It was a pretty lukewarm experience. It is a novelty demo of an experimental engine, but not really a game on its own and not one that I would want to replay much. It has balancing issues and lacks interesting features that leaves a lot to be desired. It is also kind of unforgiving, especially due to balancing issues, so you might get a kick out of it if you're a fan of the genre and love a challenge, but it mostly left me very frustrated. I was lucky to get it while it was on sale for a few bucks, and if you really wanna try it, I recommend the same. Otherwise, maybe skip over it for something more robust.
TL;DR at end.
Performance-wise, I didn't have issues, but I do have some concerns/warning for potential players. In its use of the experimental engine, it is entirely CPU reliant. You may find that it runs poorly on your PC. I ran it windowed at high with no drops in frame or quality, but I also have a higher end CPU. My only performance complaint is it is UNUSUALLY quiet, that for it to be on par with all my other programs I had to turn Windows' volume all the way to 100.
Appearance-wise, I found its overworld ambiance quite nice, but it has its issues. I think more than anything, the color schemes going for it cause everything to kind of blend together, and in turn I missed several areas on my first playthrough. It's not a secret if it's dead in front of you and you can't see it because it looks like the rest of the room. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the second level (first two levels share the same graphics), so my understanding is limited.
Gameplay-wise, it was all around lacking, unbalanced, and frustrating. It has missing information with the listed controls and trial-and-error (that kills you) for fundamental understanding of mechanics - I don't mind games that lack explanations and instead encourage your intuition and curiosity, but this isn't really the case. It's too much to summarize at once:
- Spacebar is not listed as an input key despite the fact it is quite literally needed for the main menu selections. (The main menu lists the controls of the game, but makes no mention of this. Not a big deal, but just FYI.)
- The energy system for the weapons goes unexplained. The gems on your UI bar are a vertical bar of how much energy (ammo) your weapon has. Each weapon uses these two bars differently, some only using one or the other, or both, or consuming them faster, etc. The gems on the ground (of same appearance) are ammo refills. Walking into them will restore your bar (not to full, but by some). I feel mixed about this, because I've played plenty of games where you have to figure out yourself, but this becomes unforgiving because of the ammo balancing.
- If you run out of ammo, you're SOL. There is no self defense abilities. You can find gems to replenish in the overworld, but once those run out, you have to hope they drop from enemies. This sounds okay in theory, but there's no guarantees they'll drop, so you can kill enemies upon enemies and still have no drops. If enemies remain and theres no ammo laying around, you quite literally have no choice but to die.
- Additionally, there's no way to save extra ammo - you have to leave it behind or come all the way back when you need it. No way to store extras, and overflow from when you refill is just lost.
- The level design is lackluster and sometimes unusual. The appearance makes some (normal, not-so-secret) areas really missable - there's a difference between "it's a secret" and "it's dead in front of you and you still can't see it." This is worse still for the actual secret areas, which are so much more missable. It took my second playthrough to actually find other weapons, let alone to find access to the locked-out areas, and it really... wasn't that hidden. I felt frustrated more than satisfied when I found them.
- To clear areas, you kill a quota of enemies. When you find another weapon, it raises that quota. It forces you to wander around hoping for more enemies to spawn when the number gets high enough. That seems to be all there is to it for progression.
- There is no saving function. When you die, you have the option to start the entire level over. If you go to the main menu or close the game, you have to start the entire *game* over. There is, thankfully, a pause menu.
**This is an edited review. At the time of reviewing, I literally could not find the other weapons on the first level, and could not get past the second level. It's entirely possible to miss these things. I gave it a second chance and played it again, and was able to find some extra areas and two extra weapons, only for it to still not be enough to get past the second boss. (Also edited for clarity, readability)
TL;DR - Everything it has going for itself falls short because of bad balancing of weapon mechanics with lackluster and missable design choices, and creates a completely frustrating and sometimes unforgiving experience. The most the game has going for itself is that it is the demo of an experimental engine, which is not something you can see outside of a performance hit on your computer and potential lag. Fans of the genre might like the challenge or novelty, I guess.
