Short and not very challenging, Carrion still gets top marks from me. It's different, it's fun to play and it's solid design always keeps you moving forward. It's not quite a "metroidvania" since backtracking is really just for collectibles, it's otherwise pretty linear. It's not a platformer because your bizarro alien monstrosity can scale any surface and doesn't care about falling. It's not a hack/slash action game because only rarely do enemies pose any kind of threat, you nearly always have the tools to take them out with minimal risk to yourself. And yet, the fact that it defies all categorization is half the charm. Playing at the alien monster slinking around in the vents and grabbing soldiers who fire uselessly and scream is pretty damn fun.
3 hours in, I'm going to chalk my having not heard of this one up to it's super generic title and a crowded market, but for the sale price I bought it at, this a damn fine little game. The basic concept - killing puritan withhunters with the help of famous (public domain) monsters in service of the devil works fine. The structure of the game is like any of a hundred other deckbuilders and card battler roguelites you've played a bunch and are sick of. What stands out to me is threefold: 1) The presentation here is just excellent. Great animations, voicework and music. The interface is not the best I've seen, a bit busy but I always appreciate being able to roll over status conditions and terms and get the explanation right on screen. The game doesn't feel like it costs ten bucks. 2) Two different "health" bars in HP and Spirit. Attacking either will kill an enemy, but building too much in one direction means some fights are trivial and some are impossible. It's not much of an innovation, but it's mechanically new enough to add some wrinkles. 3) Devil Powers. The real hook of the game is that you can use your powers to "cheat". Your main health bar can be drained to heal your characters, move status effects around and refresh your skills. It's limited in some fashions for balance reasons - if a boss character has a unique buff that is the hook of that fight, don't expect to be able to steal it - but it makes me feel like every fight has more options which is nice. The writing is good. The presentation is good. The mechanics are good. Frankly, its kind of sad that this game has so much competition in the space that it'll probably never become a big hit. It doesn't have that "X" factor., but it doesn't really need it at 10 bucks (or the 5 I paid on sale). Pick it up, play with it for 10 or 12 hours, boom, you got your money out of it, easy.
