Ebenezer and the Invisible World

The art and concept for this game are fantastic. However, unfortunately the execution on the idea is rather lacking. For as good as the environments look, they feel empty and full of pointless platforms that lead to nothing. There is so much waste in the level design, so many places where I thought "This would have been a good place to hide an item." The emptiness is further compounded by everything being just a bit too zoomed out, so Ebenezer feels small on the screen. Movement is clunky and unresponsive with a very noticeable delay, and sometime Ebenezer just doesn't do what your inputs tell him to. Avoiding attacks is further made difficult as they can flip their direction mid-attack, meaning the old reliable jump over them just doesn't work here. And good luck with bosses, because telegraphing is so poor that the telegraph itself can damage you. Special attacks in the form of summoning ghosts is janky and often they won't hit anything even though it looks like they should. The games map is, frankly, useless. Very little is labeled and it uses the cheap "boxes connected by lines" approach which is the laziest form of Metroidvania map. The fast travel system makes you pick from a list, but since none of the stations are named anywhere else it's complete guesswork if you're going to end up where you want to go. The issue of labeling continues to the ghost summons, which are selected exclusively via a scrolling list in the bottom right corner. However, they are identified only by a headshot, and are nowhere near distinct enough from each other to identify while multitasking. Other issues to briefly list; There is a variety of weapons in the game, but you are essentially punished for using half of them because they disable MP restoration on hit, making ghost attacks no longer viable. Some secret areas require ghosts to open, meaning you need the MP to use them, so you always feel like you need to keep some in the tank just in case. On the subject of the story, what starts as an interesting concept rapidly becomes dull and one-note. Ebenezer has made a complete 180 from the original story, as he should. But that is where his character traits end, he has nearly no personality beyond "I'm a generous man now." He has no personal stake in the story, which while that makes sense for a character whose main attribute is his charity, it makes him disconnected from the entire story. In summary: This is a fascinating idea rendered in gorgeous art...But this is also a video game that is shoddily put together around a story that doesn't really compel the player. You are left with something that has a frustrating amount of unrealized potential that is quite frankly not worth spending much on. Buy at half price if you're really curious, but otherwise take a page from Scrooge's old miserly ways and save your money.

Definitely an "I wish Steam had a 'maybe' review option" situation. As a lover of metroidvanias, I enjoyed this well enough. It has all the things you'd expect: Alternate weapons and equipment, powers that increase movement options, secret alcoves, etc. It's all plenty satisfying when you gain a new ability, or piece of equipment that suits your play style. However, this game is FULL of jank and glitches that show either a lack of testing or care, which is a shame, because it clearly had love put into it in other places. Nice animations and backgrounds, even a couple of cutscenes. The text of a few dialogue boxes just didn't show - I got locked into a dialogue box once and had to force quit the game - Animations glitch out regularly - My attack button briefly stopped working a few times - Map and menu positions glitch out sometimes - And more. Luckily none of the problems made the game unplayable for me, just a little frustrating and off-putting at times. If you enjoy metroidvanias, you could do much worse, but also much better.

Making a metroidvania staring the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge that use the powers of his ghost friends to fight a capitalist conspiracy threatening the working class is one hell of a premise for a game. Colorful cartoony graphics that reminded me a lot of Forgotten Anne. It's not groundbreaking in any way, not that difficult and doesn't seams like it's especially long if my achievement and collectable progress is anything to go by at the time of writing this review. But it's a solid, enjoyable and cozy game.

