Seriously, I do not understand what is with these 4/5 and 5/5 reviews from people with rather new accounts. As for my review, this game has potential and I would be pleased with it if it was polished even a little. There is no tutorial, instead there is a manual in the options that you have to read in order to understand anything. The game also makes a claim that the combat is based on skills and not attack animations, which is odd considering that you have an attack animation that can be interrupted, which means it's literally a game about attack animations. Additionally, the combat is beyond sluggish, which is a shame because I feel like it could have been something truly special, instead what you get is basically Mount and Blade's physical input system but less polished. Overall, I REALLY wanted to like this game since it seemed like a sort of isometric Dark Souls, instead what I got was this weird Mount and Blade meets Diablo game that crashes very often. The game has errors in game that cannot be closed but don't end the game so your options are to quit or try to play around a window. I give this a two and not a one because there is something special here if you can dig through crashes, poor optimization, wierd v sync issues, and overall sluggish gameplay. I feel like for those who can stick it out through the development process this might be worth your time, however I'm going to requst a refund on this one as I find it nearly unplayable in its current state.
Short Version: Good port, fixed the issues that the Humble Bundle version had (IE: framerate, user interface, key bindings) First a little background on this purchase: I originally bought the Humble Bundle featuring the metal slug games and found them to be miserable as the emulator that it used was abysmal with the framerate seeming to be in the single digits for everyone that purchased it. Seeing Metal Slug X released on GoG, I decided to buy it with the intention on leaving a review in case it was just as poor of a "port" as Humble Bundle's. I am happy to say this version is infinitely better at the framerate is consistent and it seems that the emulator used for this version has been revamped to be more user friendly. The addition of controller support and rebindable keys is fantastic and the game plays as good now as it did in '99.
This game is an interesting mix between an RPG and a Dance Dance Revolution clone in a good way. Essentially you move between your characters using the Shift keys and the arrow keys or WASD to hit the notes. It sounds hectic at first but it's amazingly fluid after only a few songs. This leads to the weakest portion of the game, the songs. Now I am in no way saying the songs are bad, because they aren't, they're actually fantastic, however there are very few, if any songs, I'd venture to say the average people would recognize immediately. With that in mind every single song is catchy and you'll be humming along faster than you can imagine. The way combat works is you hit notes in order to "cast" the attack, however you set attacks up in that the longer you keep a chain of notes going the actual attack will change. Say your "Exploder", the mage class, has a fire ball in their 1 position, that means in about 4-7 notes you'll cast a fire ball once you mess up for change to a different character, however if you have a water blast in the 2 position if you hit the 4-7 notes for the fire ball and continue to hit the right notes you'll end up casting the water blast. In addition to this variance in casting there is also a power difference increasing by each position. An attack in the 2 position will be stronger than an attack in 1 position. The game also boasts a variety of combat types, ranging from simple "beat the song for a high score" mode to a "survive a boss that has a continuious attack" to "Kill X amount of enemies". This leads you to approach each objective differently, like in the high score mode you just wanna hit as many notes as possible while healing every now and then while in the kill mode you wanna pay attention to the enemy's monster type, each of which as a specific weakness. TL;DR: A great game with a rather unknown song base that grows on you over time and will keep you entertained for hours assuming you like rhythm games.
The two billion spells thing is true, but its almost a lie. I know that sounds weird but this is how it is: Each component has 5 ranks, A, B, C, D, F You can slot up to 5 components into your wand, at least at the point I'm at, there might be more later There are around 100 components I have found so far (only 5 hours in) Since this is a combination, not a permutation, the same component can be slotted multiple times So far with just these numbers I can make nearly 1.5 million combinations, this increasing exponentially with each new base component. Now onto the game: It reminds me a lot of A Valley Without Wind, it's a 2D platformer at heart with a twin stick shooting mechanic that is made unique by the staggering amount of spell effects. You can summon a turret that shoots flaming lightning or fire a ball of fire that turns into suns that freeze everything, it is truly amazing how much destruction you can make with one spell! (my personal favorite being a beam of energy that can charm enemies that then run into other enemies and explode.) Overall I would recommend the game solely on its gameplay, however almost every mission is a fetch quest plus an arbitrary addition like "Don't step on the carpet.". I'm a bit shocked the developer used the 2 billion spells thing as a tagline as it overhypes the crafting system, which is quite simple, you have a wand with slots and you put components that dictate your damage, abilities, special effects, and status aliments into the slots, you can do the same with scrolls you find which make more powerful spells and your robe, however the components slotted into your robe have different effects from your wand. TL;DR: Fun gameplay blemished by repetitive quests and an overhyped crafting system
The game is by no means perfect, but the one and two star reviews seem to solely be based upon the fact that OpenTTD exists, which is unfair criticism that a game that came out years ago is not on par with a game that is still being updated (As of July 2014). It's still a fun game with a lot of strategy, depth, and complexity. Just because there are better options does not mean that the game is bad, Another World should be proof of that since there are better platformer options today but it is still considered good.
This game is extremely fun and I would rate it 5/5 if not for the control issues with a gamepad. The game does 'support' gamepads in the oddest sense of the word since you have to go into the controls and rebind every key to a button on the game pad. I'll just save some time for the rest of this rant and say: The running up walls is massively hindered due to the weird key combination to execute it properly. You have to press and hold up and the direction that the wall is relative to your character. On a keyboard this is fine but if you plan on using a gamepad prepare for some aggravating falls.
Let me tell you a story. It was not long ago that I got my wisdom teeth out and was homebound but during this period GoG was running a "5 games for 80% off sale!" Deal. Being unable to leave my house I snatched up 3 games I wanted and 2 just for the sake up for sale, this was one of those 2 games. After trying the other 4 I finally clicked the icon for The Cat Lady and was launched head first into a world of depression, sadness, intrigue, and confusion. After a couple hours, I sat there completely satisfied at the ending saying to myself "This may just be my game of the year". In short, this game is fantastic, I don't care if you hate the genre because the story is just...wow. A must buy for anyone who has a pulse and a credit card.
I'm usually not a fan of platformers. Yes I've played Super Meat Boy here and there as well as the occasional Mario game but I'm far from what you'd consider a platformer fan but this game is incredibly fun! The music matches the game perfectly and the quirky animation is just amazing but what's even more amazing his how a game that has such a childish look, which is not a bad thing, can still present so much challenge. As I stated before I've played Super Meat Boy and this game has actually given me just as much challenge as SMB! This could just be due to my lack of skill but I honestly think this game is sweet enough for children but hard enough for a hardcore platformer fan.
I grew up on games like Morrowind and other such Western-RPGs and this game takes the cake. I haven't had this much fun with an RPG since Morrowind. You can become a blacksmith and play as a trader paying his way through is problems or play as a hardened Merc and make your money through less honest means. My only true issue is the combat which is a little unwieldy. If you want to enjoy this game, make sure to disable Gothic 1 controls in the options menu because otherwise it seems like you have to be moving to attack.
