[h1]Disclaimer:[/h1]
[b]After visiting '[i]Plagueworld[/i]' again after quite some time, the game is now unplayable due to the mouse always gliding to the upper left corner of the screen regardless of the control scheme selected. The reasoning for this is unknown but I can bet that the developer isn't too fond of updating and/or fixing the game anytime soon. I'm not sure if it happens to anyone and/or everyone but the fact that it's present in my game is already a red flag.[/b]
[h1]Overview:[/h1]
By far one of the most broken games you can possibly play. '[i]Plagueworld[/i]' is a first-person medieval horror game where you step into the shoes of what seems to be a knight with a sword and crossbow tasked to rid the world of a terrible fate. Sounds interesting? Well don't count on it. Regardless of the "[i]Free[/i]" stamp on the store page, I urge you to avoid this unplayable heaping mess. You're a supposed '[i]hero[/i]' in a world ravaged by a plague, what plague I don't even know. It's a story (if you can call it that) that was thrown together in 5 minutes at most and holds no quality assurance whatsoever, but you can probably tell just by reading the description on the store page. The number of enemies can be counted on a single hand and they're all coded terribly, glitching into walls and standing still when you're right behind them. Despite that, finishing the game is almost impossible which I'll tackle in the '[i]Gameplay[/i]' section. '[i]Plagueworld[/i]' is terribly coded and you'll find yourself falling through floors, seeing through walls by walking up to them, and having trouble killing even the first enemy you encounter. There's only 3 lousy chapters that you can play and every one of them is impossible to beat due to poor coding. Luckily, you can select which chapter you want to play from the game launcher (yes, it actually has a game launcher) rather than force yourself to go through each one (if you're that lucky). The developer probably did this because they knew no one in their right mind would put themselves through that kind of torture. Everything just feels like a jittery, buggy, and incomplete mess and rightfully so. It doesn't play well at all and honestly, if the developer didn't bother investing time into their own game, why should you?
[h1]Gameplay:[/h1]
The definition of buggy. As mentioned there are 3 chapters that you can play and each of them suck in the same way. With enemies coded so terribly, you'd think combat would be a cinch but you'd be wrong. Enemies can attack you even if they're a clear distance away making any clean kill almost impossible. This makes the sword completely obsolete rendering it useless. You're only other friend is the crossbow which requires ammo you'll pretty much never find. Enemies also respawn if you're far enough making traversing a level a bigger hassle than it needs to be. Add mandatory backtracking and you have yourself a recipe for disaster. The crossbow although helpful, will become useless once you run out of ammo and once that happens, you're left with a sword that would've been better off being a pool noodle. Then comes the biggest problem, health. Because the combat mechanics are so unpredictable, inconsistent and buggy, you'll find yourself losing more health than you expect. That's not all, don't count on finding a generous amount of health items in any of the maps as they're (like the ammo) almost don't exist and are scarce beyond belief. I've only seen a health item maybe twice in my total playtime and you can even consume it when you already have full health, a rookie developer mistake. This is actually the main reason why the game is impossibly hard. You need more health than the game provides and that's not because the game is hard by fairness, but hard by terrible programming. The secrets are also next to useless and you'd be lucky to even make it far enough to find one of them, I wouldn't bother. The entire feeling of the gameplay albeit combat or just movement just makes you feel like playing something else; anything else.
[h1]Controls:[/h1]
As mentioned, trying to play the game now is impossible because of the gliding cursor (at least for me) but assuming it does work, it's extremely basic and the utterly atrocious programming does not help its case. There's not much to say because well, there's not much game. Mouse movement (when it works) is as normal as a painted wall but still feels uncomfortable to control. There are no options to adjust sensitivity, key bindings of any sort because there's simply no option menu. Not that the game is that advanced to have key bindings but the ability to adjust sensitivity is a must for any first-person game and as basic as you can get. Movement also feels grid-like and jumping also feels so binary, meaning there's no momentum. You can move freely after a jump meaning you can stop, move backwards or sideways to your own leisure regardless of a mid-jump. All cheap-y games have this type of control scheme and feel and is something that isn't polished or worked on, but rather a module ripped right out of an asset pack.
[h1]Graphics:[/h1]
Disappointing to say the least. The game style looks like any other '[i]Unity[/i]' asset flip game and has models and enemies literally found in other asset flip games. Models and sprites are stuck in the year 2011 from a game released in 2019. It's not appealing to look at at all and the only remotely redeeming factor the visual quality the game has is [i]maybe[/i] the lighting. Aside from that, the game just doesn't look nice at all and has models and stuff clearly ripped out of one or more '[i]Unity[/i]' packs.
[h1]Audio:[/h1]
Even more disappointing than the graphics. Unsurprisingly enough, the music, ambience and sound effects in the game are sounds you can literally find online for free. Even then, they aren't good ones at that and are basic audio files most free games use as well. Many popular (and unpopular) Creepypasta games use the ambient soundtrack and other minimal effort games use the sound effects. It's nothing special and has no shame whatsoever presenting itself.
[h1]Conclusion/TL;DR:[/h1]
'[i]Plagueworld[/i]' is an extremely buggy first-person medieval horror game impossibly difficult but for the wrong reasons (lack of health items). With terrible coding, level design, and graphics and sound effects ripped straight from games of the same terrible quality, '[i]Plagueworld[/i]' is a game barely filled with care nor effort and is best left alone.
