1428: Shadows over Silesia

Refunded. I really, really wanted to like this game. The setting is great and the characters interesting but the gameplay feels like a point-and-click game trying to become and action game. I don't know how else to describe it. I don't feel like the game lacks polish. It's just that it was implemented in a way that is not fun for me to play. I want to know what happens after the point I got fed and uninstalled the game, just not enough to actually play it, so I'll just watch a full playthrough in Youtube and be done with it.

At the time of this review, I've played the game for 11,5 hours and have just started chapter 11 of 13. The game is obviously an indie production and because of that I'm not going to focus too much on the graphics – they’re basic but they get the job done and they're probably not what is going to either make or break the experience for you. The music is surprisingly pleasant and it has the potential of going onto my playlist. Where the game shines are its story and writing. I've been genuinely engaged in the plot and I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends. The dialogues are good as well with most of the voice acting being decent to very good, although it would nice not to have the mishmash of accents (again, it's an indie game so I'm not going to hold that against it). What I really dislike are the controls. I've found the game barely playable on the controller with mouse & keyboard being only a slight improvement. Not only is controlling the player's character VERY clunky but combat-wise it has probably the worst design choice I have ever seen in a game: You control the character’s movement and the direction he faces separately – this in itself has been done (and done well) in other games but there are 2 main problems with it in this game: 1) all too often the character doesn’t follow the mouse/right stick so you end up with your back to the enemy and in general being a quick-and-agile combatant is not really doable; 2) what absolutely breaks the experience is that in addition to controlling the direction, you also have to choose the distance at which the character is going to strike. This often results in your character swinging past the enemy and missing him even though the enemy was in the direction the character was swinging. In summary, the combat is a chore rather than a fun mechanic. I think it could be fixed by making sure the character is more responsive and getting rid of controlling the distance of the strike. Just stick to the tried-and-true ke

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: it's no Darklands, even if it desperately wants to be its successor and clearly took inspiration from it. The game severely lacks polish, even for an indie title, and any real depth to its gameplay. Which is frustrating, because there is an enormous potential wasted on a pretty shallow gameplay and the possibility to, well, have Darklands 2. Instead, it's Darklands 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Game very good, need some practice with the moviments, but very good idea.