Fire in the Beastlands

I've played a lot of "souls-like" games before, looking for that special something that the original Dark Souls game had and not finding it anywhere. Not that these games were bad, but none of them seemed to grasp what made Dark Souls so special. Fire in the Beastlands is, rather surprisingly, one of the few games I've played that actually seems to "get it". There is so much story being told to the player in this game and much of it isn't expressed directly. A lot of it is being told by the environment and anytime something appears random, chances are that it isn't and it's actually telling the player something, such as where secrets are or just more of the lore and story. Also, I love the hand-drawn graphics. It adds a surprising amount of charm to the game that you don't see very often. Additionally, as this game is also a metroidvania, there are tons of secrets to unlock and alternate paths that can be found using some creativity (it reminded me of how bomb-jumping in the old Metroid games could get you into areas earlier than you were supposed to). I will say that there was a small adjustment phase I went through in order to play the game how it wants to be played, so to speak. Initially I felt the game was too hard but I realized it was because I wasn't using a shield or dodging, rather I was relying on jumping to avoid damage, which doesn't help much. That's just side-scroller habits I had to shake. Once I got used to dodging, it was like the game suddenly clicked for me and the game got way more fun. I highly recommend this game for any fans of Dark Souls or Symphony of the Night/Super Metroid and at $20, it's an absolute steal.

Elden ring but if it was released in 2008 on newsground

(Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42150626-Jarl%27s-Game-Treasury/]my curator[/url] for more reviews like this) This might well be the best game I played all year, a true hidden gem in Steam's vast catalog which deserves a lot more attention than it has gotten so far. Fire in the Beastlands is a soulslike metroidvania that combines elements of both these genres into a coherent whole. As far as world design goes, this is the closest to the original Dark Souls of any soulslike I've played. As a 2D soulslike, it even surpasses Salt & Sanctuary. The level design is excellent, the world interconnected in so many ways - you'll often go through a passage, end up somewhere you've been before, and have a nice little a-ha moment of "So this is where that leads!" Level design is the most important part of a game like this, and Fire in the Beastlands absolutely excels at it. Interconnected areas, secrets to discover in every corner, places that require skilled platforming to reach, this game has all the good stuff. Mechanically, this game is very close to the original Dark Souls, but with some important differences. Your health and stamina are not increased by leveling up your attributes, but by finding special magic skulls that can be consumed to permanently raise either health or stamina, giving you an agonizing choice on which of the two to prioritize. There are other types of skulls that give you permanent bonuses too, and usually they are hidden in hard to reach places, making exploration very rewarding. Sometimes you'll notice a place you can't reach yet, and will take a mental note to return later when you've gained to ability to go there. The metroidvania aspect consists of movement abilities you gain from killing bosses. Those include useful skills like wall jumping and double jumping, which allows you to reach previously unreachable places, giving you access to secret areas and letting you progress through new areas. I loved how open the world is from the beginning. You get two valid directions to progress into right away, and throughout the game there are always multiple directions to go in. It really gives you a sense of exploration and discovery, similar to the first Dark Souls game. One of my favorite elements of the game is its setting. It's a primitive tribal stone age world populated by creatures like giant lizards, terror birds, and megatheriums, but there's also remnants of older civilizations whose ruins you get to explore. There's a large variety of different sceneries - jungles, cliffs, beaches, a snowy mountain, an ancient city, even an underwater area! The art is completely hand-drawn and looks gorgeous. Huge respect for the dev for painting so many unique scenes. The game recommends playing with a controller, but I don't have one of these silly chunks of plastics and played it on mouse & keyboard, which worked fine. The controls are tight & responsive, and you can rebind most actions to whatever keys you want. The only disappointment in that regard is that you can't rebind the mouse buttons. Left mouse will always be light attack, right mouse will always be block. I would have preferred to make right mouse button the heavy attack as I didn't use shields, but alas. The only thing I found a little fiddly controls-wise was the walljumping. You have to keep the direction key pressed to cling to the wall, then hit jump and press the direction key for the other direction immediately, which can get a little messy, particularly during a long walljumping ascent. Other than that, everything controls perfectly, but walljumping often made me anxious as it's very easy to fall down due to the awkward controls of it. Overall, this is an absolutely excellent game. Best game I've played in a long time, and my favorite recent hidden gem discovery on Steam. If you like the original Dark Souls, you will like this. It comes closer to emulating the original's style than any other game out there. If you like unique settings, you'll love this savage prehistoric fantasy with its colorful areas and mythic story. If you like exploration-focused games at all, you will love this. Genuinely my favorite discovery on Steam since The End of Dyeus, which I played two years ago, another hidden gem with excellent exploration. These kinds of games are what justify Steam's open policy of letting any developer publish their games on the platform, and make it worth filtering through hundreds of shovelware titles. IF only games like this were more widely known - this deserves way more recognition than it has! Absolutely recommended, go and play this.

