CARNEDGE

[b]CARNEDGE[/b] makes a strong first impression. The visual style is striking, the art direction is confident, and the soundtrack, while limited to a single track, is genuinely good. Unfortunately, it’s also very short, and the loop isn’t handled cleanly, which makes it start to feel awkward rather than atmospheric after a while. The opening levels are enjoyable, but the difficulty curve takes a sudden and brutal spike. Progress grinds to a halt as you’re forced to replay the same stages repeatedly just to move forward. That might be partially down to build choices, but even so, the jump feels unintentional rather than challenging in a satisfying way. Itemization initially seems fine, but cracks start to show the longer you play and overall feels undercooked and inconsistent. The crafting system doesn’t help much either, feeling shallow and oddly implemented. Rather than encouraging experimentation or meaningful build decisions, it comes across as a largely inconsequential feature. Gameplay starts off serviceable, but it doesn’t evolve much beyond that. Before long, it becomes repetitive, and it’s hard to imagine this being the kind of roguelite players sink dozens of hours into experimenting with different builds. That’s especially disappointing because the game’s aesthetic and theme are doing a lot of heavy lifting. There are also some rough technical edges that further undermine the experience. Enemy waves sometimes spawn directly on top of each other, seemingly at random, which can turn already difficult encounters into frustrating ones. Combined with the uneven balance and progression, these moments make the game feel less polished than its presentation suggests. Overall, the concept and presentation are excellent, but the execution lacks depth, meaningful interaction, and replayability. There’s a solid foundation here, but it needs significantly more refinement to live up to its potential. [b]Rebirth update[/b] Since the developer asked me to revisit the game after the recent update, I gave it another try. The new rebirth feature feels like something that should’ve been there from the start rather than a meaningful evolution. The game is still very short, and the material mining/crafting system remains awkward. Having to manually activate gathering, and press multiple buttons just to start basic resource collection, feels unnecessarily clunky. It doesn’t add depth, just friction. The constant [i]“tink tink tink"[/i] gathering sound is also incredibly grating, made worse by a short looping soundtrack that quickly becomes repetitive. I ended up finishing the game on mute, which is really rare to me. Balance is still a major issue. Bosses spawning large groups of AOE healers can create near-unkillable scenarios, and overall the game continues to feel under-tested. Encounters swing between trivial and frustrating without much middle ground. [i]I appreciate the continued updates so I comepleted the game this time around, but the core design and balance issues remain unresolved. P.S. Describing it as a “treasure chest of extra gameplay hours” feels overstated. There’s more content, but not enough to meaningfully change the overall experience.[/i]

[h3] Frustration outweighs the chill gameplay and vibes [/h3] [b] Good [/b] [list] [*]Artstyle [*]Price - not gonna complain about game length when it is a low cost game. [*]Base concept. Autobattling + items etc is solid as can be. [/list] [b] Bad [/b] [list] [*]UI - information is all over the place, and the in combat cards are stuffed away in a corner instead of being centralized, making them feel unimportant and visually unimpressive. [*]Map - Dragging it around to visit shops and collecting resources gets old real fast. Needs shortcuts. [*]Item upgrading - 6 hours and 30+ destroyed items is kinda enough said. Chance based upgrades where losing a 50/50 destroys the item is just not fun. Especially when you have to spin a wheel to get the item in the first place. [*]Is not really a roguelite? It's more of a campaign of sorts. [/list] It can be salvaged if devs put the work in. I wanna like it, just can't.

A nice idea but the game is full of bugs with 0 quality of life (you must drag and drag with you mouse to go to the crafting stations every time, no buyback for gear accidently sold, etc). Wouldn't recommend it at the moment.

4 hours to beat the game for an idle game? Seems light

Love the art style, only 3 - 4 hours but the devs are planing to add more content,

There are bugs that I have notified the devs about, and after they responded a couple times, they just stopped. Bug remains. I am stuck at the end of the game and would need to completely rebuild my character to finish it because too many sources of lightning causes your character to stop attacking. I would refund it if I didn't have too many hours in it.

For the price I think it's a good game. I beat it in around 10-12 hours. Encountered a bug that made it to where my hero wouldn't attack (restarting got rid of it) and it only happened in later levels so might be a bug with a particular item? I beat the last boss with my hero not attacking... just won with minions so it's not a deal breaker. Overall I wish it had a lot more content, but other than lack of content I think it was entertaining for the $.

i wanna befriend this large tree man.. i think he would be a considerate and loving life partner but thats just me thats my two cents. also very fun game gang good jobbbb!!

It's pretty short, but it's also not that expensive, and more content is coming. I had a lot of fun for the 3-4 hours or so I spent on this, looking forward to more down the pipe. *Edited because sometimes my brain can't words.

A straight-forward fun game. Feels like you're fighting through a classic Fleischer or Disney cartoon! Good stuff - great visual style. Casual real-time uncontrolled action, modified by your continual ongoing realtime ability picks, backed by an equipment system. Very friendly replay, farming, and progression. Again, just darn fun.