Open-world game set in Babylon

Ilum is a paid historical action game by developer M506 Tec. The game puts players into a 3D open-world set in ancient Babylon, featuring historically accurate structures such as the Hanging Gardens and the Tower of Babel. Players are thrust into 539 BC Babylon, the same year the legendary empire fell. 

The core gameplay of Ilum centers on combat, exploration, and city destruction. It features a fully destructible environment, allowing players to destroy small items or entire structures. The quests and storyline have a historical and religious background that gives it a similar atmosphere to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Origins.

A feature-rich historical sandbox

Ilum’s open world consists of Babylon and nine other cities with some points of interest in between. They feature a degree of accuracy as they are based on archeological findings and historical accounts. The cities feel lively and diverse as the citizens that inhabit them belong to 20 different social classes. Players can control these NPCs by converting them, which is done by defeating their patron god. 

The story is uncovered by playing through its linear questline consisting of 100 missions. These quests will take the players throughout the game’s enormous world and help them discover its beautiful scenery. While exploring, players can learn a bit about cuneiform, the world’s oldest form of writing. Cuneiform syllables are scattered throughout the open world and obtaining them also provides players with their corresponding phonetic values. 

The game is chock full of features that make it more immersive. Players can change between five weather options at any time and NPCs are voiced in the Akkadian language. The game has a rich atmosphere, but its gameplay and physics can oftentimes look and feel awkward. The physics of the destructible environment doesn’t make sense and textures have obvious clipping issues. Also, the UI uses a hard-to-read font style.

Huge and immersive yet unpolished

Ilum is an interesting game, to say the least. It lets players battle gods, wreak havoc in ancient cities, and explore the beautiful locations of old Mesopotamia. The fully destructible world sounds exciting, but its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Ilum is a unique experience, but you’ll have to bear with its janky physics and eyesore of a font style.