Dark Devotion

It’s tricky attempting to mix a souslike with another genre. After all, soulslikes are, by definition complex and challenging games, and attempting to add a further layer of difficulty is a bit like throwing a drowning man a block of concrete. With Dark Devotion, developers Hibernian Workshop wanted to mix the repetitive grind of a rougelite with slow, soulslike combat, and while I did find some things to like over my ten or so hour playthrough, I mostly came away frustrated. You play as a templar ordered to explore the depths of an ancient dungeon, initially with the objective of proving your faith to your God and your superiors, although things change as you discover certain zones in the later levels. It’s still all pretty barebones, even by soulslike standards, with small amounts of lore dolled out by the handful of NPCs hanging around your hub area (the aptly name Filthblood Shelter) or found in documents that you can bring back to your library. Graphically, Dark Devotion uses the same pixellated art style you can find in games like Blasphemous, Moonscars, or Dead Cells, and I found that while perfectly serviceable there wasn’t really anything special to set it apart from its competitors. Moonscars, for example, has it’s instantly recognisable red and grey aesthetic, while Dead Cells opts for a more vibrant, almost garish colour palette. Dark Devotion is, with a couple of exceptions, all drab corridors and grey stone walls. The enemies fare better, especially the bosses who are consistently interesting and well-animated, although unfortunately enemy variety is pretty slim, with sometimes only two or three different types per area. Gameplay is also a bit of a mixed bag. It feels like developers Hibernian Workshop weren’t quite sure just how much of a rougelite the game should be, leaving things stuck somewhere between the two. So, you start from the beginning of the game every time you die, but environments aren’t procedurally generated. Rooms, chests, and enemy placement is the same every time. And whenever you enter a room, the door closes behind you, so there’s no backtracking. This is particularly annoying when you’re trying to find alternate paths as if you mess up you have to start from the beginning again, and the map is not very helpful in clearly showing the various exits. There’s a wide selection of weapons and armour to fin, though Inexplicably some of them are unlocked at the forge for future runs when you pick them up, but others aren’t, and I never quite understood why. As for character progression, there are two sets of permanent unlocks. The first is a skill tree where you can buy passive buffs or abilities with xp gained from fallen enemies, although strangely you can only have one buff active per tier, which begs the question as to why you would bother to unlock all of them. The second way to grow stronger is to find tablets scattered around the level that will boost your base damage, crit, or mana. Finally, there are portals scattered around the world that you can warp too to avoid having to start every run from level one. I rarely used these portals, however, as much like Hades’s boons, Dark Devotion offers up blessings every few rooms or so, and these are absolutely necessary to survive some of the harder bosses. Most improve your survivability by healing you as you enter each room, repairing your armour, or gifting you with a magic shield that can survive a few hits. None of these design decisions are terrible by any means, but I still need to talk about the actual combat that just didn’t click with me. It’s very slow and methodical, far more so than any other soulsvania I’ve played, with no jump button and a parry system that’s so finicky I pretty much relied on the dodge roll exclusively. What’s odd is that there are actually two dodge buttons, one on each bumper, that determine whether you dodge left or right, no matter what way your character is facing. Now, admittedly, I’m pretty dumb, but it took me far tool long to get to grips with this weird controls scheme and even after ten hours in I would occasionally muck up and throw myself off a ledge. I think, ultimately, Dark Devotion can’t stop getting in it’s own way. It’s strange design choices hamper what is by all accounts a serviceable rougelite, with its fixed environments removing all sense of discovery and its slow combat driving the pace down to a crawl. For me, passing through the same room for the twentieth time to find the same enemy in the exact same spot becomes more of a chore than a dopamine rush, and despite some cool boss designs and weapons I’m not sure I can find much to recommend.

Хорошая игра, не сложная, атфмоссферная. В игре есть лор, но сюжета нет. Управление специфичное, к нему нужно привыкать. Был удивлен наличию бесполезных, но поддерживающих атмосферу предметов.

手柄经常失灵是几个意思？

不能修改手柄按键，给到拉完了

molto bello l'atmosfera ti intriga e ti coinvolge, magari metterlo in italiano visto che sono passati anni

Bacana. Sistema de jogo complicado mas vale o desafio

one of the worst commands setup - the worse part? they are not editable. the mechanic of death being something that let you progress is cute but that is about it.

Welch düster, tristes Werke, das Monument der Verbannten. Schreitet durch Türe und Tor, Ihr, die mit Templarfrack gekommen und Kruzifix an Brust geklemmet. Bahnt diese dunklen Gänge und feuchten Gassen an. Kommt an verlassnen Orten vorüber, findet alte Schriften und Aufzeichnungen, erfährt von einstmals regen Treiben in Stockwerken, die diesseits nur noch staubig darliegen. Auf dem Pfade befinden sich schreckliche Kerker und geisterhafte Kammern, indes Ausrüstungen und seltene Runen aufzufinden sind, die zur Stärkung ausgelesen werden. Wehrt auf Eurem Wege vielerhand mysteriös, seltsam und abergläubisches Geschöpf ab. Schlachtet Gesindel, bedrängt Untertanen, begegnet Groteskes. Am Kreuze hängen werden deren blasphemischen Ketzer durch Eure oder anderer Templarhand, wenn sie nicht schon in Ketten hängen und lauernden Fangzähnen entgegensehn. Behaltet dabei Abstand zu Raben der Henkerin. Wenn sie sich Euch offenbart, die schwarze Frau, dann gibt’s kein entrinnen. Entweder wird Euer, oder eines ihrer Tropfen Blutes fallen, sicher steht, ein Opfer wird dargeboten werden. Auf Eurer Reise in die tiefsten Tiefen werden Große Henker, Verfluchte Großgewächse, Gefallene Ritter und Unheilige Nekromanten sich Euch aufmüpfen. Eine schwangere, goldweiß verzierte Frau, die Euch wie ihr eigenes Ungeborenes empfängt. Stellet Euch, die Ihr soweit gekommen, entgegen dem, das sich im blauen Kerne des Monumentes befindet, ein schimmerndes Wesen nicht aus dieser oder anderer Welt stammend. Werdet ruhmreich und tapfer aufsteigen! Gebt Euch hingabevoll Eurem Gotte!