Animosity

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [h1]The Game[/h1] [i]Animosity[/i] is a fun and unique platforming experience that features randomized levels and a gradual learning curve for the player. Please keep in mind that the game is still in Early Access, with the developer planning to add more content before its final release. One of the draws of this game is its local coop and net multiplayer features, which seem to be fully functional already. You can never have too many games that still support both. The story is minimal, because I read that the developer's original idea was to keep the entire game text free, including the main menu. Of course this would lead to some confusion and give the players some head-scratching opportunities. As a result of attempting to keep the game free of text, of course the story gets jumbled, except what you can extrapolate from the gameplay that you are a raccoon trying to rescue your fellow raccoons, who are captured or are in hiding. By helping them, they will then help you on your quest to rid the world of these various menacing threats to the well-being of your species. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The game starts with no explanation. A few basic diagrams about movement and you are off to the races. As I mentioned above, you are a special raccoon with a red tail. You accumulate helper raccoons by finding them in hiding or rescuing them from captivity in various locked cages around the map. In the top left corner of the screen you will see two bars, one red, and one orange (as soon as you collect your first raccoon). The red bar represents your health in this current life and the orange bar is, well, the power of the cumulative raccoon mob that you have amassed to help you. There are various enemies of all shapes and sizes around the map, this difficulty progresses without doubt as you progress from one level to the next. While the levels are randomized, there are clear-cut stages that you are going through, and the bosses for the various stages are set. Initially you are only a defenseless raccoon who is incapable of anything but jumping and wall climbing. You have no powers, no attacking ability, etc. The only way to avoid danger in this situation is to jump out of the way of enemy attacks. Fortunately in the beginning here, this is fairly straight forward, as the enemies rely on melee attacks with additional wind-up so you can plan things ahead. As you progress you can then pick up Raccoon Helmet and Claws for attacks. Now you are ready to inflict some damage on your enemies. When you have accumulated enough orange bar charge by rescuing enough fellow raccoons and keeping them alive, you can then pick up a shield, which transforms all of the raccoons you have collected into a functioning self-conscious body of armor. If you go near it or jump onto it, you serve as its central intelligence and you can use this as a power-up. Or you can let it roam around on its own, killing enemies, moving forward, etc. The armor has a certain health, and it would deteriorate if its health is brought down to nothing. I definitely get a [i]Captain Planet[/i] and [i]Power Rangers[/i] vibe here. As you are in this powered up armor mode, you can then obtain licenses to additional weapons, other than the starting bow and arrow for it. You are able to power up significantly under the circumstances with additional and more high powered gear. Of course your enemies also increase in power and difficulty with time, but what did you expect, a walk in the park? The stages are broken up into smaller sections. Each small stage section ends at a trashcan that you need to jump into. Your relative progress is shown in the top right part of the screen. So you can see how close you are getting to the boss of that level. The boss enemies are unique and have a good amount of health, so