Slain: Back From Hell

I discovered the game after patched... It's a blast !! I love this game !! Graphics are in pixel art (sometimes difficult to read) but the art direction is awesome... The gothic atmosphere is beautiful and immersive... The gameplay can sometimes be fast paced and the commands propose rapid answers to fight back (movements and weapons) : especially the back slide that has become a move that I cannot do without anymore when I need to dodge. The charge attack is an awesome idea to give the player the possibility to refill Mana and to do high damage when needed without making the game too easy... Slain : Back to hell can be quite hard... Challenge is an important aspect for me and the level of difficulty is rising smartly as the player progresses. Players can also make small 15-minute game sessions or play longer... Very addictive... I recommend highly Slain : Back to hell to players who want to come back in Castlevania...

Slain has a very attractive pixel art in the style of a dark fantasy heavy metal. I've been playing on Linux and it runs perfect. Everything is smooth. The game is punishing. Combat feels like Actraiser but with a Ghouls and Ghosts/Ninja Gaiden level of difficulty. Fortunately each level has many checkpoints so you only have to learn a small section at a time. I play about 10 minutes, get frustrated, stop. Return later and reach the next check point or two. Repeat. It's fun when you learn how to beat a section and frustrating until you do. But mostly fun.

I bought this game without having known about its troubled past and I'm glad I did. The artwork is amazing and the combat mechanics are hard but fair. I haven't finished it yet (I've played about 7H) but I've been loving it. If you're looking for that same satisfaction you get after completing a Super Meat Boy run or that perfect parry in Dark Souls then you should definitely try it out. One thing to note though is that I couldn't get the game to work properly on Windows 7, I had to play in my Linux machine for it to work properly which is the reason I took a star off.

If you're into 2D platformers and not afraid of difficult games, go right ahead this one is for you now. I played this when it launched at Steam, suffice to say it failed to impress me back then to the point that I refunded the game. The art was gorgeous but the gameplay was sorely lacking it had a lot of problems. Seeing the positive reviews of the new version I decided to give it another try. I'm glad to see they took the criticism and used it in a constructive way, a lot of the problems I originally found seem to have been remedied, combat feels tighter and more responsive, they added a short invincibility time after being hit giving you a better chance to react to any situation, they've also improved the blocking system and the parry which is now a good way to recover mana as well. Movement still felt a little loose for me but it's far from being unbearable. With all those changes one would think the game got easier, which is not true it's still a chanllenging game though now it feels like a genuine challenge, unlike the original release which was due to it's flawed gameplay. The game provides lots of tools right off the bat, from regular combo attacks, jump, crouch, block, dodge and magic attacks. But the game doesn't mess around you have to pay attenttion to everything on the screen and if something seems off, it probably is. Enemies deal a lot of damage if you're not careful you'll die quickly, rushing head-on into any situation will most likely get you killed in many gruesome ways, the platforming can be challenging so timing those jumps is essential as well. The checkpoints won't take you too far back but far enough that you'll feel like you have to change tactics in order to succeed. I have to congratulate the devs, seeing how games release in a dreadful state and never get many fixes after launch it's great to see devs who care enough to make their game enjoyable through basically a huge patch, they should follow your example.

The game is nothing special but graphics are very nice, gameplay is simple but engaging and the charatcer is an old badass that brings down hell on his enemies after being unwillingly awaken from his slumber. If you want something casual but not to easy then go for it