How everyone can give this game 4 or 5 stars and seemingly mean it is beyond me. It controls poorly. The platforming in imprecise. It's not fun to to float past a corner and fall off a ledge and then need to run around a climb back up just to do it five more times. But what made me quit, during the FIRST level, was the combat. Jack turns and runs too slow to dodge painfully slow moving projectiles shot at him by low level grunts that take way too many hits to die. And while you're standing there smashing the single combat button to swing your weapon as slowly as possible the enemy continues to get in licks at close range, not to mention if someone decides to shoot you from behind. From very far away. to whom you will have to eventually turn and "run" toward over a very empty landscape. Movement is floaty garbage. I wanted this game for a long time because it seemed like it was made for me. The atmosphere is really cool, Jack is a neat idea for a protagonist, and there was one truly hilarious moment where he finds a music box and does a ridiculous dance. It made truly laugh out loud. But that was the only fun to be had. Aesthetics and easily missable jokes shouldn't be the best part of a platformer, but it sure seems like they bamboozled enough people to overlook how poorly the game actually plays.
The art style is really cool looking. That said, it's easy for your character to get lost blending into the background, foreground, or even the enemies you're fighting. You just mash and hope you live. Attacking isn't instantaneous, so you tap attack, then you wait a tick, then you actually attack. Not horrible, but not satisfying. Movement is slightly fluttery. Prefer platforms to be smooth. But what is stupid is when you select quit from the menu, it brings up "exit current game? Yes or no" and you can't select either. Neither joystick nor dpad let's you choose yes or no to actually quit. Nor any other button or combination I could find. You have to force quit with a keyboard. When simple little things like this are broken it doesn't inspire confidence bigger things won't also be broken deeper into the game. So high praise for the art style despite your character easily getting lost in it, but it loses points for stuttery attacking, floaty movement and not being able to literally quit. Glad I didn't pay full price.
