Arms of God

EDIT 8/11: Please read the developer response. I cut a part of my review saying I was losing trust in the developer, as I feel they are being honest with us after looking at some of the mentioned artists online. I think the dev and I are on the same page about reviews. It is also worth mentioning the dev is Polish, and there might just be a simple language barrier, so I don't feel it is fair to tone police. My issues with the gameplay are still there, but I'll give the game another look after some updates and change my review accordingly. Thanks for reading. Review: I feel rather conflicted about leaving this review. I understand that leaving a negative review on a game like this can have a real impact on the earnings of a game, and I don't want to be overly negative about a solo dev's passion project. Initially, I was going to leave the reviews alone and just let the game cook for a bit before sharing my thoughts. What pushed me over the edge to leave this review now was when the developer left the following request: "If this update affects your experience negatively, please let me know before sharing that frustration in a negative review. Nothing is set in stone, and we are still iterating on the game together." Personally, I don't like comments like this. I generally do not like it when developers make comments about reviews at all, especially in early access. Reviews exist to protect potential consumers, not as marketing for developers. I can appreciate a request to communicate frustrations, but if a new update breaks an important feature, fails to fix widely communicated problems, or just makes the game less fun, then potential buyers have a right to know. Supposedly, none of the assets in the game are made with AI anymore, but I honestly can't shake the feeling that many of the still images were made using AI. Much of the art has that flat, washed look that is characteristic of AI image gen. I'm not all that anti AI, I think there are plenty of valid uses, but I would never sell people AI generated art. In general, I think it is acceptable to use as a productivity tool in circumstances where you will either replace the asset before showing it to the public, or if you are an expert that can test and verify the results, like with code. However, I can't help but shake the feeling that there is more AI than what the developer claims. With all the drama aside, this games biggest enemy are the systems supporting the gameplay: Firstly, there is a surprising lack of diversity in how builds actually play. There are a lot of weapons, a little over 60, but the weapons are split into three different tiers, with all the weapons in the previous tier having an upgraded variant, thusly cutting the total number of actually different weapons to something like 20-25. The tiers themselves don't seem to change the behavior of the weapons, it just changes the stats. To top that off, many of the weapons feel identical to each other. The electric hammer feels the same as the holy hammer, most guns feel exactly the same, and there are only minor variations between the remaining weapons. All in all, there are maybe six actually distinct categories of weapons (melee, AOE field, projectiles, circling ground AOE, launcher, and beam) with all the other weapons being variations on those five types whose only difference is the status they apply and some minor stats. Compare that to a game like Vampire Survivors, where every single weapon behaves differently than the others, with only a few exceptions. The ultimate effect is that runs feel too similar to one another, and there is no point in tinkering with builds, as builds just become a math formula. Speaking about tinkering with builds, this game gives the player the freedom to ban certain passives and equipment (called prayers) as a part of the meta progression. Eventually, you cut down so many of the prayers that you really can build the exact same build every single game with almost no variance. Obviously, this is the strongest thing to do. Who wouldn't cut out weapons that their favorite character doesn't use, or doesn't contribute to their preferred build? But therein lies the problem: why does a roguelike bullet heaven have build rigidity like this? One of the most fun aspects about this genre is the ability to try a new build each round. No two rounds are supposed to be the same. You are able to re-spec your character, however, doing so is utterly tedious and a huge waste of time. I don't want to tinker with my build as a part of meta progression, I want to tinker with my build in the middle of a run. I want there to be risk in terms of rerolling or taking new weapons and items, and the game's meta progression system washes away all of that risk management that makes this genre thought provoking. Finally, and what I consider to be the most egregious system in the game, is the fact that each run is split into fifteen rounds. FIFTEEN. The early rounds are short, under a minute, but the later rounds end up being about 3 minutes long. At the end of each round, the cross you carry explodes, killing all of the enemies and collecting the remaining currency, converting it it to XP. This system is both incredibly tedious and pushes you to be impatient, because you lose a lot of money if you don't collect it. I have never felt rushed and restless at the same time, but somehow this system manages to do it. Sufficient to say, I didn't enjoy my time with this game. The negatives of the game far outweigh the positives in a genre that is oversaturated with stellar titles at half the price. I didn't even get into a number of complaints I had, like the terrible gamepad support, the unfortunately mid music, the bloated metaprogression, issues with damage type conversions, and so on. The developer states he wants to evolve the genre, but I'm not actually sure the developer understands what made this genre so addicting in the first place. I didn't absolutely hate it, but I honestly felt bored most of the time. I hope the dev can fix the issues with the game, there is some potential, but I do not think it should release within the next six months.