I do not write reviews, so this one is my first and probably last one. I in no way want to ♥♥♥♥ on the dev, but I want people to know what they are buying for such a price.
Let me give a lil backstory. Diacrisis was in development since 2014 and was (presumably) first shown on dev's Newgrounds account. It did get my attention (though honestly, I don't remember when), but due to the lack of updates and me focusing on other games I eventually forgot about Diacrisis. And then yesterday, it suddenly appeared on Steam store with a ridiculously high price! Curiosity and interest took over me and so, I still decided to buy this game and give it a shot.
So, where do we start? Well, let's talk about visual representation and design. Personally, I would say that game looks and feels like, um... A fancied up Flash game or one of those free/pretty cheap games that you would play to kill some time. 3D aspect is nicely done for the most part, and there are pretty nice views and places, much thanks to the visual effects such as lighting and falling snow. 2D aspect is not that bad, but as you can see from trailers and screenshots, it just screams "Hello Flash games from 2000s and early 2010s!", and btw, do not believe the release trailer, even on high graphical settings 2D looks the same like in the previous trailer (worse). As for design, well, as I already said, some places look nice, the others are unimpressive and some make no sense at all, like a room with an electric chair surrounded by holes with spikes that you need to run through quickly. Also, the game's main menu is ugly.
Now that we are done with that, let's talk about the plot. As description says, we are playing as a captain of Canadian supermax prison guard named Matthew Diacrisis who receives a distress call about something terrible happening in said prison, which turns out to be a zombie outbreak. In general, the story is quite cheesy and has that feel of B-Movies and (here we go again) flash games which are trying to be serious. I would say it's kind of a plus, but it depends on how you look at it. The main problem is that it's really rushed and choppy. Like, all the characters are interacted with only once and are never brought up or seen again after you meet them, with exception of a one-eyed prisoner in a coat and face bandana accompanied by a prisoner with AK-47 (btw, where did the prisoner's get AK-47s from?) who are game's only bosses, and the leader of prison's neo-nazi gang. And it's not the only case when it feels like story is missing something.
Now, the gameplay! It's pretty simplistic, so are the controls, you just move on and kill everyone that is trying to eat or murder you. Weapons are pretty basic - knife, pistol, shotgun and assault rifle. Besides weapons you also have an infininte amount of flares that help you in the dark places. Unfortunately, the combat is really clunky, as in order to hit or shoot the enemy you need to be right in front of him. That's kinda problematic due to the fact that besides left and right, you and them can also move up and down, and even when it seems like you are standing at the right spot, you will still miss, even if you are using shotgun. What makes it even worse is that sometimes your view will be blocked by parts of the location, most of the fights take place in narrow and small areas where you can't maneuver much, and sometimes zombies appear from one or both sides out of nowhere. In some situations you have explosive barrels at your disposal, but besides the right spot it also requires a good moment to hit them if you want to take out a lot of zombies with it, and such moments are uncommon. Oh yeah, if you will knock the barrel over, don't even bother, you won't hit it.
But for me the most irritating part was actually how the game's load/restart system works. Your progress is being saved at invisible checkpoints, but if you die you don't restart from them, oh noooo, you actually get a relatively long loading screen that sends you back to main menu, then you gotta press "Load Game" to start from the last save! Seriously, who the hell makes crap like that, let alone in 2019!? Luckily, at least you have an extra life that allows you to spawn from the last checkpoint and continue the game.
Well, what about the variety? Is there, any? Not really. The only thing that is a liiiiiiittle varied is what kind of enemies do you encounter. Your main enemies are zombies that come in 4 types: 1) A guy in orange prisoner jumpsuit; 2) Tattooed prisoners with black tank tops who are the slowest and weakest ones; 3) Black prisoners in yellow prisoner jumpsuits, who are the most annoying ones, because they can sprint; 4) Bearded prison guards. Other enemies are psychotic prisoners with knives who kill you in one hit and can be properly dealt with only with shotgun, but only three of them are encountered and only in one section of the game. And of course the aforementioned boss fight with odd-looking prisoner and his pal with ak-47. Thought you would fight that neo-nazi gang and it's leader? Aha, forget it.
There is also something to be said about things that are promised in Key Features. Statement about 5 hours of gameplay is not really true, I finished the game in almost 3 hours. And even then, some of that time is game loading on the start, me dying and going through the main menu, pausing the game a couple of times to make breaks, all that zombie shooting and that bonus level that I didn't finish. The last level of the game is just a joke. After finding prison warden, you end up in a place that looks like a Renaissance town (yeah, in Northen part of Canada and close enough to supermax prison) and you just climb and climb, and climb one building up, fighting hordes of zombies on each floor, until you reach some empty street, only to see a "TO BE CONTINUE" (yes, CONTINUE), then a end cutscene with that leader of neo-nazis escaping and Matthew vowing to find and catch him, but first going to protect a nearby town from zombies who broke out. And here comes that bonus level. As I said, I didn't manage to finish it, because I died and got sent to the beginning, cause there is no extra lives or checkpoints. Let me tell you that it's a really long, tedious and bland level, not sure how long is it exactly or if it actually has a end.
As for the other promised features. Exploration? Well, there is VERY little of it. The game is actually pretty linear and straight-forward for the most part. Puzzles? Didn't see any, unless you somewhat count finding shotgun to destroy a huge crate blocking your way in one corridor. Thing is, at the beginning you may get the feeling that you're probably getting some sort of side-scrolling Resident Evil game, but eventually, it will turn out to be false. There is also notes that you can collect, most of which are ramblings of crazy inmates, some of which are kinda obscured from the view and some are even hidden.
I am not gonna lie, I actually had fun with Diacrisis and even enjoyed it despite all it's problems, but what makes it so disappointing is how lacking and really overpriced it is. It sure has some potential, but so far it feels like playing through a beta version that pretends to be a full game.
Thank you for reading my review, hope it helped! Check comments for updates!
