Exile's End

On the fence, but I'm upvoting because it's recent and there seem to be updates happening. If I swing back through a few months later and there's no progress then I'm going to switch my vote. This is a story-driven metroidvania. The art and music is great and the controls are decent, but there are just so, so, so many completely bizzarre design deicsions that I just don't really want to play it anymore until there's an update. There are a lot of things that just seem like a blatant "screw you" to the player. The rocks and worms, for example. A weapon that's a complete pain in the ass to aim and a ubiquitous enemy that's nearly impossible to target without it. Then there's just plain ♥♥♥♥ moves like putting a worm in a narrow passage with spikes on top so you can't jump over it. The only way past without taking damage is to throw a rock a split second after entering the room. Otherwise the worm is too close and you can't hit it anymore. You'd think that a guy with a nifty power suit would be able to do nifty things like aim down slightly to kill the most common enemy in the game, but apparently that capability is not in the suit schematics. That's okay, though, because when you encounter shooting enemies they can't aim down either, so you can win gunfights against impossible odds by crouching and then just shooting until they're all dead. I'm not really sure what the design goals were, but someone has a very unusual idea about what fun is. -------------------- I waited 8 years.

Despite the fact that the second sentence in the game's official description on Steam declares it to be emphatically "NOT a Metroidvania," I can assure you, gentle reader, that it is. Or at least, it pushes enough of those buttons to qualify as such in my book. I view that as a plus, counting Symphony of the NIght and Super Metroid among my all-time favourite games, period, let alone in this genre. I can see where the developers may be coming from, though. It incorporates elements of other games/genres, notably Flashback, Out Of This World, and the C64/Amiga aesthetic, blending it into at most, a gritty subgenre of Metroidvania. I'm not sure why they wanted to distance themselves from that label, but it's not helpful to generate confusion amongst potential buyers. On to the game itself. It's short. That's not necessarily bad, but it's something that needs stating. What it lacks in length, it makes up for in flavour and feel. The mood is just right, aided by the backgrounds and soundtrack. The game also features cut scenes that are very much in the style of the NES NInja Gaiden series. There's mostly still images and basic dialog, that serve to tell a story with a lot more implied background than what is covered in game; lends the impression that the setting is more fleshed out than it probably is (a plus, I'd say). It also has, what I'd call "genre expectations" that lie squarely between that of Flashback and Metroid - you start out completely unarmed and un-powered, in a hostile environment where even a fall from sufficient height can damage or kill you very easily. Health ups are few and far between (at first), and your first foes will be killed literally by throwing found rocks at them. Along the way, it transitions somewhat, so that by end-game, it feels like the early part of most Metroid games. You've got your double-jump, a couple guns, all but one with limited ammo. There are no crazy shinesparking abilities, wall jumps, or anything like that. As to the shortness - it's metroidvanian in that you need to do a little backtracking, but you don't need to do a lot of it. More if you want to find all the secrets, but there aren't a ton of those to be had, but finding them without using a map may take some time. All are visible though, so it may involve a bit of "pixel hunting" to discover them all. I'd give this game a recommendation based on the fact that I liked all of its main inspirations, and it resulted in a "just right" experience that meets in the middle of all of them, but it's something I"d certainly want to wait for a sale. It's good, but it's no Axiom Verge.

Where should bug reports be filed? In the Linux version does all the letter keys not work. I.e. x and z does not work as for all the others.

good ol' snes frustration. love it.

This is an okay game if you're looking for some retro metroidvania game....But it has one major flaw that no one can overlook. IT HAS NO F*****G QUEST INDICATOR. So you spend 5/7 of playtime just going to and fro every corner of the map searching how to use the last item you got..... It really frustrating. Furthermore, I happen to have skipped the cutescene were they tell you what you'Re doing in the game, so now, I have not a single clue.

Yes, I recommend this game.

Really great game with old school aesthetic. Once you get rolling and have some gear under your belt you start to feel like a bad ass. The music is really cool and the game is pretty addictive and fun to play!

Chose que je n'ai apprise qu'après l'avoir fini, Exile's End est en fait le remake de Inescapable, et il me semble que les deux jeux ne sont pas très différents. Bon, il n'y aura pas grand chose à dire, le jeu n'est pas franchement incroyable, même s'il n'est pas foncièrement mauvais non plus. Le plus dommage reste sans doute le scénario qui n'est pas assez mis en avant par l'intrigue et par la mise en scène. Les personnages sont assez mal traités, l'univers est confus et le contexte de l'histoire est comme tronquée. Le reste est un jeu d'action/plate-forme teinté de metroid-like très rigide et pas très inspiré, en tout cas jamais surprenant. Donc sauf si vous avez eu le jeu à petit prix et que vous avez 3h à perdre, à éviter.

The Binding of Isaac: Repentance

First, let me say that I BARELY recommend this game. A quick breakdown: Gameplay: 4/10 Controls: 8/10 Music: 10/10 SFX: 8/10 Story/writing: 6/10 Graphics: 9/10 Overall: 7/10 This game is designed to look like an old-school NES or C64 game. If you grew up on games like this then this game is really satisfying at first. Due to that, I enjoyed going through it once. I am not sure if a person without said experience would. It essentially has NO replay value in my mind. The level design is horribly boring and the gameplay is not very challenging. Overall, I give it a recommend because the look and sound of it is so beautiful and it was intriguing enough that I played it all the way through.