Shattered Bride

if u like movement games, this is for you.

Full disclosure: I graduated from the same university as the developers. TL;DR: The game is very rough around the edges but the movement mechanics alone makes it at least passable with no crashes. Mechanics: - The movement mechanics of sliding, wall-running and double-jumping were fun to use to the point where I slide-jumped exclusively to slip 'n slide through the levels. It was fun to see just how high up in each level I could get myself to in hopes of goodies and a view. - Combat was lackluster since the player attack animation is so brief that it made the timing tricky at times until I got used to it. Maybe some visual effect to go along the swing could help. Wizards were a bit annoying since they teleport away from you but fortunately there is enough time for you to catch them before the port again. - Save point system is a neat system due to the 1-hit rule. Unfortunately you don't have the option to teleport back to it at will in case you miss a long jump and have to climb all the way back up to try again. In another case, I managed to get myself stuck in an impassable room and had no choice but to restart my playthrough. Story: - It's the classic story about Aurelia bringing back bride no matter the cost. For love. For vengeance. Not much to write home about, but it serves its purpose well enough. Scrolls provide more background information on the going-ons in the world with a small sprinkling of humor every now and then, which encourages you to explore every corner of the level. - Sadly, there is no real climax to the story such as a boss fight. Visuals and level design: - Levels often felt empty due to the very large open spaces with disjointed platforms sprinkled around. In the Undercity level, you are recommended by the NPC to climb through the upper areas to reach the end of the level, which was quite fun. However, you need keys to open the door to the next level which forces you to go back down to find the keys, making the upward climb pointless. - The game's commitment to the gothic visuals led to over-commitment to the color grey. If it weren't for the lighting and the shadows they cast, I never would have found the platforms that were the same color as the walls. In the Waterway level, you are meant to jump over falling planks to a small grey nook that took me several tries to spot. - The levels themselves are varied enough so they don't blend together and the further you go, the brighter the colors become, so there is hope. It's nice when the level is a closed loop to prevent back-tracking. - Lighting was at times absent which made it hard to see where the player character was when facing enemies. - In the Waterway level, there are water-visual effects in a couple of places which was weird. Speaking of water, Aurelia is the classic platformer hero who can't swim even in ankle-high water of a fountain. Suggestions: - The devs use goodies to guide the player, but seemingly forgot to do that in later levels, hence my frustration at times. - The "turn camera to movement" should be on by default, especially due to me playing this on a controller. - The guards could use a couple more sound effects such as when they spot the player. - There needs to be a "show full dialogue" button when you're talking to an NPC to show the full text since the scroll speed is rather slow. - Few differently colored terrain textures could make spotting those platforms easier. In conclusion, this game can be blitzed through in less than 2 hours. I hope the developers will update this game in the future to address some of the game's issues mentioned in this review.

Moderately interesting platforming, but an extremely rough experience overall. Very very short - I beat it in just under 100 minutes and I was faffing about a fair bit - and lots of graphical bugs. Combat is non-existant, the checkpoint system is pretty much pointless, and the style is all over the place. I picked this up on sale for 3 bucks, and that feels about right. I cannot possibly recommend this game at 10 dollars. Pick it up on sale if you like really weird indie jank or somewhat interesting platforming.