The platforming and action is decent and the amount of customization is good, but the game lacks polish and depth. Once I finished the main story, I tried a challenge mode (just the same game but with restrictions) and new game plus (same game, but harder), but it couldn't keep my interest. Visuals: The retro style looks ok. The particle effects are never too overwhelming which helps when in combat. There are some interesting pixel animated cutscenes, but they are only used in the opening and the ending which is a shame. Gameplay: Equip gear, kill enemies, jump on platforms. The gear is your standard mix of bad, good and great. You find what works and you want to stick with it, but if you us an item enough you master it, earning MP that allows you to use better starting gear on your next run. While this provides a stronger start and an incentive to use different gear it also forces you to not use what you like and can make runs harder. There's also character upgrades but they are gained PAINfully slow. After clearing the story mode I still didn't have even half of the upgrades unlocked. Presentation: This is my biggest gripe. There are too many aspects of the game that should have been revisited. The sound mixing is off. Some sounds are very loud while others are too low. Skipping dialogue causes the BGM to 'skip' and since there's no voice overs and most people read faster than the auto scroll this became a common annoyance. There's no way to sort the player or the vault inventory. Narrative: While most roguelites have simple stories, which works for the game type, MU goes for something with more depth, but fails to deliver. Something, something, humans are the real monsters, etc. Characters aren't given time grow or naturally illustrate their personalities. Not normally an issue for a roguelite, but if you're going to call it a narrative driven roguelite you should try a bit harder.
Overall: Decent action metroidvania. The map is a bit small, combat is pretty simple and the story is pretty uninteresting. Mostly fails to live up to potential. I would be very interested in a bigger sequel, though. Game play: It’s a metroidvania, but the map is simply too small. There’s technically two, but they’re both the ‘same’ map, just in different time periods. This amounts to both maps being similar in structure with some minor changes in most cases and just one major change (a fortress vs a castle) based on the time period. It’s also very horizontal. As a result the exploration is very linear. It wasn’t hard to find where I needed to go next without needing to explore. The combat has this really neat idea where you can equip two orbs, that could each do something different, but since they have different ranges and speeds I always found it better to equip the same in both slots. The game does let you have up to 3 load outs that can be swapped instantly so it does allow some customization. Visuals: The pixel graphics are beautiful and the protagonist’s animations are particularly well done. Even when combat begins the particle effects don’t obstruct your view while attacks still look distinct. Evading and inflicting damage relies more on skill than trying to parse out what can and can’t be seen. The backgrounds aren’t obtrusive and I never didn’t know where I can’t jump or move to. Very importation for platformers. Presention: Small options like weapon load outs and in game logs/achievement viewing is availble and appreciated. A tutorial is provided as part of the narrative and it's quick, unobtrusive and can be skipped. It's nice when devs understand the simple pleasures. It would have been nice if harder difficulties were available from the start. It was a pretty easy game, overall. Story: More narrative focused than most metroidvanias. The story is pretty good, but, predictable and mostly forgettable.
Overall: Face paced action with good visuals and tight controls. Lacks customization and depth and the UI is pretty bad. Game play: The action is fast and skills/attacks are simple and easy to understand. This is both a benefit and a detriment. It's easy to pick up and play, but once you master the upgrade system it becomes very easy to 'break' and each battle becomes repetitious. Mostly comes down to stacking dashes and just constantly dashing, stopping, attacking twice, and dashing again. Some skills, like the thunderbolt dash, are so broken they make all other types nearly useless by comparison. The bosses are a good combination of bullet sponge and evasion. They take a little while to burn down, but not frustratingly long and are visually distinct enough to recognize and dodge attacks. Visuals: Colorful and unobtrusive environments. Looks good and detailed, but doesn’t make it hard to see enemies. Once combat begins, however, the particle effects can make it nearly impossible to see when enemies are attacking so you end up just dashing constantly. Presentation: The UI is pretty bad and intuitive. There are weapon cores, skill cores, passive cores, etc and the way the UI displays them makes it hard to understand what does what. There’s very limited descriptions for some skills. I still don’t know what ‘shatter’ does for one of the characters and there’s no where to check. There seems to be an issue with localization as well. Things like how there’s a main weapon normal attack stat and main weapon skill attack stat, but then also skill attack which is actually the same as main weapon skill attack. There’s enough dialogue with bad grammar and spelling errors that it actually becomes noticeable. Story: It’s a roguelite, so there’s not much here. Each character has motivation, but nothing particularly interesting or memorable. It’s a game more focused on the game play and that’s totally fine. Not a detriment to the score, but it might not be for everyone.