Fire In The Beastlands-Steam-9.5 From the start of the game, you are brought into a fully immersive world that makes you feel like every moment you’re playing, you’re living it yourself. You get to choose the class of character you start with (each comes with different abilities and specs, I chose Raider), and you are dropped into a land before time. With such little known about the game beforehand, you truly get to enjoy each learning curve you are thrown. The enemies are (mostly) difficult but fair, and if you are looking for a challenge, wait until you encounter some of the monstrosities known as champions. One thing that did grind my gears at the start was how the world was mapped out (or the lack of detail in the map you DO get when you find it). Eventually, I embraced it as it adds to the charm and wonder of the game. Over time I had just about every nook and cranny memorized, except for the dangerous, dark caverns & caves lol. This epic journey is handcrafted, with beautiful, dark graphics that match the grim gameplay and excellent sound/music. The terms RPG/ARPG get thrown around almost haphazardly these days, but there hasn’t been a Soulslike/MV that has drawn me in as much as Fire In The Beastlands in quite some time. For reference, if you are wondering what to expect from a gameplay standpoint, I kept thinking it reminds me of what Death’s Gambit would have played like if the Afterlife DLC just added MetroidVania type elements to the original V1 game. Cross this with the meaty combat of a game like Grime. If you like brutal Soulslike/MVs, I highly recommend this game!

Among the 1,000 games I own on Steam, Fire in the Beastlands is the biggest hidden gem I've played. As I write this, the game has only 16 reviews, which is insane considering this is a 2D metroidvania almost as good as Salt & Sanctuary. Are there issues? Sure, the combat isn't as good as Salt & Sanctuary, the art can look quite crude in some parts, and certain dark areas rely too much on leaps of faith. Still, the exploration is excellent, there's tons of secrets to find, and the whole game just oozes an amazing atmosphere. I finished the game in 20hs, clearly missed a lot of stuff and I'm now exploring it again in New Game+

I have played the version that was released on itch.io and I'm pleased and eager to continue with the Steam version. If the goal was to make a game with a deep and layered story that had much more beneath the surface if you were willing to piece it together and then combine that with challenging yet rewarding gameplay and the best elements of Dark Souls, Metroid, and Castlevania... then well... mission accomplished! The game mechanics and combat are well designed and veteran players of Dark Souls will certainly appreciate and feel comfortable with those systems. I also want to complement the visual aspect of the game. You can tell a mountain of sweat and grit was poured into the animations and artwork. No two zones look the same and you can tell each enemy was hand drawn with care and a purpose in mind. It's quite impressive that all of it was done by one individual. Congratulations to the developer for meeting the challenge of being the sole producer and developer of the game. I look forward to future titles and hopefully a sequel! Finally, I have to say the game has an excellent score. There are several standout tracks that poignantly set the mood and you're bound to find tracks playing in your head long after you've closed the game. Excellent work by the music and sound designer.

