Desolation Seed

An uncompelling slog through a world falling apart at its seams. Destrudo robo cop simulator in tired apocalypse, a needless addition to the Mirai 'collapse-fetish' series. Manages to say and do less than Sanctuary

The indie scene operates in such a wasteful manner with regard to talent and this game is unfortunately just another example of artjank riddling the industry/platform. Really unfair to all of the other vibes games on steam, of which are made by solo devs with far less prestige than vaporwave's poster child. Another 5 year development cycle, please.

Buying this game in its current state means you would essentially be paying fifteen dollars to troubleshoot a broken Doom WAD. I played for half an hour and encountered around eight game breaking bugs that I had to work my way around, some even in the main menu. You can really tell this game did not have much care put into it, just from how egregious some of these issues are, like shooting ammo and interacting with game world objects whenever you click inside your inventory. This game is not fit for early access in its current state. Please consider polishing it up a bit and having a friend playtest it before you release it to the public and charge them money for it.

Far Side Half-Made Basically unplayable. LOL.

Прикольная гнетущая атмосфера, неплохой саундтрек, тонна багов и ублюдский спавн врагов. Лучше дождаться полного релиза и тогда купить

visually awesome. extremely frustrating & difficult & a killer soundtrack. if you are a ferraro fan like me i'd suggest spending the $$$ and getting this game in early access, if you aren't a ferraro fan wait until it's out of EA. it is a bit bugged right now

not even close to being a functioning game

fun! surprisingly addictive gameplay loop but VERY bug-ridden (even for an early access title) and only barely manages to outpace the onset of tedium owing to the length of the campaign as it currently stands (4–6 hours) and its strict adherence to linearity even in terms of individual level design. it's easy to underestimate how stressful it is to bring a project like this to fruition with a team of only one to three people so i'm not quite as disheartened as some others seem to be by any perceived disparity between the five years [i]DS[/i] ([i]Desolation Seed[/i]) spent in DH (development hell) and the quality of the product ultimately released, especially taking into account the promises that "what's being presented here is [essentially a long demo]" and that a more expansive experience informed by community feedback is planned now that the hard part is out of the way. the aesthetic is cohesive and intoxicating (loved the Paris II section) and the soundtrack is fantastic, both as to be expected from Ferraro, but it's still a ways from fulfilling the makings of an instant classic it latently exhibits. and so, the things i didn't like/wanted more of: [b]• environmental feedback (can i go through this door? what about this one?) is obtuse to a fault.[/b] it isn't like something like [i]yume nikki[/i] where you have to come to learn for example that landscape objects arranged perpendicularly tend to be hidden pathways—it defies intuition, yes, but once learned quickly calcifies into a pattern that the player will recognize pretty much everywhere it is subsequently deployed; put simply, it [i]becomes[/i] intuition—[i]Desolation Seed[/i], on the other hand, does not afford the player even this luxury, and in fact it can be difficult to distinguish which parts of a wall are interactable from the contrary as many doors do not look like doors and many wall textures which look like doors are not interactable, and so there are times when you kind of just have to guess or brute force it. this also illustrates another point of dissatisfaction i noted frequently while traversing this world: i want to be permitted to split down more of these off-branches! a couple levels like shopping mall 1 engaged with this philosophy well enough, but i want more often to be enraptured by the promise of finding myself truly lost in a labyrinth (or, at the very least, a fully fleshed-out Place) instead of being made to settle taking 15-second detours off of what is clearly the one main path just to make sure i didn't miss any Literal Garbage Bags. and speaking of waste: [b]• status debuffs?[/b] even after my complete playthrough i still don't know how System Waste, AirHazard, and Effluent served to hinder me (i.e., what is my reward for opting to maintain these biomarkers close to zero weighed against the cost of time spent scouring through back rooms for trash or exchanging a highly valuable Tag for a Reclear in order to do so?) other than bad number go up. i did learn after finishing the game that you die instantly if any of them reach 100.0, but if that's the case, why even make the distinction between them at all? maybe delegating each to correspond to unique status effects which in some way inhibit combat/movement and exercise complex interplay with one another (and, in turn, the layout of the environment) could be one way to make gameplay more dynamic and interesting beyond that critical five-or-so-hour mark? some drug side effects, if only visual (see the original [i]System Shock[/i]), may also serve as a way of disincentivizing the player from just popping a Steroid multiple times per Nest and forcing them to consider just being less reckless with their resources instead. i actually thought for a while that the factor of my Waste quotient increasing was contributing to my character being influenced to move funny, and so i would use the Flush mechanic frequently, but this turned out to be false! which brings me finally to: [b]• the player character.[/b] it can control very jerkily, but only sometimes, like they gave it a box collider instead of a capsule collider or something? i don't know, but the inconsistency can be frustrating, especially when trying to evade enemies. there isn't much else to say about this, it's weird. all in all though, i still rly enjoyed the [i]Desolation Seed[/i] prerelease(?) and i can see myself keeping up with it frequently throughout the development process. i could feel my play becoming conditioned towards operating on direct impulse (colloquially, being Locked In) over the course of my time with it, which is something only a game with the sauce can do, but i left off feeling that my abilities as the player were not pushed anywhere near their limit, even approaching the very palpable climax (the final mission, in fact, is one of the easiest), due to a lack of mechanical complexity; the skill ceiling just isn't high enough. i also would have liked to see a more interconnected overworld, affording me easier access to stages i'd want to play over and over again, and maybe a page taken outta DOOM's playbook with a results screen thrown at the end of each one; that kind of thing goes a really long way for longevity. great game mr. ferraro, keep it up!!

