Starting with good parts - the art style of this game is what made me buy it. It genuinely looks quite nice, both cards and backgrounds. That's, however, ends the list of good things I can say about this game. The worst part is complete lack of originality. Slay the Spire exists, and so do Hearthstone singleplayer adventures, but that by itself doesn't condemn the game. After all, the whole idea of card-collecting dungeon crawler (avoiding term "roguelike" on purpose) is a pretty exciting foundation by itself and is yet to be explored properly. Unfortunately, this game does not really try to explore it. What it does it basically copies the basic structure without ever trying to really develop it. But that's not all. In this game, pretty much all you have are cards in deck. Your skills, your potions, even your loot. And loot is not a card you'd like to draw in combat. It's either literally unplayable or a very bad card. And if you don't take treasure then you might as well not bother winning, since your treasure is the only thing you'll carry outside of a dungeon. This game also suffers from Darkest Dungeon syndrome - you can't play your cards outside of combat. And so many card are not just useful outside of combat literally ONLY useful outside of combat. You don't want to draw a card that gives you 5 XP in a combat. But it's the only way you can use it, so you'll be stalling your combats a lot. What makes it worse is how easy it is to stall a combat: reduce enemy attack with one of many cards that can do it. In the end, we have a game that might have the same genre as StS yet very opposite. Where StS tries its hardest to be a tactical game, where to win you have to analyse your decisions, in this game you will lose to drawing a full hand of gold coins that you couldn't possibly not picked because they are the only way you'll unlock special cards and new characters.
I went in expecting something an attempt to remake Quake. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out Dusk is entirely its own thing that while referencing countless other games (Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Blood, Quake, Arx Fatalis, Thief, Duke Nukem and supposedly those I can't recognise) keeps its very own atmosphere and distinct art style. What surprised me, however, was its level design. Its intricately hidden secrets that make you feel clever for discovering them. It way-above average freedom of movement (allowing you to, for instance, to stack boxes or break windows to surpass the locked door without the need for key). It seems that levels were designed with conscious decision to allow the player to use what would be considered exploits by many other games to their advantage. It's never required, though, except for some secrets and bonus items, or if you just want to have fun sequence breaking. Also, somehow, despite the artstile being far from realistic, the game manages to create the actual feeling of horror, especially in the later part. I would also like to note the soundtrack being a masterpiece. It also switches dynamically to adapt to situation. I hope that people who want to dismiss this game the way I initially did would give it a chance. They, just like me, would be surprised more than once.
As a disclaimer: I've played this game hundreds of times and have got all possible endings, including Ultras. It is a very rich game full of various things and mechanics, however it was created when there was no such thing as a game design in the world. And what suffers from it the most is what's supposedly the most attractive part of the game - the challenge. The challenge, as it is in this game, is based entirely on player's ignorance and luck. And those will be the main ways you lose: either from naive mistake of not knowing that this particular kind of monster causes paralisis when attacked in melee, or from streaks of bad luck. Which basically means that to win the game with the highest chance you have to play it in the most boring and grindy way, avoiding any risks to not let bad luck screw you over, and to eat your fill of spoilers. Because if you don't, you'll die in frustrating ways, knowing that it wasn't your tactical decision that screwed you over but either bad luck or lack of specific knowledge. On the other hand, once you start playing in the way I mentioned, by keeping in safer zones unless you're ready for more challenging ones, grinding items and stats, you are going to be bored quite soon. And then either you'll make a mistake and die a bullshit death hundred times more frustrating or get an Ultra ending feeling that there really wasn't much of a challenge for you at any point in the game. So, my feelings about ADOM are really mixed. On one hand, I remember some epic adventures that even inspired me to write short stories on game forums. On the other, hours of safe grinding and dozens of deaths in hope of finding excitement. In case you're really into genre, I personally recommend trying DCSS as a lot more refined example.
Pathologic 1 was a unique experience in more than one way. I dare say that developers calling it life-changing isn't far from truth. It was a unique story experienced in a unique way. And, well, a pretty bad game. There is no point in discussing it here - most would agree that it was only a unique vision that kept the first game together. This one keeps the vision while learning from all the mistakes that the first game has made. It also manages to look amazing - contrary to the first one that looked bad even on release. It does a good job in delivering an actual game that is good to play while not losing the narrative part. One warning, though. It's a hard game, but it's not hard in a way that you are meant to get good at it or else you'll struggle. Quite the opposite: you are meant to struggle and that is going to deliver you the best experience possible. Keep going, keep failing and those failures are going to be the best failures of your life.
I am not really into platforming and I'm not that great at it either. I had close to no experience with Metroidvanias. And let me tell you, this game was unbelieveably hard for me. Even the first of the bosses gave me agony. Yet I persisted, not because I was so stubborn but because I loved the game so much. I loved the art and atmospere and art, and small bits of lore. I loved the exploration and well-placed hidden secrets. In the end, it made me love the agony the game made me go through to reach the goal. Now it's certainly my favorite game of all time, with 3 playthroughs complete, and I enjoy it more than ever before. The game made that to me despite my absolute inability with genre. I guess that means something.
