Go anywhere. Punch anyone. Steal anything. Get beaten up. Get sold into slavery. Pick the cage lock. Karate chop my owner. Pick him up and run away. One star deducted for not allowing me to recruit slaves into my totally-not-a-gang. (Seriously wtf. Don't pull the punch at the last minute like that.) Buy it.
Exanima is the only "modern" game that tickles the spot in my brain occupied by old school real time dungeon crawlers such as Ultima Underworld. I've been deeply enjoying my time with it. Go watch footage on Youtube and such to determine if you think it's for you. That will be much more useful than any written review for figuring out if you want to buy it or not. That being said I can definitely say that I would only recommend it if you have paitence for games that demand a lot of learning, and hinge on a lot of stupid physics-based lunacy. What is fun for one moment will be infuriating in the next. i believe this is exaggerated by some of the systems, and lack therof, that (in my view) handicap the game. -The controls should be rebindable. -The camera should follow the mouse cursor, or the direction your character is facing. (I know about the INI file thing. Better.) (-possible target-locking system.) Here's why: Your character faces toward the mouse cursor, and this is how you orient your directional attacks and tank-control movement. You read that right. Tank control movement with physics-based jank. in combat. Prepare to stumble and trip. You must wrangle these things while also juggling the physics engine, and also adjusting the camera. In the heat of combat this is all a bit much, and pulls focus from gameplay. I do not find it fun to lose control because my character lost all sense of direction due to trying to track the cursor being moved over his shoulder. This really drags down on the game for me. I will note that perhaps this can be solved with a tightening of the agility of characters in tight space turns. (I've also experienced repeated crashes at higher graphic settings which seem somehow related to the lighting and particle effects.) Early Access Rating: 3/5 stars. +Interesting gameplay concept. +Hand crafted dungeon crawl. -Unfinished mechanics. (magic.) +Captivating combat. -Needlessly rigid controls. +/-JankyAF (play at own risk)
