I'm unfortunately having to refund this I'll briefly summarize below. This is based on the current offering at the current price and my opinion MAY change later as more updates, features and bug fixes are rolled out.
basically, there are good things that I like about this game, bad things I dont, and ugly things that are unacceptable; i'll be reviewing it like that.
Good things:
=Pseudo-random dungeon design.
-Basically the game is assembled in blocks; these blocks are randomly pieced together in such a way as to ensure a long distance from the start and finish AND non linear directions/dead ends, making dungeoneering a skill, not a given.
=Enemies of varying toughness that require different strategy to defeat.
-The first level is easy enough, although if you are careless you can easily die and the enemies have varying moves that are somewhat random, consisting of a random opener and random follow up attacks; the opener seems to be one of a handful and the follow ups seem much more plentiful.
Neutral things:
="Crafting"
-I appreciate what the creator is trying to do, truly. The gamer culture is instant gratification; I come from a time where your loot
-was hard wrought. Unfortunately, there is very little point to the system itself. The system simply exists as a time buffer/eyecandy.
-Unlike normal rpg games where you find a mint condition, well oiled, laser sharpened death machine in a 200 year old dust laden
-chest, this game requires you to find the blueprint for the weapon and craft it yourself.
-Yes, this is cool, but it would be cooler if it did anything; If you could perhaps craft the perfect blade, or maybe a crappy blade if
-you mess up; maybe reforging an existing weapon to give it better stats or something, or recycling old blades. nope, no such
-thought.
=Hardcore & Leveling
-This game is indeed not an easy game. this is because enemies quickly become health sponges that deal massive damage. If
-you neglect leveling your character in the "training" room, you will never get more health and you'll never get more damage
-bonuses. However, statistics are predetermined. There is no magic or stealth that I can tell. Simply strength and "skill". Have not
-gotten far enough to comment on it.
Bad things:
=Random maps from a limited pool sucks, especially in the later longer layers.
-I love games that have random maps so long as there are multiple variations but sometimes the maps are funky. Take Daggerfall -for instance. Love the game to pieces... but a dungeon, EVEN WITH A MAP, was a nightmare to navigate. You would pass the
-exact same stairs or room multiple times, and eventually you get deja' vu. This game doesn't even give you a map, so you're on
-your own to navigate the game. This really sucks hard.
-The interaction in the levels is nill, so basically everything is eye candy, with the same blotches of brown, generic swords, and
-buckets. If you're lucky, you'll find a "loot" item lying around. this "loot" is used for required upgrades in weapons and shields and such.
=Combat "Lock", Weightless Weapons, Stupid High Strength Threshold
You will be forced to stand and fight an enemy, no matter how little sense the fighting ground is. Stairs for example cause the
-enemy to swing under your feet or at them, and above is just as bad. And to get more than paltry damage, you have to practically
-swing your arm out of the socket. No responsiveness beyond a little vibration to hitting or blocking enemies, beyond sounds and
-sparks, and occasionally a staggering enemy; This is in stark contrast to the many other things which have physics based
-interactions, while combat is it's own thing entirely. How people compare this to dark souls is beyond me. Take it from a hardcore
-Dark Souls fan - they are nothing alike. Not even superficially.
= Inventory and Items
-If you need to grab something, you have to put your sword in inventory. This is not cool, i really would rather put it on my hip than
-have to pull out my backpack and put it in a slot. Already have full slots? good luck trying to drop your weapon. Can't recycle the
-weapons that I can tell, so they just go on the ground or in the garbage so to speak.
-as far as variety it seems you simply get a bigger beat stick. No real stats other than "skill" and "strength" and related multipliers.
-Most games give you an inventory belt for quick storage, but this game does not.
Ugly things:
=Hit detection and blocking is off.
-The game relies heavily on hitting and avoiding being hit, and if these interactions fail the game has a unacceptable bug. This is
-the main event of the game, and it's buggy.
=My third weapon manufactured could neither be stored in inventory (couldnt drop my swords by pressing grip+trigger for
-whatever reason even though it worked earlier) and WAS HELD SIDEWAYS! (FALCHION SWORD)
=You can become hopelessly lost in dungeons beyond any sane level.
-dont like it? tough ♥♥♥♥. this is hardcore, remember?
=This is developed by one guy.
-And the history of these games ever being fixed or updated is beyond bad. So I would be very careful in expecting updates
-beyond the most simple of things. There was a game I bought much like this called "Fadeholm" with many of the same type of
-problems - single developer oversights, bad gameplay execution, and bugs. I have returned many VR games because of this
-reason; I do try to give the benefit of the doubt by spending my money, but seeing lazy mistakes is where I start refunding things.
-This is nothing personal. I really do hope this gets better, but i'm seeing a common thread between the legions of other games i've -had problems with, and when a weapon is unusable/unplayable that is required to progress, there's no possible way you cant just
-see something like that. Unless i'm entirely wrong and weapons are random too, this weapon is planned and unusable.
=This is far from a true roguelike dungeoncrawler.
-There is no excuse to have roguelike in the name. Roguelikes have much more variety in items and player classes usually, and
-many more complex statistics. If anyone has even played the original "Rogue, while weapons progress linearly and skills do,
-there's tons of magic potions, staves, scrolls, enemies and secrets and other interesting tidbits. This game is nothing like that or any other game '-called a roguelike. It's linear, boring and uninspired.
=There are really stupid bugs.
-to summarize, there are hands who's grip remain locked and cannot unlock, texture errors, items which are oriented incorrectly in
-the hand and one that took a long time to build but was lost indefinitely and unable to store in inventory like other weapons,
-enemy physics falls and hit detection. There's probably more, this is just one hour.
At the end of the day I cannot possibly fund this overpriced and underdeveloped game. I had hoped this would be fun, but It is not. I will reconsider buying this at a different time when things have been more developed.
