A comic review of the game Arco with simple ink illustrations and black and red color washes. By Dan McAlister, at ButternutApe.com.

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Review: Arco

Five Stars

Developed by Franek Nowotniak, José Ramón “Bibiki” García, Antonio “Fayer” Uribe, and Max Cahill

This world isn’t fair.

Image: A small town, all houses burning, set against a hilly landscape. A small figure in a red cloak riding an alpaca stands before it, watching.

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The Newcomers’ Red Company arrived out of nowhere, burning homes and stealing land in the name of profit.

Image: A fortress with a rifleman walking along the wall. A red banner with a white rooster flaps in the wind.

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And it’s not like things were perfect before, either. The Red Company didn’t invent theft and murder, even if they have perfected it ruthlessly, and at scale.

Image: A skeleton in a robe, shot through with arrows and pinned to a boulder.

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What’s a person to do? What’s the right thing to do?

Image: A young man in a straw hat runs terrified from a burning village.

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What will be done?

Tizo, a man in a red cloak and wide brimmed hat, looks down at the bow in his hand.

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Arco is a fantasy role-playing game. Its world is inspired by Mesoamerica’s landscapes and indigenous cultures, and it is now besieged by colonization.

Image: A wide shot of a rocky outcropping with two cave entrances. A figure in a red cloak sitting on an alpaca stands before it.

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You play as a rotating cast of protagonists natives to these lands, each with their own vendetta against the villainous Red Company.

Image: A wide shot of a stone temple in a jungle. A different figure on an alpaca stands before it.

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They journey as small figures across vast landscapes. They take jobs, fall into traps, start fights, and chat with locals.

Image: A wide shot of a ruined ship sitting in the desert sands. Two other figures riding alpacas stand before it.

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They sit around campfires, telling jokes and bickering in the gloom of it all.

Image: A campfire scene. Chio, a woman in a black outfit with a shade of red tattooed across her eyes, laughs. Afur, a man in a turban and cloak, looks off to the side at an off-panel snapping sound.

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They live, knowing how quickly everything can end.

Image: A hand wearing a gauntlet moves to grab a bow.

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Death is ever-present in Arco, a notion reinforced by its highly lethal, turn-based combat.

Image: Afur and Chio ready their weapons. Afur holds his bow, while Chio holds two scythes.

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Most characters have both low health and low magia, a magical resource that powers attacks and special abilities.

Image: Afur and Chio face off against two Red Company cowboys, and the scene is viewed through a game interface as characters plan their moves.

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When an attack lands on any player character or NPC, it will likely either kill them or put them on the brink. And whether it lands or not, characters frequently need to follow their actions with evasion while their magia replenishes. You cannot always be on the offensive. You have to strike when opportunities present themselves, knowing that any miscalculations will put you on the back-foot as you potentially flee for your life. To fight in Arco is to be in close, perpetual proximity to death. It is to scrabble for any advantage, to always look for a way out.

Image: Chio rushes forward, slicing through a Red Company man. On the other side of the campfire, Afur and a Red Company gunner exchange fire from their respective weapons, placing both fighters in danger.

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And when you find it? You’re back in that unfair world, full of danger and consequences even outside of combat.

Image: Itzae, a muscular woman covered in scars with red paint across her eyes, looks forlornly into the distance.

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Who do you trust? How do you live? The game asks you these questions constantly, and offers few easy choices.

Image: The camera has zoomed out, and Itzae is standing in the desert amongst the dead bodies of Red Company men. She holds one by the collar in her hand.

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I made decisions I thought were kind and just.

Image: Itzae offers a few coins to a young boy in ragged clothes.

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I also chose to satiate my characters’ darker impulses, when they had felt truly wronged. That happened often.

Image: Tizo readies a magic arrow as his face screws up in anger.

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Some choices panned out, and some didn’t. Joys were had, and friends were lost. I reached the end of my journey, battered and wounded and thankful. I could play again, and see other outcomes. But in the spirit of the game, I think it’s better to just go on living.

Image: Wide shot of a desert village with cliffs in the background. A figure in a red cloak on an alpaca faces away from town, as if to leave.