Exanima

This game probably had the biggest learning curve I've ever experienced. Definitely one of the hardest games I've ever played, and the challenge makes it all worth it. Takes all aspects of things I usually enjoy in games and flips it on it's head. Comfy controls? Nope. Slick combat? Nope. No quest markers, no explanation to what's happening or where you are. You just have to figure it out. This is what makes the game so great though. There's absolutely no hand holding. So while there's little reward and great punishment, those little rewards are so worth it. There's just something so unspeakably retro about this game's design, but on top of that is the gorgeous visuals, and addicting physics system that makes every combat encounter interesting.

**[BEWARE: Many of these reviews are from accounts that were made very close to the review date of this game. I suspect that many of these 5 star reviews may not be entirely honest in their assessment]** I really wanted to like it. I played an earlier (Steam) version, and now I played this version after buying and the combat feels even worse. It always feels like a character drunkenly stumbling about, and the weapon swings feel very inconsistent. Grab a stick or bat in your hand and attack without aiming, only by swinging your outstretched arm at the object. That's what the combat often reminds me of, it's aimless swinging that you're trying to "catch" an opponent in. The developer and other reviewers may call it high skill, but the system is actually extremely limiting. There's no way to pre-emptively block, or to aim your weapon at body locations. Combat is essentially swinging a weapon in a line while stumbling around an opponent (yes there are overhead and thrust attacks, but they're ineffective). I wish it was better, cause it is unique. Add in the terrible camera (always too close or too far and the angle messes with depth perception, which makes the combat even more unforgiving) and the combat feels like overly sloppy. The controls don't help, with your mouse controlling your block but also where your character faces and the orientation of the controls. What this means is that often your character often turns to face their block, and as you hold the direction to pull away from the attack (a pretty basic defence one would think) it instead causes you to go into a circle around the enemy. The most effective strategy I found is to just stand there, block hits and make a swing when the AI drunkenly runs into me. I did give them a star for just how beautiful and atmospheric the game is, but sadly the gameplay itself is lacking. The combat/movement system needs a huge overhaul, which unfortunately is a bulk of the gameplay and the main selling feature.

I barely play video games anymore, at most I might buy something, get hooked for a few weeks or a month, and then never touch it again. But I have faithfully returned to Exanima, especially after a new update, for almost 5 years now. This game, a dungeon-crawler prequel to the developer's main project, Sui Generis, is a physics-based low-fantasy action RPG with rewarding combat that is truly satisfying once you get the hang of it. It offers two modes, Story and Arena. The Story mode is a gritty dungeon-dive, where you fight for survival and search for gear and treasure as you descend deeper into the labyrinthine Underworld. You can unlock more starting characters as you progress (at the time of review, there are only three) which changes your available skills and equipment. In Arena mode, you create a character (or hire characters) to participate in arena combat, where a successful match wins you experience and money so you can level up your characters and buy better equipment and fighters. Movement and combat in this title is actually unique; it's not just an advertising tag. You can trip over furniture, use physics to leg-sweep opponents and get your warhammer stuck in a reanimated skeleton's ribcage. Both Story and Arena modes boast a wide variety of melee weapons, armors, and even clothes, but Story mode also has magic, known as Thaumaturgy. Of the five planned disciplines, only one is currently available; Mind Thaumaturgy, which can charm or scare opponents at lower levels, and raise the dead as allies at higher ones. Magic and new Story levels were added in April of 2020 for Version 0.8, and the devs (a small team who are regularly around in the game's Discord server, answering questions, sharing progress and taking bug reports) are working on a new Arena update. V1.0 will add Force Thaumaturgy, ranged weapons, and the rest of the Story content. If you're tired of basic "Soulslike" combat and want something new with serious atmosphere, Exanima is for you.

Lot's of fun, but brutal difficulty - which I think is great. But beware, this game is far from finished, there's still lot's of work to be done and the game might get never released, it looks like. Would be very sad. Seems like the devs work on a similar game in parallel - I think they should focus on getting Exanima done. The fighting-system and physics based character-controller is good, but still needs improvement. I really like the look of the game, even though they use pretty much 3 textures for all the levels. All the nicely crafted Items really add to the athmosphere - more of it please. The soundtrack is great too, but gets boring after a while - needs more tracks.

I have mostly completed the first level but have given up, yet again. The atmosphere and lore seem intriguing and I want to find out what's going on but the clumsy controls and some questionable design decisions ruin the experience. The lack of a save function means that any mistake makes you repeatedly do exactly the same large, time-consuming sections again. The combat so far is annoying but trivial. It is annoying because of the input lag, it is trivial because enemy AI is the same. You also have to go into "combat mode" which is archaic and annoying. You can also simply lure any aggro enemies into a room and shut the door on them but you don't get the XP. Using 2 handed weapons works ok but I couldn't fight while holding a torch and most of the areas are very dark so you need the torch because you need light but the enemy AI doesn't. The 100% combat strategy is to simply run into your opponents and your companion hits them while they're down. There are some decent environment puzzles in one section but the 3D manipulation of objects is awkward - sliding an object forward sometimes results in it being thrown backwards, so the challenge is mostly about fighting with the UI. Companion AI also needs work as I put a plank over a pit to walk across but my companion just walked into the pit and died. So, of course, I now have to repeat the last 2 hours of UI puzzles again. No, had enough, I give up. I hope the devs can fix these issues as there is such a lot of good ideas but it's not fun atm.