CORPUS EDAX

[h1]Ещё одно пополнение в копилке разочарований[/h1] Может, категорично, но именно так ощущается каждая игра с замахом на годный иммерсив с приправой из рпг-элементов. Увы, 9 из 10 игр оказываются в трейлерах куда приятнее, чем играются по факту. Тут как раз такой случай. [b]Боевая система[/b] На бумаге: "Сифу" на минималках. Использование окружения в драках По факту: Судорожная беготня по арене, закликивание двумя типами ударов противников. Посредственный стамина-менеджмент ----------- [b]Ролевая система[/b] На бумаге: Развитие персонажа в стиле фоллаутовского s.p.e.c.i.a.l. , вариативность отыгрыша. И вот это вот всё, что обычно обещают разработчики рпг По факту: Отыгрыш очень банально привязан к характеристикам персонажа (как пример, для грубого выбора нужен просто определенный уровень силы). Не важно, какие выборы вы делали до этого, какие предметы подбирали, с кем диалоги вели до этого - за редким исключением. Система репутации максимально рудиментарна и не имеет особого влияния на игровой процесс. За 2 часа до рефанда не дали сделать ни одного по-настоящему важного выбора, который повлиял бы на происходящее. Некоторые руты явно проще других. Зачем учить взлом замков, если большинство дверей можно либо сломать кулаками, либо вовсе обойти через вентиляцию ---------------- [b]Иммерсивность[/b] На бумаге: Вайбы "деус экса", вариативность прохождения По факту: "Шовные" локации без толком эксплоринга, вертикальности и вариативности. По большей части будете бегать по одинаковым улицам/этажам/комнатам. Зачатки симов есть в виду пары интересных механик, но мир слишком мертвый и заскриптованный, чтобы его декомпозировать и пытаться искать разные пути геймплейной петли. Всё вокруг это просто набор декораций и одинаковых нпц - в это невозможно погружаться и в этом неинтересно разбираться ------------- [i]Общее исполнение в целом тоже неважное: повторяющиеся ассеты, три вида нпц, серость окружения. Я бы понял, если бы это был ранний доступ, наполненный обещаниями все доделать при должном уровне финансовых вливаний от сочувствующих. Но это "готовый" продукт, за который просят 600р+. Стоит ли это того? Увы, но нет. Надо очень сильно зажмуриться и затерпеть, чтобы съесть этот "кактус"[/i]

It's short and sweet, 12-16 hours? If you go back for all the storage units. There's plenty of secrets and hidden things to find, hell the very first skill item I found was in a dark area above the roof in the very first area of the game, had to stack stuff to get there, but don't hold your breath, it's not a full ImSim, it's more... imsimmy? It's still a good experience, the melee focused combat is a nice twist too, if you need a mix of Deus Ex and Dark Messiah, this is it.

Short version: I enjoyed this *despite* the combat. Definitely play Ctrl Alt Ego first, but don't skip this one. Think the parkour and sneaking of Dishonored or Mirror's Edge, with the grimy melee combat of Riddick EBB or Condemned CO (or to a lesser extent, Zeno Clash or Dark Messiah). (I personally disliked those combat systems, so I ghosted/cheesed the combat in Corpus Edax wherever possible.) The maps are big, but the plot points are linear - you have 10 targets to kill, but you really can only kill them in one order, visiting each map in the same each playthrough. You can bypass or KO guards, but I only KO'd one assassination target, and I'm still not sure if that was a glitch or I somehow missed the other 9. At least two targets funnel you into combat with no way I could find to talk, sneak, or cheese past. Possibly some of this was planned but cut for budget/time reasons. There is only 1 quicksave slot and 1 autosave slot, and that felt needlessly limiting, especially when once my quicksave loaded with no floors and I fell through the map. I think this [b]must[/b] be an intentional design choice, though (to limit scumming), because it's such an obvious thing to "fix" otherwise. The quicksave/quickload actions both felt slower than they ought to be. The endingtron 5000 was... adequate. There are a couple of mid-game choices that affect ending cards. I definitely felt railroaded into killing the assassination targets - at least one I knocked out, and the (opt-in) quest marker told me I [b]had to[/b] kill him, so I beat him to death, and it didn't update (because he was already KO'd). I had to reload the autosave for that. I would definitely appreciate more options to 100% pacifist run the game, perhaps along the lines of Dishonored's multi-step processes to learn about and then politically/socially undermine the target (rather than just finding Hermann Gunter's root password on a terminal). There is also room for a "ghost" run where you are never spotted at all. The worldbuilding is explained explicitly in the endingtron, and some of it I didn't pick up when reading terminals and looking at the buildings I was passing through. I don't [b]think[/b] that was just me being oblivious - I think there is room for more worldbuilding terminals and especially for conversations between guards/workers when you are sneaking past. Oh, finally, some of the "set dressing" and lighting in the rooms felt a bit too bare, a bit too "my first 3D game". But at least I was never confused about what was an interactable object and what was just a wall with a glowy scifi texture. I can absolutely forgive the former in a low-budget solo project. PS: the main menu has a list of other solo/indie imsim projects, which I appreciated because I had missed some (e.g. Aquametsis). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDA5Z3OkNXI https://store.steampowered.com/app/1571940/Ctrl_Alt_Ego/