Vorab zur Info: Es handelt sich hierbei um mein erstes Metroidvania Spiel, welches ich absolviert habe. Ich hatte tatsächlich sehr viel Freude an diesem Spiel, auch wenn es an manchen Stellen schon recht schwer für mich war :D. Das mit der Map ist für mich ungewohnt gewesen, aber ich kam dennoch recht gut damit zurecht. Allerdings habe ich auch kleine Kritikpunkte: - Es gibt eine Stelle unter Wasser, wo ein Item eingesammelt werden kann. Von dort aus kam ich absolut nicht mehr hoch, egal was ich versucht habe. Ich musste hierfür das Spiel beenden und neu starten. - Mein Stockschlag war öfters verbuggt. Ich konnte teilweise keine Angriffe machen. Der Fehler ließ sich bei mir nur beheben, wenn ich eine Geisterfähigkeit verwendet habe. Da ich nicht weiß, ob das normal in Metroidvania Spielen ist oder nicht, weiß ich für folgenden Punkt nicht, ob es eine Kritik ist oder einfach zum Spiel dazugehört: Ich persönlich fand, dass es zu wenige Heilobjekte gab.

Good idea, very poor execution

Прошёл игру в январе. Стопроцентное попадание в атмосферу зимнего праздника. За окном заметает улицы снегом сильный ветер, и в это же время на экране стимдека царит новогодний английский переполох святок. Действие игры происходит после событий сказочной повести Диккенса. Знать суть произведения не обязательно. Играем за Эбенизера Скруджа, жадного скрягу в прошлом, но изменившегося в лучшую сторону после посещения трёх святочных духов. В Лондоне опять неспокойно, рабочие вышли на стачку и требуют достойные условия труда. Для усмирения толпы выдвинулись головорезы владельца главной мануфактуры города, полиция стоит в стороне и не замечает происходящего, да ещё и духи, которых Скрудж стал поневоле видеть, донимают того разными просьбами. Полон двор хлопот. Несмотря на почтенный возраст, носится наш персонаж, как заправской спринтер, ловко фехтуя на ходу своей тростью и раздавая оплеухи задержавшимся на земле призракам и наёмникам. Боевая система строится на грамотном сочетании оружия ближнего боя и использования сил призраков, которых присоединяешь к себе в команду по ходу прохождения. Комбо атак и параметра выносливости в игре нет, но есть мана. Её количество можно увеличить у специального персонажа, как и полоску здоровья. Другой прокачки нет. Видов оружия мало и в основном это разные трости с набалдашниками. Зато призраков больше десятка. Есть атакующие и те, что дают разные способности: двойной прыжок, рывок или перемещение в зазеркалье. Атакующие призраки расходуют ману и постоянно пользоваться ими не получится. По примеру пустого рыцаря в игре есть аналоги амулетов - реликвии людей, грешивших при жизни. Большого простора для экспериментов не будет - есть только четыре активных слота, один из которых будет скорее всего занят компасом, указывающим на секреты, или мешком, притягивающим деньги. Пару билдов на усиление призраков или улучшение атак ближнего боя собрать можно, но оно не сильно и нужно. Игра не очень сложная, много точек сохранений, все боссы тупо закликиваются, паттерны поведения запоминать нет большой надобности, успевай только в рот закидывать вовремя сливочный пудинг для поддержания здоровья, да используй атакующих призраков, бьющих по площади. Карта удобная, но глючная. Возможно, виноват протон и на Windows таких проблем нет, но периодически карта пропадает или мерцает, решается проблема регулировкой масштаба. На карте чётко отображены все связки, входы и выходы с локаций, что хорошо помогает в ориентации. Можно также ставить метки, а также делать скриншоты, как в игре про принца Персии, что удобно. Комнаты, в которых собраны все коллекционные предметы, обводятся зелёной рамкой, при этом в таких комнатах могут находиться несобранные реликвии, а комната говорит, что всё собрано, что сильно сбивает с толку. Играл на стимдеке. Есть баги, связанные с интерфейсом, когда курсор, как умалишённый, скачет по строчкам списка заданий или описаний персонажей. В обсерватории в некоторых богато декорированных локациях есть небольшие просадки частоты кадров. Вылетов не было, игралась комфортно, только шрифт текста очень мелкий, но это беда многих игр на небольшом экране портативки. Не самый лучший представитель метройдваний, но очень красивый внешне, позволяющий приятно скоротать несколько зимних вечеров.

