Deathtide

I am changing my review of this game to positive. It hadn't had an update in a while as of early November, but it appears to be coming out now and the developer reassured me they are working on updates on a daily basis. The foundation of this game is great, and it shows a lot of promise as updates pan out in the future!

A solid entry into the bullet haven/reverse bullet hell/horde survival genre. At this stage in development I wouldn't put it in my top 10, but using the metric of 1 hour of entertainment per every dollar spent I would say that this game is well worth the money spent. Being one of the slower paced games in this genre this game might not be everyone's cup of tea. Overall I don't really have any solid complaints about the game other than it hasn't really done anything to stand out from the crowd. It's a good game. I enjoy the time I've spent with it and hope that I'll be able to enjoy the game more as more content and polish are added to the game.

Relative to the other games in the same category i'd rate this game below the standard mark. The graphics are nice, but controlling my character feels sluggish. Using a controller feels like it makes the problem worse as the controller feels like it was an afterthought at this point. One of my biggest issues is the teleport for the priest character is left stick button, which can be an issue if you have any one of the numerous controllers that have an issue clicking the stick when it's fully engaged in a direction. None of the face buttons are used for abilities. I feel like the game has hitbox issues, where my character would take damage far too early or quickly. Definitely not recommended on Steam Deck.

Amazing graphics, mechanics, interface. But it's just so slow and boring. Needs more linear / faster progress. More things to spend meta currency on etc.

Given this game is in early access, I will not comment on balance nor the amount of content currently available, since these are aspects of the game that obviously evolve significantly over the course of early access period of the game leading into the full release. I have played every swarm survivor game on the market so far and I have high hopes for this title! I think it's a very well rounded package currently with a lot of potential for expansion. I especially appreciate certain enemies and bosses having telegraphed attack patterns which makes combat more interactive with the dash mechanic. Despite having played many games in the genre, I appreciated I had to learn which skill priorities were important to successfully complete the run. I do not think the title necessarily brings anything revolutionary to the genre, but it's just another solid entry to the swarm survivor catalog. So if you're like me, and just love the genre and can't get enough of these games, and you find the trailer appealing, I think you'll enjoy adding the game to your library.

TLDR : Itsa no good Its in a pretty rough and early feeling state at the moment honestly. I have most of the VS-likes and this one has a pretty unique look to it, it feels pretty good and all the models look awesome. The spells/attacks are the issue. Normally you would have a few different ways of spells triggering, for example forward facing, auto target, aoe either randomly or around the character. Initially you start with an insanely limited pool to select from, the first few easy unlocks are all pretty bad as well as quite a few are forward facing only. This means a lot of the spells want you to face the enemy but the enemy hitboxes are pretty janky, they attack insanely fast and you have no i-frames (you eventually find a perk for this but its got a chunky cooldown so its still not even a band aid fix). The game is stingy with methods to heal and has barely any regen to speak of. This means you spend most of the time running away while getting a few attacks in when you get a second, leading to a snowball effect of the enemies getting stronger while you dont. This can be avoided by selecting the other spells but again the pool is really small, so expect to take the same spells over and over and over. They dont have any variance on build options so they all go from 0 - 10 and get the exact same options each and every run. Outside of a run, the overall upgrades are odd. They scale weirdly in price, causing you to have to save and spend 10k to advance in a tree that then starts asking you to spend.....250? Spells are unlocked as you progress through achievements, a pretty normal method, but for some reason its locked behind some insane requirements almost like its just forcing you to play the same boring stuff again and again just to get something that might not be boring. Honestly I would say avoid this one even for avid VS fans. Its a bunch of cobbled together ideas that dont quite work by someone who doesnt really seem to understand the genre they are creating the game for. The dev is working on the game and seems to take feedback so maybe this will eventually be a fun game but at the moment its a frustrating, boring mess.