I want to love this game as it has a ton of potential, but there are a few draw backs that REALLY disrupt the flow the game.
1. The game will throw many enemies at you at once. And no, I don't mean like 5, I mean like 20. It becomes a spam fest.
2. The enemy spawns are god awful. I can turn around and suddenly there's a giant hunter where one second ago there was nothing.
3. The camera is so zoomed in that when running the character is practically pressed up against the edge of the screen. If you dodge while moving, good luck, because you're going straight into that thorny bush that you can't possibly see.
The third one is the most irritating and the most likely reason I won't finish what should be a fun game. I don't like playing a game where I get to only see 50% of what I'd like/need to see. I shouldn't have to fight the game to play the damn game.
Isolation, overwhelming foes, +-- perks, punishes mistakes severely, exploration, ability doors, hand drawn animations, fluid movement
You'll probably die a lot but always with enough shards to upgrade.
There are stretches of poorly designed procedurally generated rooms but they don't detract from the ambiance- especially if you force hordes to spawn more often with perks.
You can't ignore hordes. You can't miss many dodges. Always have an escape route.
Escalating firepower met with escalating foes.
Skill system is akin to FF grid system- you can't min/max, you have to follow certain paths. Character will be somewhat balanced in the beginning before unlocking the other paths.
Jumping puzzles are minimal and easy. Think: Mega Man X.
Sundered reminds on a mix of Dust: An Elysian Tail, Castlevania and a tiny bit of Metroid. Good, recommentable game, but there is room for improvements. It's missing only a small edge to reach or surpass some of the top titles that had their obvious influence on the game. Said "small edge" costs alot of time though.
Graphics / Sounds:
The esthetics of the game, map design, character design and animations, are very pretty. Ambience soundtracks, SFX and recording is very pleasant too. It's the best part of the game.
Gameplay:
Smooth control in widest consideration. Usage of melee weapon on ground shifts the character slightly forward by each hit, which is a pest, after a while. Melee in mid-air is most enjoyable. The ranged weapon is troublesome. Shooting creatures to your right recoils your character so much to the left, that these monsters suddenly appear on your left sigt, cause damage, eventually push the character into brambles and damage again that it kills the character without a chance to escape the pinball death sequence. The occassional, automatic zoom in and out can be annoying but it's... not good but still ok.
Level Design:
Pretty map design but the level design, more accurately the way creatures spawn, is not exactly great. Survival time and other modificators determine monster count and difficulty at certain trigger points / locations and that gets bothersome, if the character did not die often enough. Too many monsters ignore walls.
Bugs:
I have discovered only 3 bugs. A wall glitch (happened only once), which rendered the character immobile. A platform glitch, where the character does not fall through a platform but pressing down and jump button fixes it (happens sometimes). The last bug halted the combat pattern of a boss fight and rendered it immortal (happened only once). Reloading / restarting from starting location "fixed" it but I still haven't figured out how that happened. No matter, Sundered is, on overall examination, very free of bugs.
Disclaimer: My review is cross posted from Steam. Though I'll probably buy it on GoG too, just because I enjoy it so much.
This game is absolutely incredible. I have to say it took a little bit for me to get completely into it. It started ok, and was immediately atmoshperic and beautiful. After playing another, similar, recent game though, I wasn't totally sure of how I felt about the mechanics of the game.
Last night I pressed forward for a few more hours, and everything just clicked, the game took off, and now I think it may be one of my absolute favorites of this style. The key was to think about the combat differently than the other game. Instead of trying to be pixel precise, this game has more of a delicate and graceful flow to its combat. I described this elsewhere as a flying ballet of death. :) Like playing Crouching Tiger. Instead of rigid combat, one can flow and float from one enemy to the next by rolling, floating, flipping, and basically fly across entire screens smoothly chaining from one enemy to the next. It's absolutely beautiful and savage. As more skills and drops become unlocked things just get better and better.
The game makes you feel like a total badass without getting too easy.
At first I thought this game may need some tweaking, but now I can't put it down, was up WAY to late playing it, and I really don't think the devs should change a single thing.
As you already know if you're looking at the videos and shots above, this game is absolutely gorgeous. The sound is every bit as good as the visuals, the controls, while different than other similar games are very precise (if you grant the inertia effects).
I really couldn't be happier, and now I'm going to buy a couple more copies and gift them to a few friends.
Excellent work devs!
Have rarely bought new games when they come out, but the trailer looked great. Very happy I got it. It is a great metroid style game. I am only about 25% of the way through, but already really like it. Has a great blend of finding artifacts, purchasing upgrades, fighting hordes of monsters, trying to collect shards, backtracking, finding new areas, interesting story elements, changing areas, and action.
The game is fun, controls are great, and it makes you want to keep coming back for more. You will die, but each time you die you can use any shards you collected to upgrade, and feel like you want to hurry up and try again.
The changing aspects of the map are interesting and keep things from becoming too repetitive. The enemies are fun and visually appealing. It is a lot of fun, highly recommended if you liked any of the Metroid games.
