Catacombs 1: Demon War

UPDATE: After this review and the following discussion, the developer quickly released an update to fix the balancing problems. So essentially, I've been paying 5 bucks to be his beta tester, thank you very much. The update fixes some of the problems, but not all of them; at least, you can't get through the game by simply spamming the same two attacks forever. We'll see what the future holds. ========================================================================= TL;DR: Don't spend money on this. It has like 2 hours of playtime, most of it boring grind. As the imaginative title "Catacombs 1: Demon War" implies, this is a wannabe. It's as if a ten-year-old had written a story named "War of the Stars" or "Master of the Ring" and were incredibly proud of it. Learning by repetition. The "novel-quality writing" is a veritable mountain of clichéd expressions and "plot twists" that are telegraphed with a hammer. The setup with the locked dungeon, the side quests (collecting vegetables for a random guy in a locked dungeon... yeah, sure), nothing makes any sense whatsoever. On the gameplay side, most of it consists of the usual RPGMaker grind against invisible random encounters, plus a bunch of fixed visible boss encounters. Since the creator has zero idea of game balance, all of this is just laughably boring. For instance, there's a spell that costs a handful of mana and has a chance of 70% to instantly slay each and every enemy. Why exactly should I bother with anything else? On the positive side, the creator has invested heavily in assets (Pioneer Valley tilesets, custom music which is actually pretty nice), and the few ounces of voice acting are also fine. But that's really not enough to overcome the completely primitive and broken game design. I'd advise the creator to take a look at the RPGMaker game design forums; there are some people there who could get him up to speed, so that the solid presentation will get a valid gameplay foundation to rest on.

you dont get a very long game at all...and at the end of lvl 4 dungeon you beat the beast and it just ends....its just not very good at all for 5.00 game ...for .99 it might be ok...dont waist your money on this...there are much much better games out there for it.....

Really not much of a game. It seems targeted at the 9-12 age range. Simplistic graphics. Combat is mediocre at best. Weapons and armor are little more than temporary buffs for the characters. There is little to draw the player into the game or to keep his attention once he begins playing. I might give this to my pre-adolescent nephew or niece; if I had a pre-adolescent nephew or niece. Since I haven't I won't.

Great little Turn based RPG that has many features and items. Game is a little short, (I haven't finished yet) but definitely a great value for the $5 asking price. Many Weapons, armor and items to equip and use, there is also items that help with permanent stat increase above the normal leveling system. Turn based combat is smooth and easy to use. Combat at times appears to be a little easy but then you get into larger enemies and multiple enemies and it balances out. There is a nice magic system that has over a dozen spells to help in combat, which can be learned from an in town NPC. Lots of quests in all the areas to achieve and explore. Also has voice overs for cut scenes to help build the story. All in all its a great little game for the price and the thing that impresses me the most is the developer seems to really care about his game and is very responsive to suggestions and problems. Sounds like Achievements and trading cards are coming. Game has achievements in game at this time..

Coarse, Poorly made, RPG dungeon engine game. Dull, boring, grindy and repetitive random encounters in zone every few steps. Piles of weapons which durability wears out, while your hits, keeps 'missing'. Either too easy with Casting 'Sleep', 'Regen', 'AoE'. or unbalanced enemies at the end that does crazy hits, if you don't 'Sleep' them. For the sake of completion, completed one playthrough. Definitely not worth the time, effort and price.

So I got this game when it went on sale for $0.89, and I still don't think it was worth it. The controls are glitchy at best. The story is what you would expect from a cheap title, so no complaints there. The gameplay itself seems repeditive and a little outdated. If it wasn't for the controls thing, I'd say the sale price would be fair.

BAD things: 1) VERY short - about 3 hours 2) VERY bugged and glitchy engine 3) NOT intuitive interface: bad item management. Also hard to understand stat-system before you reach 1 lvl and spent first stat-points. Good Things: 1) Hard and randoomised, many variables - Is the most I like in this game. Is A VERY Huge plus. This is what is missing in modern games. 2) Good music. A HUGE 3 minuses doesn't beat 2 pluses - NOT reccommend

Turn-based RPG with dungeon exploration, character progression, and randomly generated loot ✅Extensive character development,​​freely assigning stats and choosing equipment allows for the creation of diverse builds ✅Rich loot system ,randomly generated items with modifiers encourage exploration. ✅Random dungeon layouts, enemies, and items make each game unique. ✅Tactical, turn-based combat,rewards planning, resource management, and proper preparation ✅The slow discovery of the world and the gradual building of the story perfectly capture the atmosphere of classic RPGs ✅Character development and acquiring increasingly better equipment provide a sense of continuous progress ❌High level of randomness ,luck has a significant impact on combat, equipment acquisition, and difficulty ❌Uneven balance ,some randomly generated situations can be extremely frustrating ❌Lack of frequent autosaves ❌Poor visuals ,functional, but unimpressive even by indie game standards ❌Navigating the menus and exploring can be awkward ✅✅ Verdict: [strike] Terrible [/strike], [strike] Bad [/strike], [strike] Mediocre [/strike], [b] Decent [/b], [strike] Good [/strike], [strike] Very Good [/strike] (Rating scale for short games, retro indie simulator games, and similar) [quote] If you'd like to see more of my reviews, you can find them on my curator page: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45994324/admin/reviews_manage/]CuratorKingViking[/url] and on my group: [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/CuratorKingViking]GroupKingViking[/url] If you have any questions about my reviews, feel free to ask. I'm happy to answer them. All reviews are my own!! Best regards, King Viking Bezimienny, Polish Game Reviewer. [/quote]

It's all an opinion as to whether or not you like something. I am okay with the game concept and storyline but the little I played seemed rather repeative and grinding in this turn based RPG. The layout, stlye are rather outdated and seemingly unfinished. If I could be neutral in my opinion I surely would have been but for me it was a no go and gave it a thumbs down. ADDED IN RESPONSE TO THE DEVS CRAP POSTING BELOW: Love how the developers give away keys for review and when they are not happy with a personal opinion(s) of a player(s) they attack. OH WELL, I did not like your game! I played for 10 to 15 mins, did not get into it or feel as though it was worth more time then that. That is the point of reviews and opinions, they are personal and belong to an individual (me). If you can't take what people write and say because it is not what you want to see or hear, TO BAD! You need to face the FACTS, not everyone has to like your stuff, in fact not everyone will!

While I had a good time from my 3 hour experience, it doesn't mean that this game is at least an average game. The only thing I loved about this game is the setting, the grim mood it creates and its music. Everything else is probably quite trashy.