Death Scourges

I normally do not review a game until I have at least 10 hours but because Death Scourges is from a solo developer I know visibility is important for a success and reviews are a part of that. So to expand on what I have interacted with there is a story and from what I have read in-game there was some genuine thought put into it. Atmosphere is nice so far and tying back to the story there is even a lore explanation for why the surface is so dark which shows attention to detail. The gameplay is smooth and feels tight so far. Accuracy and ammo conservation are important. Tight, controlled bursts of fire with the starting smg is best especially when combined with not moving. I appreciate that and there is even a crafting system which mentions crafting new weapons. Or at least upgraded ones if not exactly new, unsure yet as I only found that in the How to Play guide so far. Had some voice dialogue which is muffled and static-like as if from a in-helmet radio which makes sense. Dialogue is kept minimal and provides that tacticool feeling people generally want. Apparently the enemies are all mostly the same but will mutates and become stronger over time. Not far enough to have encountered that but again in the How to Play guide. So definitely more depth for those worried when they keep encountering the same enemies a couple hours in. Controls feel sensible overall and the squad commanding is actually quite simple in that it reminds me of Republic Commando. Which is definitely a good thing! Just no spots to specifically post them up in for different weapons or anything. But easy enough to command on the fly and I like not having to wrangle a menu in intense combat. Appreciated for sure. The AI appears fairly competent so far and I have had enemies seemingly flank me which caught me off guard. They come in small hordes so far and seem to spread out in the darkness to surround you and attack from all sides. While I have played games where wonky pathfinding when combined with a simplistic ai lead to similar behavior I am of the opinion that the behavior is deliberate in this case when seeing the solid ai teammate pathfinding. Also while there is no controller support the game does run on my Ally X at around a solid 30 fps. So seems well optimized for the most part. I did have the occasional serious dip for a moment but it does not l seem tied to anything specific. Happened when enemies had just spawned and when nothing had spawned. Not sure why but regardless I also have seen someone confirm it runs on Steam Deck so you should be fine if you have that. Finally for controller support as I said there is none but I mapped all the controls but one unimportant one using the Steam API and uploaded the layout for anyone to use. Actually it controls so well that I am genuinely surprised there is no native controller support. Will update my review as I accrue more playtime.