Angel's Gear

Riddled with bugs, some pretty serious. I can't even exit the game through the menu, I can't navigate to it. Save points didn't actually save, or at least, it's not letting me load my save. Whether that was due to my inability to quit without force-closing, I don't know, but I don't want to treat this like an NES game and do it all in a sitting. There is controller support, even though it claims otherwise on Steam, but it's kind of janky. It's an interesting enough metroidvania with some cool mechanics, but I don't want to play it anymore.

This game is fun but has been abandoned by the developer. There is no way currently to exit the game when playing via a controller. This was a known issue that the DEV hasn't fixed. Reported it several years ago.

Because of the way hit-stun applies to the player and the way player attacks are slow and their range is limited, it is easy to be overwhelmed by enemies when not taking a teasing laborious effort to dispatch them. Enemies however stay dead permanently, which encourages a troublesome pattern of backtracking through empty rooms to return to rare save points to record those enemies' deaths. The world in general is full of repetitive rooms with a lot of the same enemies again and again. The [spoiler] Gear Engine [/spoiler] zone is especially troublesome to navigate due to a large number of instant death traps. The chunky and satisfying melee combat ends up being sold short by the game trying hard to supply you with ammunition so you don't really have to worry about it, but also through upgrades that make it even easier to ignore ammunition limitations. [spoiler] Bosses do a particularly bad job at this, constantly providing ammunition to the player rather than finding a way to implement its unique melee combat. [/spoiler] The game also feels unfinished in places, with enemies whose attack patterns lack sound effects or place in the world. I found enemies in the [spoiler] Angelholm [/spoiler] zone and [spoiler] the War mother [/spoiler] seemed particularly out of place with attack patterns that don't threaten the player very well. I found the game's tone to be weirdly lackadaisical compared to the bleak art and setting. The characters have a weird camaraderie that is not well justified by your incredibly limited interactions with them. It's not awful, but it is regularly clumsy and often dull for its abundant enemies and rare save points.

I really wanted to like this, but the lack of polish and general level of jank make it impossible to recommend. The overall aesthetic design and atmosphere are fantastically done. Enemies being dead for good after you defeat them once was a really interesting choice and could have played well with other design elements... if they were done better. The writing and storytelling is okay. The rest of the game, unfortunately, is less enjoyable. Default controller bindings are a mess. There's a good-enough option provided by the community through Steam, but that does mean needing to fiddle with it to understand what button does what thing since the game descriptions are no longer accurate (not that they were super readable to begin with). Controls in general aren't super tight and with a game as purposefully challenging as this, that can be extremely frustrating. A single dodge roll button press would sometimes lead to multiple rolls, completely breaking the flow of movement. Speaking of movement, general character motion is pretty slow, jumps are "heavy," climbing ladders is a slog, and a later upgrade that lets you reach higher areas is unwieldy to control. Related, there are far too many instant-kill enemies and obstacles for a game that controls so poorly. Deaths should feel like the player's fault, not the game's. I have some other more minor issues with the games including the minimalistic map, many bugs, and some UI choices, but those could be overlooked if the tactical feel of the game and underlying design choices came together better. If you want a challenging, horror-esque, slower-paced Metroidvania, play Blasphemous. It's better and goes on sale for cheaper.

This game took me a few hours to beat but they were a fun few hours, the story is nice, the characters are likeable and even though it has a couple of bugs it doesn't ruin the experience (for me anyways), it's also visually pleasing and doesn't cost much (you should get it on sale if you can though).

It's a good game, but it leaves a bit to be desired. The best parts are the style and setting. Everything looks like it was made by an alternate H.R. Giger obsessed with gears instead of genitalia. The characters are simple but enjoyable, and the boss battles are pretty good. The biggest flaw is the level design. Most areas consist of simple platforming and hallways filled with the same enemies. The only area that's has a memorable level design is the Gear's Engine, where the game suddenly tuns into this slow-paced platforming challenge. The best way I can sum it up is that, while a being a well-made product, Angel's Gear leaves you wishing the gameplay was as insane as its setting.