.S but in the end I can only lightly recommend this title. Since it appears we will see no continuation of the story, if you must pick up the game (particularly if you want the card drops) rather wait until this the game is being offered at a discount price since currently there are a dearth of more endearing indies games you could be spending a tenner on.

A.R.E.S. is one of those games you can only recommend to a certain few. There isn't anything particularly special about A.R.E.S. and although it attempts to be a solid platformer, it falls short through a frustrating "crafting/shop" system. The majority of items in the game require nearly all three of the specific currencies to construct and unfortunately, one of those currencies is in very short supply throughout the game. After three full playthroughs, the needed currency is always scarce. So farm if you must, though like any hardcore platformer fan, you'll persevere without the upgrades -- even if it kills you.

The game itself is rather short and each successive playthrough becomes shorter because you can keep your unlocked items. My final run through of the game was a little over 40 mins. The cutscenes are decently created in a typical "fanime" style. The story tries to be more than it is and is mostly ignored except in between chapters. There are only 5 chapters with none of the stage environments or enemies revealing anything about the world A.R.E.S. is set in.

I had hoped A.R.E.S. would've been more than what I played and because there is really nothing memorable about the game, I can only recommend this to those that play for the learning experience of game development.

Shoulda called it JUMP 'N SHOOT MAN. A Megaman tribute or ripoff or something, A.R.E.S. is a "walk to the right and shoot" platformer with a tacked on crafting system. It lacks a lot of polish, and the controls seem awkward, but if you're into Megaman style games it might be worth a look.

Watch a few gameplay videos, and if it seems interesting, grab it on sale.

At best, A.R.E.S. is competent. It doesn't know whether it wants to be Mega Man or Metroid, and suffers for it. The level design includes both large multi-scrolling rooms and more platforming-oriented sections, and it's never entirely clear which drops are bottomless pits and which lead to other parts of the stage. I'm also not happy with the upgrade mechanic, which encourages literal grinding as you kill enemies for the three types of items that are needed to upgrade your weapons. The controls also feel a little slow, with the dash move in particular always feeling like it's just a little too long to execute and traverses just a little too short a distance to avoid enemy attacks.

At least the boss fights are pretty fun, and it's entertaining when you get into the groove of blasting enemies and jumping from platform to platform. But all of its other problems make it hard to recommend. You could do worse, but you could also do a whole lot better. Try Cave Story+, Noitu Love 2, or They Bleed Pixels if you want to play a really good action-platformer.

As far as Mega Man clones go, this one can be quite enjoyable. Before you buy it though, be aware that the Xbox 360 version, A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda EX, has a ton of worthy extra content not found on this version such as a new playable character, expanded story and improved graphics.

If you happen to own a Xbox 360, get that version. Otherwise, grab the PC version here on Steam instead. While it may lack all of the 360 version's extra content, it's still worth to play.

Do not buy unless you are a SERIOUS Mega Man X junkie in need of a fix, and even then be aware you'd probably have more fun replaying X7 or X8 than this game. It's short, controls are janky, and it gets cheaper and cheaper as you go through its five levels.

This game is very entertaining! If you are a fan of Megaman games, this game has a lot of those same features. There's a good variety of weapons and enemies to keep you interested for a long time, as well as secrets that will make you replay levels to collect. Overall, it's a top of the line game in the $10 tier, so definitely worth the buy.

Please do not buy this game. It is years old, and it is buggy beyond belief. I literally walk through a door, the ground is not detected and I immediatly fall to my death in several cases.

If it wasn't for that, this is a loose platform shooter using a dual stick idea, one for shootin' and one for movin'. It would be a much more fun idea if it played tighter.

You can do better than this game with mega man mods and clones online as freeware.

It's, ok.
Get if its on sale and you REALLY want a quick mediocre fix for lack of Megaman games these days. The graphics look very N64-ish. The controlers do not feel as tight as they should be (like many N64 titles). Kind of sluggish. Even unresponsive at times. I've experienced a handful deaths where my attempt to make a simple jump ended with me walking right off a ledge to my doom. And for no obvious reason other than buggy controls.