you have to learn their attacks, movement patterns, then move in to distract and hit them at their weak points. You have to keep in mind that at your core, you are a weak little creature that can only take very few hits. [h1]Controls[/h1] Controller works great. I only used this because the game recommended it as such. I did not try anything else. [h1]Graphics and Music[/h1] Well-drawn graphic and a distinct style are evident for this game. Enemies have unique looks and gear, so you can guess the hot mess you are about to jump into next! The music is all right, and it seems original, but it doesn't stand out as something I would want to buy and to listen to the OST. [h1]Audience[/h1] Cartoon violence, where do we place that? The platforming aspect is not too tricky and easy to learn. Dodging the few potentially fatal attacks, especially later when enemies have higher-powered ranged weapons, can be a challenge at times. The bosses can be tough. [h1]Pricing[/h1] Base price set at $9.99 is reasonable for content and originality. Launch discount of 40% is generous for sure. And I see this as a good opportunity to try to get a good player base for possible multiplayer games. There is a plan to increase price by about 50% upon release. I probably can't get behind this decision. That's the price of [i]Hollow Knight[/i] or [i]Enter the Gungeon[/i], both with many free large content updates since their official releases. [h1]Positives[/h1] +Very interesting gameplay +Unique concept (the closest game in a platforming experience of rescuing fellow critters to help your cause is [i]BADLAND[/i] +Unique mechanics that are also easy to learn through trial and error +Plenty of power ups and weapons to obtain and to use. +Text-free, allowing for blind fumbling but all learning from the players perspective (some may view this as a negative, I realize) +Randomly generated levels +Significant power up opportunities after the initial phase ([i]Mario[/i] inspired?) +Couch split-screen coop and online multiplayer functionalities +Very involved and responsive developer [h1]Negatives[/h1] -Wall climbing mechanic from coming out of a horizontal tunnel to go into ascent was difficult to figure out. Some people may find this frustrating without trying enough to overcome the awkward nature and feel. -Sometimes creating that armor body can be stuck mid-process due to off-screen raccoons not present. -The initial powering up, transforming into a more powered up entity is slow and feels to drag down the enjoyment a bit. It was neat in the discovery part, where I was trying to collect everything along the way and trying to figure out my paths. But there needs to be more quicker power-ups built in. Even [i]Mario[/i] games evolved from a set power-up path to a more dynamic system with RNG built in, to increase replay value. -Boss fights require a decent amount of luck, their attack signals are not not always obvious enough, couple that with the few hit points that you have, I feel that there needs to be better balance. -Completed levels should be unlock the following level, so the player would be able to start a new game at any unlocked stage, not from the very beginning/ -Optimization is not ideal. My graphics card was getting a little hot and the reserve cooling had to kick in. I can run much more complex-looking games with less effort there. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [i]Animosity[/i] is platformer with unique ideas and fun gameplay. It has game modes that tries to appeal to everyone. It is still in Early Access and still lacks a certain polish. In its current state, with its flaws, I still think the game is plenty fun and deserves your attention. I recorded my first 30 minutes or so of trying to fumble around and learn the game here: https://youtu.be/5vlmymrmtJc [quote]I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.[/quote]

