Zenith

Playing on Win7-64, I had no bugs with the game. The game has great music, the writing is funny and entertaining, combat feels good, the world is unique and interesting, and the art/graphics look very nice. I recommend this one, especially for the cheap price. The only issues I found were no volume adjusment possible in the menu (or I couldn't find it?) and when you go into options it takes the game from windowed to fullscreen. You can also use keyboard just fine, despite the UI which was added for people that want to use a controller. Minor stuff in a surprisingly funny and interesting title.

I really wanted to like this game but, with a broken heart, must give it a pass. There is a lot of squandered potential here, and the word of the day is "clunky." [b][u]Combat[/u][/b] feels awkward and bland. The main character feels "heavy" to control, the animations don't feel like they land right, and the range of attacks isn't clear. Getting swarmed by more than 3 enemies is frustrating. [b][u]Interface,[/u][/b] likewise, is extremely unpolished in many subtle ways that quickly add up. The default button mapping feels weird. The lack of feedback is haunting ("wait, did my button press actually do anything?"). You can't rotate the camera. There is no setting screen; only a main menu button which instantly takes you back to main menu (with no prompt) making you lose all progress. But the worst issue is the [b][u]humor[/u][/b]. It simply isn't very funny. The comedy is over-delivered, as if the writers were not confident in their jokes, so instead of a neat punch-line they over-explain the whole joke with walls of text. The F-bombs are too frequent - instead of accentuating a punchline, they come off juvenile. The "pop references" are less of a satire than just that, a reference to a trope. For example, I just met a few Final Fantasy characters and their lines basically boil down to "You know how I'm famous for doing X? Well, look at me doing X! Haha, isn't that trope funny!" It's the writing equivalent of pointing and laughing at RPGs, rather than coming up with clever ways of poking fun at them. Similarly, the [b][u]visual gags[/u][/b] are spoiled by equally clunky cutscenes. Awkward animations, pauses between movements, generic camera angles, text that's sometimes too small to read, etc. All those things make the gags come off flat. Yes, there were a few points that made me chuckle, but overall, the experience is frustrating and underwhelming. Bummer :/

No options. None. Basic Unity launcher popup that does very little. Awful controls, horrible sound levels. Bad design - looks like its made from leftovers from the first Spellforce game. Script is so bad they've had to add jaunty oddball music to remind you its meant to be funny. Its like being sat at a comedy night and the promoter is behind you slapping you across the back of the head yelling "HEY THIS IS FUGGIN FUNNY! LAUGH! YOU PAID FOR THIS YA MORON!" Review based on the Steam version - where you cannot leave a review right now.

Ok. First: Watch the trailer video. Listen to the voiceover. Did you laugh out loud? Good. This game's dialog and writng has that same sense of humor throughout, and it is the game's strongest feature. (sadly, that voice actor does not do Argus' main dialog. I would have rated that delivery at 5 stars, regardless of other game flaws.) The good: sense of humor (see above) story: solid writing. Classic tropes from fantasy and RPGs abound and are deconstructed fairly logically throughout this game. Characterization: The characters tend to be genre-savvy and intelligent. They are capable of making mistakes and dumb decisions, but those are typically in keeping with established character traits and a deep, underlying assumption that other charaters are NOT as genre-savvy and intelligent as they are. The Bad Skills: All of the skills are passives (increase to elemental damage/resistance, an extra hit in your combos, etc...) Worse, you're going to get all of them. The level cap stops you two points short of maxxing out every ability. No replay value, no trying different builds. General UI: The game has a single volume slider for everything, instead of separate music/sfx controls. The music drowns out the sfx at times. The Ugly: Controls: This is a console port, and the controller support needs work. There is at least one puzzle that is almost, but not quite, unplayable, because you can't adjust controller sensitivity. (You need to drop an object in front of a stream of fire to block it, but the object's hitbox is small, and the controller goes from "don't move" to "dive into the fire".) Bugs: -I had to replay the final boss fight because I hit him too hard. -I had to reload during a dungeon, because I stepped off the side of a stone bridge and was trapped on an invisibe platform. I rate this game highly because the story is solid, and the humor is GOOD. Good enough for me to forgive the clunky interface, the hard to aim attacks, and the honestly bad gameplay.

You can sum it all up in that the game seems too unpolished at all levels...