Sundered®: Eldritch Edition

The Metroidvania roguelike that I actually enjoyed. The map is easy to read the movement feels great. There aren't any "there was no way I could have avoided dying there" like in many games, and I much prefer the "you can probably beat this in one go" versus any sort of progression system (like Dead Cells).

From all the other reviews I/d seen on youtube and gaming sites, I expected it to be another one of those dumb randomly generated garbo fests. But it's actually really good, a worty metroidvania with a bunch of powers you gather along the way. You can even choose to be good/bad, changing your playstyle entirely with each one. I'm about done with my first playthrough (doing the bad/corrupted route first), worth every hour and it's really cheap to boot, only cost me about 6 bucks. The only con I can think off is that everytime you die you return to a central hub, so it takes a while to get back to where you were.

I didn't really know what to expect when I bought this and was pleasantly surprised for the first few hours but then it got a bit blah. There's very little in the way of unique character design, you feel like you're fighting the same little robots again and again. The giant statues that gift you with abilities are really cool and I love the language they concocted for the game as well as the sound design but I don't feel any need to go further than I've gone and that's a bit sad, cuz the game looked promising.

I will be brief: One of the best Indie Metroidvanias with Roguelite elements of all time. We have everything here: - Map exploration - Map rooms randomization (albeit limited randomization) - Secrets that rewards map exploration - Unlocking new skills to access new areas of the map - Free flow of movement with satisfying 'flow' controls (challenging even better games like Hollow Knight and Ori and the blind forest) - Gameplay that rewards players who master the flow of movement and combat - Exploits that allow you to access areas of the map before you acquire the skill needed to do so the intended way - Freedom on builds (albeit really limited in paths, but in the end you will have everything anyways if you grind enough) - Fun boss fights that requires you to think and plan your attacks and movements carefully, otherwise you will die - Many endings - Local multiplayer mode (Yes, you can play this game with friends and family locally, which I have not seem in other games like this before personally.) - and the list keeps going (Im not kidding, this game IS amazing.) If I could point something bad it would be: - The balance of higher difficulties that may ruin replayability (The terrible 'bump everything up and call it harder' that we all hate - but then theres local multiplayer to fix that) - Boss fights feels linear, and this is kinda bad in a game like this, but there are so many good things on them that you don't really care - In the end, when you get all skills that give you the full extent of movement and combat theres nothing else to do, just wander the map killing enemies for fun and trying to find anything else that you could not do before or go straight to the last boss fight and finish the game - I could not find New Game+ options Sundered is a rarity in games. If you want to spend around 12 hours having fun, get this game. If you enjoy Metroidvanias and Roguelite games, you will love this one.

Metroid and Super Metroid are two of my favorite games of all time, so I keep on the lookout for interesting games in the "Metroidvania" category. I purchased sundered because it looked great, and was tagged as a metroidvania and I was not disappointed. One thing many metroidvania style games lack that I think is important in the genre is an atmosphere of terror and forboding. Sundered provides this in spades. Some other reviewers have complained about how enemy hordes will randomly spawn and they can't handle it. This, to me is an excellent feature of the game. Eshe's death is guaranteed several times throughout the game, and as she grows stronger the hordes actually become something the player wants to happen, to continue feeding her power. Another unique thing that the game offers is the choice to either embrace the eldritch powers offered by the lower gods, or resist the temptation. In most games both paths would offer similar or equivalent upgrades, but in Sundered many of the eldritch powers are unmatched in their usefulness. The temptation on a "Resist" playthrough to embrace the darkness for wall-climbing in particular is hard to resist. This is an excellent game, and my only complaint is that it has far fewer hidden secret items and areas than Super Metroid did. I wish there were more Sundered to play. I completed two full runs of the game and each took about sixteen hours.