EDIT 3: The developer wanted a third edit, so I'll give him one. He suddenly reappeared once again after nearly 2 years of silence from both ends to berate me, harass me, and insult me in the comments again. [b] Avoid at all costs. [/b] The game itself was fun, but the guy behind it has been hounding me for YEARS now. Literally YEARS.. for not recommending it. As a reminder, this was originally a recommendation until I noticed that the game had sat dormant for a year, with no updates on the store page, news section, discussion boards, social media, etc when I tried to see if development was still active. I changed the review because I cannot truly recommend a dead early access game, and I would have considered changing it back if the developer had come back with updates, rather than anger. To his credit, there was eventually at least one update, but the anger came first. The update was even named "not dead" in honor of my altered review. This is all besides the fact that the early access section of the store page says that the game will be in development for approximately 6 months, yet it's been available since august of 2018.. so you can do the math. I'm NOT in the wrong, here.. but I've been treated as such repeatedly now. I've NEVER seen a developer hound, berate, and harass someone so much over ONE review before. My favorite part from the developer's new comments is where he said [b] [i] "If you bought into a game that offered no enjoyment or value, and then it died, you would have a point. But to pay for a game, enjoy it, and just want more then complain about it is entitled." [/i] [/b] Your game is in Early Access, dude... and you're saying I'm entitled for expecting updates? Come on. Early Access means you have some obligations, and if you're not fulfilling them, anybody is absolutely within their right to not recommend the product. I've been called a troll, a liar, and a stubborn child, among other things by this developer.. and honestly, I'm getting tired of it. I'm none of those things.. and by saying all of that, no matter if it was true or not, instead of shutting up and leaving well enough alone, the developer has only succeeded in making himself appear to be one of the most toxic people I've ever dealt with. ---- EDIT 2: Game was dead for almost a year before the developer finally decided to come back and complain to me for altering my review to reflect his sudden disappearance. Our short but frustrating conversation is in the comments below - the 'developer response' was left right after I wrote my review shortly after the game came out, the other comments are more recent, and are in response to my review change. Keep in mind that Edit 1 did not occur until about 8 months of no activity on this game from the developer. Anyway, no news updates on steam, no forum activity for months, and although I searched high and low for a website, a twitter account, a forum, or anything at all that would tell me this game was still in active development, it was my job to magically figure out some way to ask... not his job to at least post a notice somewhere, let alone update the game that I and others paid for. Apparently I shouldn't have updated my review to reflect that there had been no updates to the game for over half a year to warn others against buying something that very much appeared to be dead. That's an interesting viewpoint, but I don't agree.. I believe that people should be made aware of such things. Maybe I would have changed my review back to 'recommended' after seeing some activity again, but now I'm more inclined not to. You see, I don't like being repeatedly told that I'm wrong, when my actions were very clearly justified. There's an update for Animosity now after all this time, but so far I can't be bothered to try it out. I do like how the developer decided to name the update "not dead" in honor of my review alteration.. nice touch. I should add this from the Early Access section of the store page: [i]Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “The game should be in Early Access roughly 6 months to ensure that the experience is complete and stable across all platforms. It may be necessary to add more features and game modes which will lengthen development time, but make the game much more rich and diverse.”[/i] And then the game went almost a year without even being updated, let alone completed in 6 months. I understand that most early access games overshoot their deadlines, but those games tend to keep receiving regular updates during that time... not go completely dead with no news from the developer. ---- [b]EDIT 1: Nevermind, dead game. I had high hopes for something so unique, but there haven't been any updates that I've noticed, and there's no news or forum posts by the developer, so this will probably be in Early Access Hell for the rest of eternity. Changing to Not Recommended, because I can't suggest a dead game.[/b] ---- Original review: I can tell you that without a doubt, you have not played a game like Animosity. It isn't perfect, and I think it may get a little repetitive unless some variety is added in a few places, but I must praise it for being a very unique game. I sort of figured out the game as I went, and boy is it crazy. So, you play as a raccoon.. and you can collect more raccoons to build up a little army. When you have enough, you can collect armor, and your raccoons will come together and form a walking man-like body out of themselves. No, I'm not kidding. This walking mass of raccoons can walk around and attack on its own, or be controlled by you directly by jumping on top and acting as the head. Sound unique enough for you? Add to that the fact that you can gain licenses to use other weapon types in the game, and collect weapons from fallen foes, powering up your weapon by collecting the same type up to 5 times. Make your way through procedurally generated worlds... enjoy the occasionally savage AI of the autonomous walking raccoon-man. It's a real experience. As I alluded to, it's not perfect. During Early Access development, I hope to see more variety added in a few places, mainly. -More level elements would be awesome. -More level types.. maybe branching paths that take you to different zones, or at least a zone change more often, and with more differences between them -More enemy types. There's already a pretty good number, but we can always use more challenges to flesh out the game. -Not sure if I was missing tutorial elements, or if this game just doesn't have much of a tutorial yet. It was confusing at first what the weapon pickups were, and why I could only pick them up sometimes.. had to realize that I needed the racoon body to be alive, and to own the correct weapon license for what I was trying to pick up, and be seperate from the body to grab them. Also was momentarily confused about why I couldn't pick up armor pieces, until I realized that you need enough raccoons first. It also took me a while to figure out how to jump off the body and be free to run around again. So yeah, there was a little bit of a learning curve, but I feel like I had the game pretty well figured out in the the hour I played so far, so it's not too hard. A few more on-screen hints would help keep frustrations down for other players perhaps. Congratulations, developers, on making a game that I can't make a good comparison of with anything else. Um.. Let me try. How about.. Metal Warriors (SNES), because you can run around as a vulnerable little raccoon who can't take much damage, or jump on your armored suit of raccoon minions for extra firepower, like the mechs in Metal Warriors. That's the best I can do. Really, It's just nice to see something so fresh, so please do keep adding stuff and finish this game right. I believe in this game.