That's a Christmas time here, I'm playing the game for one hour and little bit bored. I think I'll better do something else.

I'm not good at these games, but from I have played, it was nice beating the spirit of Christmas into everyone in town.

This game needs work. I like the idea behind it and the artwork but man. It needs WORK. But it hasn't gotten an update in a year so I wouldn't put any money on it happening. Some animations feel frustratingly slow when you're exploring and backtracking. The dash and mirror travel in particular. Some enemies have weird hitboxes or move oddly. The dude that runs at you and slides across the floor slides way farther than you think he will. That one is something that's awkward but you can get used to. Then there's the jerk with the flail. He drags it behind him and you'd think, oh, it's seperate from his body, it's fine to walk behind him and smack him. But nope! It's counted as part of him and if you run into it it hurts you as if he hit you. Hate him. Speaking of enemies. The variety is okay but it's also weirdly used. Some areas are okay but then you get into the last area and you're still running into the lamp enemies and the mail carriers. They don't feel like they fit there at all. Shields. Dude. I don't like the shield enemies. I can kill them easy enough but it's just annoying. Especially the shock troopers because they're fast at swapping sides. Speaking of swapping sides, enemies track you way too well at times. Another weirdness is that the screen attack the healer ghost doesn't affect the spider lady. Like, at all. It just ignores her. She also has no attacks. She's literally just an awkward enviromental hazard. You can stand right next to her and she just sits there doing nothing. There's another one that's an enviromental hazard but at least the mouse wheel one is an active hazard. The map is mostly fine except for the fact there's a door you can't open because it's connected to dlc. Having to see that door every time I open the map and knowing I can't do anything about it is frustrating. Speaking of the map though: WHY the heck, did they decide to use a completely different map for the fast travel than your map?? Half the time I feel like I have to guess about which one is which. At least when Hollowknight did that they were far enough apart and had the names made it much more clear. There's one of the weapons that's whole thing is supposed to be hard hitting damage. It doesn't work. Literally, the damage boost doesn't work. It's useless until it's fixed. The mini-boss of the last area is both stupid and partially broken. It's the same guy you've fought twice already and you really don't have any reason to care about him one way or another outside of the fact he's a crappy person, I guess. He doesn't even have any dialogue for his last fight. And I said it was sorta broken and it was. I walked into the fight from the opposite side that the devs meant for and I was able to just walk up behind one of his shock troopers and beat the crap out of him. It wouldn't die until the fight started but I was able to charge my spirit off him and use the heal ghost until I was actually ready for the fight. (The save room was on the other side of the fight so I couldn't heal easily outside of wasting my limiting my healing items. Money is almost pointless. Literally. You have, like, I dunno ten items to buy outside of healing items and that's it. It's just useful for an heirloom that ups ghost damage based on money held. I really wish there was more things to buy. I have never had so many controller issues as I do in this game. I don't know it was but my controller lost connection and I had to unplug and replug it. That one could have been on me, I dunno. Grinding for level 3 items is annoying af. I don't even know how long I had to spend just to finish up spirit and health upgrades. Oh, also, there's an area in the observatory near the big boss of the area I think where there's like a background static so that every time you leave a room it buzzes and man, that's annoying. There's more things that annoyed me that I just can't remember atm. The ending was pretty bad. The boss was really easy, the air felt dead as far as sounds go, the music felt underwhelming. The end cutscene was slightly moving images with no audio outside of, again, music that felt underwhelming and you don't even see the stupid machine that was supposed to be the big issue get destroyed. Overall, it's needs patches, it needs work. It just doesn't feel good. The music is underwhelming. I want more from it because the artwork is pretty good, the lore behind all the ghosts is neat and the idea is fun but it just sorta feels like it got dropped onto steam and forgotten.

BUG一堆