Not really much to say. It's the original Doom II with some small enhancements. These mainly come in the form of a cheats menu (no more idkfa), map improvements and a level select. I gave it 4 stars because Bethesda just had to add an option for Bethesda.net. Fortunately you don't have to make an account to play (unlike Doom Eternal).
Not really much to say. It's the original doom with some small enhancements. These mainly come in the form of a cheats menu (no more idkfa), map improvements and a level select. I gave it 4 stars because Bethesda just had to add an option for Bethesda.net. Fortunately you don't have to make an account to play (unlike Doom Eternal).
Overall the game is short, but good. Not great, but not bad either. I enjoyed my time with it, but since the harder difficulties remove your progressive, permanent, upgrades (rather than making the game harder in other ways) and there are no other unlocks (like weapons) I find little reason to continue playing. Story: Barebones, but sufficient for a roguelite. You are a single fighter pilot lost in a nebula trying to save planets from Deadeyes while searching for a way home. The planets don't have any distinct personalities and the dialogue repeats very quickly. The prologue is well done, but doesn't seem to lead to anything. Gameplay: Collect resources, power up planetary shields, fight enemy ships, repeat. The shooting looks impactful, but the choice of weapons is somewhat boring. There are a few good weapons, but I found myself passing on most of them. Passing on weapons increases your max ammo so there's at least value in that because running out of ammo is a real threat. Upgrades are, individually, not very strong, but with enough of them you can become a power house. This is a positive as it makes all decisions important while not railroading players into a specifc build. The biggest issue is the combat is short and intense, but not very interesting. Strafe and shoot. Once battle ends you spend 3x as long gathering resources. It's a slower pace that sort of works, but I found myself getting slightly bored on successive playthroughs. There's only 1 boss, but it's a great fight. A fitting climax. Visuals: Nice pixel art, buit lacks any character. What is there works well and looks nice. The models flow and look great, but there are very few models so there's nothing terribly memorable. Sound: Good use of a minimal soundtrack. Music swells when combat begins and dies again while travelling and resource hunting. The gun fire has punch. Worth it for fans of space shooters, but fans of roguelites might find the difficulty and progression lacking.
It's a wonderful game full of inspiration and hope without being too preachy. The story is pretty simple, but wholesome. You are Alba, a carefree nature loving girl who is tasked with saving a nature preserve on her grandparent's tiny little island. You must photograph the local wild life, clean up the rubbish, tend to sick animals, repair bridges (she's also a master carpenter!) and stop the construction of a luxury hotel that will destroy the wildlife preserve all while uncovering a dastardly plot. The gameplay is very simple, but refreshing. No health bars, no enemies (except the obvious one) and no time limits. Grab your camera, snap some pics, pick up garbage, etc. This is not a criticism against the game, mind you. It knows exactly what it wants to be and does it very well. The visuals are bright and colorful and look great. They'll age well, too. The semi-blocky character models add uniqe charm and character without being distracting. The sound is lacking with the music playing only occasionally. This was done, I believe, to provide the player a method of hearing the various animal calls, but those are usually lost due to distance and being overlayed with other animal sounds. I think the only negative critic I have of the game is that it missed an opportunity to be educational. With all the animals Alba photographs and adds to her scrap book they could have provided some real world information on them (habitat, diet, size, etc). It's not a game for everyone, but it was a lovely experience even in my 30s.
It's just a demo, but I have to insist that it at least starts correctly. I downloaded, installed and got a 'missing dll file' error. I corrected this, multiple times and then got a generic 'failed to start' error. It looks promising so I'll update my rating when the devs fix this.