I bought this game off of the early access page. It looked interesting. Frankly, I really, truly enjoyed the gameplay. The style was enjoyable, the characters were cute, and the game mechanics themselves were new and engaging! Something I really liked was the ability to collect your own little clan of raccoons to go and attack villagers. However, initially, I was very frustrated with this game. It was tricky to understand some of the menu UI and controls. I appreciate the style, as the menu was intented to be designed by raccoons who wouldn't have used words, but I think some words like "Start game", "Game Type", and "Options" can be necessary for new players. In addition, the controls were very unintuitive and unclear at first. I had some issues even finding the "attack" button using a mouse and keyboard, and when I switched to controller, I found the attack button was where the jump button would normally be (the A button on an XBox controller). Some reccomendations for the designer: - Add in Health Regen for the Main Raccoon - Checkpointing instead of having to restart the game - Refine some of the animations - Refine the pathfinding AI - Add words to the main menu and options menu - Motion blur to movements Otherwise, I strongly reccomend this game. It is in early access for a reason, and I'm excited to see this game grow and develop. A lot of the mechanics and gameplay in this game are fairly new, and I'm definitely going to keep coming back around to this game. Thank you!

Really fun with friends!

Very engaging game straight off the bat.

First of all, the developer is a friend of mine, so I can't claim objectivity here. If that bothers you, read no further. OK. It's fun. Let's face it, that's the whole point of making a game, but I think it's the kind of fun that most people appreciate. If, like me, you happen to be an amateur afficionado of the dad joke and the weaponised pun, this is the game for you. You're raccoons. Multiple. Your spawn point is a trash can. You're a bit bandit like. I'm sure you can work it out. The gameplay is simple but challenging. There's nice progression despite each new level being randomly generated. The artwork is lovely in a muted, sombre way. I'm going out on a limb here to say that's deliberate since a quick internet search tells me that raccoons are very nearly colour-blind. There you go - gaming is educational! It also means that it's easy to see the bits that are being highlighted for you. The music is ... lively. You certainly get a sense of frantic urgency and small animal helter skelter movement. After about half an hour, I wasn't sick of it yay! and since I grew up on the worst arcade music in videogames - Manic Miner springs to mind - I think I'll be able to tolerate it for a while yet haha. That's a roundabout way of saying that the music does its job here. This is a nicely polished game already despite being in early access status. Especially for a one person indie game developer. I'll happily pick it up and play it for a half hour. I'll also happily let my 7yo son have a crack. In fact, I think he's going to like it. Can't wait for the multiplayer updates to come out. There are a few tweaks to come yet. From my perspective, the game feels a bit twitchy with very "bright" controls. There's nice progression on the jump height, jumping higher with a longer button press, but left/right is instantaneous. It might feel a touch more real if there's a tiny acceleration phase for each direction change. Being able to change direction mid air seems a bit old school, not sure if that's a deliberate gameplay choice. Given that the random generator makes lots of vertical shafts with openings on either side, maybe it is deliberate. The trashcans have this acid green halo. I figure this is the raccoons being able to see them by their scent. If that's the case, then maybe other things, like rescuable raccoons, could also be smelt-seen too? Not sure if that's Red River's intention there. It could be me reading too much into it - it's a bad habit! As one other reviewer has said, there are some novel elements to the gameplay which are really refreshing. New elements to a retro style platformer, but with randomised level creation, makes this game feel fresh and familiar at the same time. So, throw a few bucks at it, support a new indie dev with some fresh ideas and have some fun!

Needs more content, but great so far.

:D

Sorry, don't like games with 1 touch instant death. If you don't mind that, go for it, maybe you'll enjoy, it, graphics are very well done.