[b]UPDATE: The major bugs section of this review have been removed due to the 1.1 patch that addresses them. The game is in a much better state now. [/b]
TLDR: My overall rating for this game is 8/10. It's not one of the best games I've played, but for its price and length it offers a surprising amount of content. Though with that being said, the game can be really easy even on the highest difficulty, and doesn't explain some of its optional features very well,
[h1] What is Dark Sword?[/h1]
Dark Sword is a boss rush game with bullet hell elements. Your main goal of the game is to defeat 8 bosses - 7 of which provide you with abilities that improve your combat performance - so that you can revive your dead loved one with the help of a cursed weapon: The Dark Sword.
[h1] The Gameplay[/h1]
Since Dark Sword is oriented around its bosses, the most notable feature is its combat system. When you are fighting bosses, you are given two tools to damage them: your melee weapon, and your ranged one. The former comes with a basic three hit combo that is performed by clicking or holding the left mouse button, as well a unique ability activated with the right mouse button. Whereas latter is much more simple in usage: hold left click to fire projectiles. It is worth noting that a melee weapon's right click ability and ranged weapon consume with dark energy - a resource displayed as a bar in top left screen that decreases upon using either of the aforementioned skills. This can only be refilled using a melee weapon's left click attacks, or even the right click ones depending on the weapon. On top of all this, there is a health system represented through red circles that become transparent when the player is hit. The only way to regain them is to heal, which takes a few seconds and has a long cooldown before it can be used again. You can also avoid a boss' attacks by pressing space in a direction to dash - causing you to be immune to damage for less than a second.
Along your journey, you may find up to 3 melee and ranged weapons on top of the ones you start with, numerous items that enhance your combat performance, as well as 8 optional bosses that reward you with these items. It is worth noting that this game heavily encourages exploration, and even experimentation at times. Since even though some items are only accessible through the optional bosses, the majority of them are hidden across the game's numerous areas, and can even require you to interact with objects in different ways.
[h1] The Pros[/h1]
[h2] Atmosphere and Art[/h2]
The game takes place in a demolished kingdom, ravaged by war and neglected by all but a group of cultists that practice necromancy, and perform blood rituals to simultaneously appease and obtain the powers of their dark god. In this regard, it excels at showing this to you through its visuals alone - old and broken stone structures covered in snow, massive areas that yield little to no life at times, large lakes of blood and altars containing orbs of blood to name a few. Although it is implied in the introductory cutscene, Dark Sword even contrasts the many characters' heights and monstrous designs with that of the short, human protagonist to imply how much of an outsider they are.
Speaking of characters, almost all of them are designed in such a unique way that they are recognisable even as silhouettes; this even applies to the game's items as well. Additionally, while it is a simple design choice, NPCs lack any form of red in their colour palette to indicate that they're allies to the player rather than enemies. The only con of the artstyle is that it relies heavily on red, black, white and shades of gray. Even though it is intentionally used to convey the game's dark tone, more areas with differing colours would be appealing.
[h2] The Bosses[/h2]
Almost every boss in the game attempts to kill the player using an abundance of unique projectiles in various ways; the majority of them even have a melee attack of sorts. Aside from bosses that do the latter or are in the middle of an animation, there is almost no contact damage in the game - players can get as close to a boss as they want under these circumstances. On top of all of this, bosses take short pauses between some of their attacks to allow the player to harm them, and every single one of their skills is done in a very specific loop, making them very predictable. With all this being said though, every boss in the game will likely take multiple attempts to successfully kill - as their attacks can seem overwhelming and near unavoidable at first. Once you've gained enough practice and developed a clear strategy for each boss though, defeating them does give you an immense amount of satisfaction.
[h2] The Melee Weapons[/h2]
Every tool under this category yields varying levels of damage and energy regaining capabilities, on top of their aforementioned unique right click abilities. As a result, the player is encouraged to experiment with them - especially when paired with ranged weapons - to see how they can use a weapon effectively. For example, some weapons would naturally be better at energy gaining then others, making them more effective for gunslinger builds.
[h1] The Cons[/h1]
[h2] Ranged Weapons[/h2]
3 out of 4 of these tools function in the exact same way: they all fire long ranged projectiles that gradually drain the energy bar over time. On top of this, two of the ranged weapons - [spoiler] the staff and the shotgun [/spoiler] - are overpowered can kill bosses within a few minutes, even on the game's hardest difficulty. Both of these weapons are also very easy to obtain if a player knows how to get them
[h2] The Sword[/h2]
The Dark Sword itself is the starter melee weapon of the player, and is arguably the best melee weapon in the game; it has great dps and energy regaining, two abilities exclusive to it, and can block projectiles through it's right click attack. This is an issue as it makes boss fights much easier then they should be, and discourages the player to find and experiment with other melee weapons.
[h2] Vagueness in items[/h2]
The description for what each item does can be found in by clicking the inventory button in the pause menu and hovering over an item's picture - which is never explained to the player. Despite this though, some items have explanations that don't clearly explain what they do, such as the [spoiler] fruit item, which doubles a player's healing power [/spoiler]. On top of this, some other items require several very specific steps to be obtained, which a new player might not be able to find even with the help of the inventory system, experimenting and admittedly clever visual hints. On top of all this, a certain item requires the player to press a key to use it. This is not an issue in itself, but the knowledge to do so is only found in the settings - in the key bindings section specifically.
Overall, this game has balancing issues and doesn't provide hints for how to utilise certain features when it should, but it shows promise for how cheap it is. As a beta tester for this game who has had conversations with its developer, it also helps he is very responsive and takes criticism well.