interesting story very dreadful to play in its current state

Vision: 10 The story and design is incredible. I really, really want this to be a successfully put together game. It blends nostalgic 90s tech horror with extremely relevant, current affairs, at least extrapolated a hundred years or so. The idea behind being this mech/augmented human, traversing this bleak world, annihilating belligerents, tagging humans, and reconnecting networks, has the markings of a truly enjoyable experience. Execution: 4 There are currently a combination of too many bugs and/or poor design choices. The score is largely given for the impressive, immersive, and atmospheric visuals, videos, and audio. The game is crushingly difficult. I don't know if this is by design, it's early access nature, or bug issues. For example, I can often hear I am being shot from somewhere, but due to nothing suggesting where it is coming from and absolutely zero spatial sound, and nothing visible, I can't fight back. I was at one point very far away from an enemy I engaged but even at the other end of a football field, I could still hear it's gunshots right inside my own head. When items are dropped - which is infrequent, they are often very hard to see. Also, where are the items? How do we get them? So far I've found only two boxes of ammo on the ground. Having very little feedback from walking, shooting, getting shot, and more, makes the experience very sterile. I trust more sounds, and better reactions will come along in time. Other strange processes are opening doors. Did I activate it? Not sure, several seconds pass, I traverse. More feedback is desperately needed on interactions. There are several screens you will see as you open and interact with things that show a X in the corner - these do nothing, simply a graphic, and very unintuitive. I also don't currently understand progression. I go into a world, and it appears to be perma-death on whichever mode I choose. However, if I have picked up the rapid fire upgrade, I have it permanently? Also, my ammo count carries through each play. Summary: This could be a classic crust game. The story, design, music, ambience are all amazing. The gameplay is lacking, crushing, and unpolished. I appreciate it's early access, and I will not be refunding. I want to support this game and others like it. My view is this would all be a lot more fun if we were more of a Robocop character, laying out heavy fire, blowing things and people up, and seeking the Server District on our noble mission. Right now it feels like I'm a naked man holding two guns, spending my time peeping around corners. Sadly, right now, I cannot recommend it, even to hardcore fans of this type of content. As soon as it's updated more and ready, I'll amend the review.