Compass of Destiny: Istanbul

TL;DR: The game is not the best hack and slash but it's not awful either. Average indie game with some good ideas that aren't greatly executed. I wish there was a neutral (like curator reviews for neither thumbs up or thumbs down) as the games may be to someone's liking. Top cons: - extremely lacking itemization - bad merchants/shops system - very lacking skills system very badly designed progression - cannot rebind keys - souls don't actually save when using the "save/keep souls" revival option - too many jumping puzzles that may be optional but not really if you wan to get those souls... in general the whole 2nd dimension we explore is a massive jumping puzzle filled mistake - various minor bugs - outdated graphics (if you care about that at all) - only Turkish voice overs (at least there's English subtitles) Pros: + not too expensive for an indie game (could have been less, ideally 10-15 instead of 19.99 EUR) + the combat feels mostly fluid and responsive but also bland + Somewhat interesting story (I personally don't care about story in my games but many of you do) + fully rotatable 3D camera + you character can actually jump (a rare thing in diablo-esque hack and slash games) + there's character customization (albeit very limited) You can see me play the game for around 2 hours here: https://youtube.com/live/wm0ElP-GKI4 Think of my impressions of the game as neither thumbs up or thumbs down but rather neutral. Some of you out there may like it, while the vast majority may be disappointed. Here's a little more details about some of the things mentioned above: The itemization is super bare bones where items just give you +XYZ more stats like strength, vigor, mobility/speed and so on. Maybe later one items with special powers that are build opening or build-around me items drop too but i doubt it. On top of that the whole shop/NPC traders system is super silly. You go into the stores and instead of talking to an NPC that has its UI of what they sell, you go around the room and interact with each specific item for sale separately. I also didn't notice a way to sell. I'm sure later on there would have been a merchant i can unload all the trinkets and other junk i looted but could not find it at the initially explorable parts of Istanbul. The character progression is super stupid. You earn fame by completing events and doing other good deeds but for whatever reason my fame drops back to zero (mayeb after i die and load). You also unlock new skills (and there's very few of those actually) from the "other world"/other dimension, but if you die you have to go unlock that skill again. On top of that fighting enemies in that other dimension drops souls (a progression/unlocking related resource) but if you die there's two options of revival: revive without or with keeping your souls. Choosing the option that supposedly lets you keep your souls does not keep any of them so you gotta go and grind those back. BUT the biggest bummer is that we can only reach the place where we spend those souls after we die and choose that revival option, but as i just said they don' really carry over upon revival at the place we're supposed to spend them. I was surprised that i couldn't remind the keys, I really wanted to dodge roll with my mouse thumb button instead of alt (it's hard for my fingers to press alt in the middle of combat). Not a major problem but many would not have liked it. I also noticed that the game loves switching what weapon i had as "active" or "currently on" from the 4 sets of weapons back to the punches/hand-to-hand slot. Another baffling thing was why switching to shield unequipped the 1-handed sword and has my hero wearing a shield in one hand while the other is empty... LUL.