Valfaris

If you enjoyed Slain: Back from Hell you will love this. Combat is better, there are power ups and pick ups, the pacing and tempo is better. I even prefer the music and the setting (which I wasn't expecting going into the game). Get this game if you want to cause metal havoc.

I'm playing this game since ages on PS4 and I'm consider buying it for PC now too. Valfaris is a technically simple run and gun game where you keep the weapons you found, never lose them on death, and can select between them anytime at any checkpoints. It plays similarily to Contra though you have healt bar and three weapons at the same time. A weaker handgun with infinite ammo, a stronger heavy weapon that use energy, and a fairly strong but limited range melee weapon that charge energy when used. Instead of slide or dodge there is a shield that absorbs damage when held up or perform a parry when timed correctly, working against both melee or ranged attacks. This is the gameplay loop, as simple as satisfying. Its difficulty is more forgiving than Slain's however there is also more enemies to attack you at once. Bosses are either pattern heavies or some of them are outright total random but their attacks are always well telegraphed making it no problem if you don't want to learn their methods. There is also an NG+ where you keep everything you've collected, facing enemies that are as strong as your maxed out weapons. They're faster, care less about spacing, and if there is a spawn point they come faster. It is an absolute blast to play this game. Brutal, metal, and thankfully the player character isn't fragile either. The atmosphere is amazing and I dare to say some of its music became iconic in my eyes. Arguably this isn't a deep game as there is no synergy between weapons neither preferable builds and this is actually a plus point in my opinion. You're free to use whichever weapon you want without suffering from any consequences. Because of this I found Valfaris a fresh title in its genre.

While I wouldn't call it exactly a Contra-like, since the base mechanics are too different, aesthetically is probabbly what it tries to be, as masculine and andrenaline infused action game with tons of heavy metal. The first 2 levels felt a bit too slow, but the energy does pick up before long. My one nitpick is that with the exeption of the final boss, most bosses are far easier than the levels they reside, if a level makes me die 20 times, the boss will make me die 2-3 times at best, that said, it doesn't mean they are boring, they still require you to pay attention to they patterns. I haven't played the Heavy Metal mode, which is the harder new game+, so maybe that gets corrected there.

Thrilling to the core! Challenging and extremely fun.

If you like side scrolling games and cool art, grab it.