Siemb Chronicles: Arkos The Traitor

About

Siemb Chronicles: Arkos The Traitor is a retro-styled platform adventure where you play as Caberhi Tram, a commander hunting down the叛 traitor Arkos on the fortified prison planet Hypsis. The game blends side-scrolling combat with exploration as you navigate industrial complexes and robot-infested zones. Each level is a maze of traps and enemy patrols, requiring precise jumps and timed attacks to reach Arkos’s hidden lair. The controls are tight but demand practice, with a focus on dodging automated defenses and outmaneuvering reprogrammed security drones. The game stands out for its atmospheric level design and relentless challenge, reflecting its 1980s arcade roots. While it lacks modern polish, fans of classic platformers praise its creative enemy placements and the satisfaction of mastering its punishing difficulty. With a 72% critic score on retro gaming sites, it’s a niche pick for those craving old-school persistence. The Amstrad CPC version retains the original’s gritty aesthetic, making it a cult favorite among retro enthusiasts.

Storyline

One of these adventures took our hero to the domain of one of the empire's governors, beyond Alpha Centauri, where Gremla ruled with an iron fist over five confederations of planets, in the galactic empire of Siemb. Her lieutenant Arkos had turned against the governor and thus against the empire. Caberhi Tram flew to the planet Hypsis, also known as the prison planet, in search of Arkos. Arkos, after destroying Gremla's palace and weakening his government on the planet Sckunn, known to all as the Imperial Palace-Planet, returned to the planet Hypsis, the raw material production center of the empire and the site of ultra-modern defensive installations that Arkos knew perfectly well. Arkos had reprogrammed all the work robots and security terminators for his own protection and, in addition, he counted on the planet's indigenous creatures to defend him. Our hero had to get to the facility, find Arkos and finish him off, but first he had to get through the perimeter and that would not be easy.