If u like 2D "Metroidvania - Soulslike" I recommend it.

[h2]I hate being negative about a solo developer’s passion project, especially one with such a distinct hand-drawn aesthetic, but Fire in the Beastlands was a deeply unenjoyable experience for me.[/h2] There’s clear ambition here—an interconnected world full of secrets, shortcuts, and hidden paths. Exploration is meant to be a key draw, and in some cases it is... but most of the time, it feels punishing. Many secrets are mandatory and blend into the environment so well that it’s easy to miss them. If you miss one, you’re either lost or severely underpowered, and the game gives you no indication of where to go. Every path feels like the wrong direction due to how locked out everything feels. Navigating the world is made worse by overuse of darkness mechanics. You often need a torch to see anything, and some areas are pitch black without the option to use one. Falling to your death because you couldn’t see is not tense—it’s just frustrating. Movement feels stiff, especially once wall-jumping is introduced. Miss a jump? You die. Add in traps that are easy to forget or miss, and just moving through the world becomes a chore. I never felt encouraged to explore—just forced to, and punished if I didn’t spot a corpse hidden in a bush that held the one key I needed. Combat isn’t any better. The stamina bar is incredibly small, even after upgrades. Dodging and blocking both use stamina, and regenerating it is painfully slow. Most fights boil down to either stun-locking an enemy or trading blows and hoping you survive. It’s not satisfying, and the best strategy usually becomes tanking damage instead of skillfully avoiding it. Even with gear upgrades, combat never feels rewarding—just exhausting. Progression also feels rigid. Enemies that were unkillable become beatable once you upgrade your weapon or stats enough. That’s fine in theory, but without guidance, you just die repeatedly in areas you weren’t meant to be in. One boss I reached even summons another boss mid-fight that can’t be damaged unless you have a specific damage type—something I only discovered from a wiki. In short: the game constantly makes you feel like you’re going the wrong way, punishes you for not seeing the “right” path, and has combat that’s more of a burden than a challenge. I really tried to enjoy it, but I genuinely had a terrible time. [h3]Pros:[/h3] [list] [*]Passionate hand-drawn art [*]Interconnected world design [*]Tons of secrets (if you like that) [/list] [h3]Cons:[/h3] [list] [*]Progression is vague and overly punishing [*]Movement and platforming feel stiff and unforgiving [*]Combat is slow, limited, and not satisfying [*]Torch/darkness mechanics are tedious and overused [*]Bosses often feel unfair instead of challenging [/list] [b]I respect the effort behind Fire in the Beastlands, but I didn’t enjoy a single part of it.[/b]

Don’t let me play time discourage using my review – I’ve got another 30+ hours on itch.io. I see a lot of comments about – if you like “souls-like” games, this is the game for you. At the risk of being different than 99% of the gaming population, I’m not a fan of souls-like games. And yet I couldn’t put this game down until I beat it (and a good way through a second playthrough). For me, it was more like a blast from the past, looking for secrets, and developing my character and story. Now on the second playthrough I’m finding entire areas I missed before. If you are a completionist, I have no idea how long it would take to discover everything. Also, I know a lot of people use the controller to play this game – once again, unlike many, I prefer keyboard and mouse. I have to say, there was no disadvantage for me using keyboard and mouse. Even though parts of the game were difficult (one part pretty early, though I won’t spoil it), the controls functioned seamlessly and the combat was engaging until the end. Full endorsement, 10/10 Now… that one damn bear…

This is a truly amazing souls-like metroidvania. If you enjoyed salt and sanctuary and want a serious challenge, with tons of secrets and hidden content, this is a MUST PLAY. Don't let the "visual jank" confuse you, this was obviously made by a small team, but if you give it a chance you can see the talent and passion that went into it. I just beat the last boss, and it took everything I had. This game deserves way more attention and I hope the dev goes on to make more!!