Before I get started, I think it’s worth noting that this game has a serious spider problem. Arachnophobes beware. Speaking of spider problems, I will be comparing this game directly to Devil Daggers, as many others have done before me. I’ll be doing this a lot, so be prepared.
This was one of the more difficult reviews I’ve ever written (I actually hit the character limit, which I didn’t even know existed), so please forgive me if I repeat myself or trip over my words from time to time.
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Nix Umbra is much slower than any other arena shooter I’ve ever played, and without some sort of guide or tutorial, many of the mechanics would be completely lost on me. In Devil Daggers, guides can certainly help you come up with new strategies or maybe even learn tough sequences, but the mechanics themselves are easy enough to figure out without any help.
The gameplay here [i]can[/i] speed up the further you get into a run, but actually getting to that point can be a tedious slog, and one which depends almost entirely on RNG. Without that fast-paced style of gameplay, there’s no rush of blood-pumping adrenaline, and the game becomes quite dull as a result.
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Nix Umbra’s gameplay can be easily split into two distinct categories; collection and survival. We’ll start with the collection aspect.
This game uses crystals as a currency. These crystals can be collected in-game for numerous reasons, which we’ll go over later. Due to the game’s intense artstyle, it can be fairly difficult to tell where these crystals are located, and player progress is hindered as a result. The stars mark the locations of crystals, and you can see the outline of them through the sword, but with such a thick layer of brush to trudge through, using either of these methods is easier said than done.
Say a run takes 5 minutes and you’re consistently collecting 10 crystals per run. To unlock all 25 color schemes (Essentially the only rewards this game has to offer), you’ll need to collect a grand total of 10000 crystals. That’s 83 hours of gameplay. 83 hours of tediously walking around in the dark looking for the slightest indication that there’s a shiny gem hovering about somewhere nearby. This may appeal to some people, but to me, that’s a substantial grind for a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ reward.
[i][u]Tangent Warning.[/u][/i]
I’ll admit, I tried to cheat in the crystals just to see if the rewards got any better, but it didn’t end up working… So I resorted to datamining instead. It’s there that I discovered paths 260-283, each matching the name of a corresponding in-game filter; 1 white, 1 grey, 3 red, 3 green, 4 yellow, 5 pink, 6 blue, and the classic black and white color scheme. No, you didn’t miscount. There’s a missing filter. Curious, I dug a little further and revealed path 259; an ominous behaviour simply titled ‘Blue Castle’. Although missing the ‘nixumbra’ prefix the rest of the filters had, it referenced the same path as the rest, leading me to the conclusion that it was our last missing filter. Unfortunately though, that was the only clue I managed to scrounge up about the nature of this potentially unique reward. Suffice to say I was disappointed to find that not only was it another basic-ass color scheme, but it wasn’t even the last one you unlock.
[i][u]Tangent Over.[/u][/i]
Color schemes aside, another reason to collect crystals is to level up. In Devil Daggers, you get kills to level up, and these levels will make survival easier. The longer you survive, the higher your place on the leaderboard. In Nix Umbra, levelling up will give you a single item of your choosing to help collect crystals more efficiently. These items will be lost at the end of each run, much like they would in a roguelike. The problem is that crystals don’t affect your position on the leaderboard. Much like Devil Daggers, the leaderboard is determined almost exclusively by your survival time, and unfortunately very few of these items actually help in that regard, not to mention that you lose all of the progress you’ve made towards a level up if you activate a secret, get attacked by certain enemies, or accidentally bump into a tree. Where Devil Daggers perfectly weds the Collectathon and FPS genres, Nix Umbra has a clear dichotomy between the two.
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So once you’ve unlocked all the color schemes, the only goal left to work towards is a higher position on the leaderboard. This is where we move on to the survival aspect of the game. In Nix Umbra, you climb the ranks quickly. Most Devil Daggers players would consider 400 seconds a great personal achievement. Here, it was the score of my first run, landing me a place in the top 300. By the second run, I was in the top 200. About an hour later, top 50. Not too long after that, top 20. This was less than 2 hours into the game. I wasn’t even trying to get a good score, I was just grinding for crystals. The only reason I have another 3 and a half hours in-game is because I collected 800 crystals manually before I remembered that save editing was a thing.
In comparison, I’m still hovering around the 14k mark in Devil Daggers, and that’s after 17 hours of gameplay. Now with statistics like this, popularity does of course have to be taken into account, but there isn’t really any way to see user sales unless you’re a developer. We can use third-party sites such as Steamspy, but these sites can only makes assumptions, leading to skewed statistics that suggest this game has over 20k sales. If we assume there are 20k players with a consistently inclining skill level, based on my Devil Daggers statistics, that would mean my initial leaderboard position should’ve been around 3500. Now I have no way to gage what is and isn’t a good score as the leaderboard only displays 10 users at a time; maybe I’m legitimately good at the game, maybe there just isn’t that much competition. Either way, the playerbase has been dead for about half a year and top place is ripe for the picking, that is if you don’t mind walking around in sheer darkness for almost 2 hours straight. Given how easy it was to get to the top 20, I think it’s definitely an achievable goal for someone who actually gives a ♥♥♥♥. On the other hand, Devil Daggers is still averaging 25 players daily almost 7 years after release. There, the world record is 1163 seconds. Here, that doesn’t even cut the top 10, because the game is just that much slower. Without naming any names, it’s worth noting that multiple top 10 members for this game aren’t even in the top 50k for Devil Daggers. Some aren’t even top 100k. I don’t mean to criticise or belittle, it’s just something to consider if you came looking for a challenge.
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I’ve seen a couple of people say that this game takes the concept of Devil Daggers and brings it into more of a horror environment. I disagree. At no point during this game did I ever feel any sort of fear. In Devil Daggers, the adrenaline conjures fear, but as we established at the start of this review, this game gives you no adrenaline. You could argue that the horror is in the eerie, suspenseful atmosphere… But this game [i]has[/i] no atmosphere. You can’t see more than a few feet in front of you at any given moment. You might get the outline of a skull in the distance or a pair of glowing eyes accompanied by violin noises, but that’s it. The rest of the game is sheer darkness. Some atmosphere.
One thing the game has going for it is that it can be played mindlessly. About 80% of my playtime was spent just farming crystals whilst watching Youtube on my second monitor.
Finishing a run doesn’t feel rewarding, and I don't find leaderboards particularly motivating, so without any achievements or even a sense of achievement, I don’t feel compelled to keep playing. If you prefer a slower style of gameplay, then by all means, pick yourself up a copy. The game isn't inherently bad, I just find Devil Daggers to be a slightly cheaper and far more enjoyable alternative.
