The intro is a total slog. Empty and boring. Your controls and shooting mechanics are hampered to the point where I don't particularly know what the goal was besides making you hate the experience of playing, right from the start. Typical of indie devs, they nail the art and everything else about solid game design is foregone. I'd avoid, even on sale, honestly.
I like the plot setup and general art direction. The music is quite good, if repetitive. The gameplay is where the whole package falls apart, which is a large problem. You have a pool of mana that's both your life (basically) and ammo for ranged attacks. The ranged attacks are sometimes used for environmental puzzles. This mostly becomes a problem during some boss fights where you'll get stuck trying to restore your mana, except there are no safe spots to do so. So, if you get hit in the middle of a boss pattern, you're just SOL - forced reload. Or wait like 2 minutes before you can try to hit the obvious boss pattern again. The above wouldn't be such a big problem if the first couple hours of the game didn't drag for an exploration action game. You're given damage numbers, but you don't really level up to boost them (ended up simply disabling in the options). I didn't feel like I received particularly meaningful upgrades during that time, either. The platforming and actions, generally, feel a bit stiff. Ultimately, I ended up bored and dispassioned. If this game gets a refined update down the road, I'd say maybe check it out. As it stands, it's a bit slipshod and really doesn't seem like it's worth the 20 bones.
After playing a dozen or so levels, I think the micro-managing of every character, every round, wears thin. I like that it's a tense experience and every move matters. However, I never found upgrades particularly satisfying to hold my interest to keep having more or less the same experience during every level. Grinding out unlocks isn't enough justification to keep playing the game for me, in the hope that it gets better with one of the other characters (e.g. sunk cost mentality). Also, a few bugs, like enemies shooting me through a solid cavern wall, were incredibly immersion breaking when they sneaked in. This is a commendable first effort for a development studio, even though I'm nonplussed about it.
Seemed kind of cool at first, but really dragged the more I played it. It's like top-down, PS2-era God of War combat with some twin-stick brawler elements mixed in. I was a bit disappointed that the MC just runs around like a hobo after the intro. I was hoping for some armor and customization options beyond what spells to fling. As Machinators mentioned, I am a bit surprised to see how much 'Day 1 DLC' there is for this seemingly budget game. After taking a quick look to see if I recognize any of the developers' other games, I see Moonlighter on the list, which I also didn't care for. I suppose, in hindsight, I'm not all that surprised I feel similarly about The Mageseeker now.
I received the Alien Breed trilogy via GoG giveaway recently and decided to give them a whirl, having heard a lot about them about 10 years ago. I got this running through Linux using WINE/Lutris and Win7 compatibility mode. I've seen some reviews about the repetitive nature of the game - but for a twin stick shooter, I don't know what else people were honestly expecting. It's a very basic, arcade-y style of game, remade from an old title that was also a top-down shooter. I like that the theme is sort of Ridley Scott Aliens-esque and think the atmosphere, at least in the opening hour or so is done well enough. As in the title, if you think the game is monotonous, just play it in 'short, controlled bursts' over a week or so and spread the experience out some more :P