Overall the game is fun for a short time and not nessesarily a bad purchase. Just don't expect anything amazing. Overall the game just looks sounds and feels weak but if you get past that and just enjoy it for what it is (a Megaman esc action platformer) then you might actually like it. If this were a console game I would sum it up as a good one to rent.

Crazy-intense high-twitch side-scroller. Looks like a modernized version of Mega Man or Metroid, but plays more like Contra - lots of enemies coming at you all the time. It theoretically supports gamepad, but it plays nicely with keyboard-move, mouse-aim controls.

If that's what you're looking for, it's a lot of fun! Good graphics, good music, occasionally-frustrating-but-mostly-in-the-good-way gameplay.

A.R.E.S. is what you get when you mix Megaman, 80's cartoons, and the old DoS game "Abuse", and put them all in a 2.5D blender.

A brief review for a brief game, A.R.E.S. can typically be finished in one sitting, which of course is the point. Weapon purchases and upgrades transfer over with every new game that is started, and there are multiple endings depending on the difficulty one chooses, throwing in a little bit of bullet hell style progression into the mix as well. And for you OCD types, there's also some collection elements, so it's fun to go back and suss out secrets from every corner you can find.

If I had one complaint about this game, it's that you absolutely should be playing with a controller. I realize that isn't much to ask in this day and age, but for those stuck on a mouse and keyboard, unfortunately the programming of the game will only allow you to press two keys at once, so for some of those tricker platforming sections, it gets a little extra hard to navigate properly.

That aside, the game runs smoothly, looks nice, has a bit of a cartoonish feel to the plot, and is mostly just an excuse to run around and cause robots to explode. And at the end of the day, isn't that all we all really want?

6/10
I would get this on sale for $1.00 anymore than that no.
This game is like a crappy version of megaman however does some things right.
It is worth a playthrough if you enjoy games that are a crappy ripoff off megaman.
Why am I reccomending this? I played it through and 100% the game it was easy and quick fun like i said though 6/10 nothing special.

ARES is a Megaman clone where you try to save the world against some catastrophe with assistance from your special suit and an ally to give you guidance. I played with a gamepad, so movement is with 1 stick, and shooting is with the other. The story was not the most gripping, standard save the world type stuff. Your suit makes you immune to some chemical that is being released, which is why you are mostly going alone.

I found the enemy types to be pretty repetitive at the beginning. It seems in the first level I fought about 100 copies of the same 3 enemies. The boss design was a little lacking. The best strategy seemed to be to hide out in a corner or tank the fight. The controls were somewhat sloppy. It was difficult to get the tight movement necessary to dodge some attacks.

The graphics are bright and colorful, but I found the animation to be choppy. The environments didn't really do enough to draw me in to the game. Seemed like I was just fighting in giant labs of warehouses. The soundtrack does a little to pump you up, however. It may have been the high point.

I feel that there are enough entries in the Megaman/Metroidvania platformer genre that are more worthy of your time than ARES. Try it if you are a huge fan of these games and are running out of quality options, but I cannot recommend it to everyone.

Grade: C-

A.R.E.S. is a 2D action platformer in the vein of the Megaman series of old. You move to the right, shoot anything that moves, get and equip different weapons, and die frequently.

The jumping mechanics are a little loose/rough, and the game is quite short. It's not great, but if you're into that sort of game, you can't go wrong with picking it up on sale.

A.R.E.S has a visual appealing to fans of the old 2D Megaman games, with a futuristic setting featuring robots, lasers and gigantic scripted bosses - What's not to like? Unfortunately overly large and uninspired sprites, rushed animation and forgettable story gave the game a cheap feeling.

As for game play, if you've played any Megaman or any shooter platformer game for a matter of fact, then you've played this. The additional of mouse control is greatly appreciated addition, but actually made the game a bit too easy. Repetitive gathering of in-game resources so weapons can be upgraded and purchased simply isn't suited for a face-paced scroller. Finally, the game is so short, it's over before you know it. It took me two and a half hours to beat. I suppose you could go achievement hunting but I can't see this game ever being played again now.

I only recommend this game if you can find it in a bundle, luckily I did this, so not wasted too much money on it. Otherwise, I'd rather suggest playing one of the many old Megaman games instead.