You punch em, it's great. TRY THE DEMO FIRST TO SEE IF ITS FOR YOU. Explore every nook and cranny for goodies and datapads. Somehow manages to balance sneaky stealth and fisticuffs simultaneously. Wish I could cram more things in my pockets to throw at people, but I respect the dev's vision. Speaking of vision, the barebones visuals lend well to the themes, and allow the game to run really well, even on the Steam Deck. I don't get a good sense of how the RPG stats interact with the game, you are pretty OP no matter how I distribute the stats around. Also, due to the kiting you can do to the AI, you can cheese pull enemies one at a time to have a fair fight. If you pull a group, you can count on the enemy infighting if you can cause them to swing at each other. The feedback you get on the enemies when you knock them around is great! Each punch and kick feels meaty, and while its a bit motion sickness inducing, it makes you really want to dodge hits that knock you over for a change. Well worth the asking price!

It felt like indie Dishonored, I like it.

Softlocked myself by daring to not be extorted by a gang member. Ended up in critical health, found out sleeping doesn't heal and I wasn't given an actual way to earn money or any objective besides storming the hideout of the same gang to save hostages. No money means no healing. ♥♥♥♥ game.

It's like Deus Ex and Dark Messiah had a buggy bastard child, but my god is it fun. Has typical im-sim features such as alternating paths based on your character's skills, but also an excellent melee system that invites the player to get creative and tactical, especially when faced with groups of enemies. A Unity engine game, it looks pretty good, though some of the character models look a bit basic/janky, but I would imagine this was to compliment the physics system. As far as glaring issues go, I will say the game really encourages a combat heavy style, but you can stealth/lockpick which I felt were mostly useless for a large portion of the game. Enemies seem to know exactly when you're standing right behind them right before the killing blow, and the lockpicking minigame was so precise it isn't even worth bothering unless you plan on dumping a load of stat points into the skill. As far as technical problems, despite a few bugs such as weapons vanishing from my inventory in between load zones, it felt like a very polished experience. This is a strictly melee game, and the movement/combat reminded me not only of the previously mentioned Dark Messiah with it's great physics based damage, but also the first person immersion of games like The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and Mirror's Edge. While not a super long experience, Corpus Edax provides a great compact indie Immersive Sim experience without compromising gameplay quality. Props to the creator, if you are reading this, you did an amazing job and I can't wait to see future work! Edit: There is one major bug that I somehow forgot to mention. Sometimes when you quickly equip a Quick-Fix syringe or other items (This happens to objects too, but I found it most frequent with the syringes) and click, it'll disappear or even sometimes start floating in the air, which left me really frustrated in those in-a-pinch moments. I thought it was worth mentioning, but it doesn't detract from my positive experience with the game, but it did really aggrivate me when it happened.

It's short, it's janky, and the environments are quite empty — but it still manages to be endlessly entertaining for nailing the same general type of ragdoll chaos that makes games like Dark Messiah compelling. Worth noting that the difficulty is a bit front-loaded, it's much more enjoyable once you get your footing and realize both how strong thrown objects are and how to make the most of your healing items.

Внезапно удивительно интересная сюжетная игра, которая удерживает внимание до самого конца и не успевает надоесть. Хороший баланс механик и экшена. Графика странноватая, но не напрягает. В последнее время становится популярен стилистический дауншифт графония и анимаций в играх - меня это в основном раздражает, но в этой игра всё достаточно органично. Однозначно надо брать, пробегается за несколько вечеров без духоты.

It has a vibe. I suck at it.