I really wish I could give this game a half thumbs up, there's some things that I really enjoy with this game and a lot of design decisions that I find very strange, that if fixed could be a recommend from me.
Now some of these things will probably get changed / adjusted as we go through early access, but after playing through the game for a few hours these are the things that really stuck out to me, and hurt my enjoyment of wanting to do repeated playthroughs.
Pros:
- Atmosphere is top notch, running through a horde of enemies and cleaving them all with one big swing feels really satisfying.
- Combat feels really satisfying, with enemies being launched all around as you as you clear stages.
- Visuals are relativley solid for a indie title, with a unique art-style.
Things that need to be improved / Cons:
- While combat feels great, you'll quickly begin to spam the same combos over and over again, which ends up making the game feel super repetitive. I wish you could unlock more combos, or find items that grant you additional weapon combos / abilites. As it is right now, I find myself getting pretty bored of the 3 playable characters.
- While there are numerous upgrades and unlockables, they rarely impact how you go about playing the game and are pretty much (do 10% more damage with strikes, or heavy attacks), which don't really add that much.
- Collision on the assets placed throughout the level are inconsistent, with some assets having massive insible walls that will block you / get you stuck during boss fights / combat. It can get pretty frustrating taking hits from an enemy because you got stuck on an invisible collision that's placed 5 meters away from a bush.
- During the heat of combat, it's hard to determine when to block as you have numerous captains and enemies all attacking you at the same time. Having more visual clarity would help reduce some of those frustrating moments as missing a block or dodge can sometimes take away a huge portion of your health, espcially during later stages.
- The amount of materials needed to level up other characters is too high, I feel like I have to play the same character over and over again so I can continue progressing, as playing a character that's underleveled significantly makes your run a lot harder. Upgrades for your skills / characters are essential, as they give you massive health and damage bonuses. Having to repeat runs over and over again just so I can get materials to match a previous character is tiresome.
- Bosses don't change per stage, meaning you'll fight the same boss over and over again during the first, second and third stages. This also got pretty repetitive, as i'm wailing on the same enemies, with the same combos, against the same bosses over and over again. Some more boss variety, or modifiers would be nice interms of changing up the pace.
I really wish I could give this game a thumbs up as it's close to being a solid third person rogue like, but there are just too many design decisions that make it a no for me, perhaps in a year or so a lot of these complaints wil be changed / addressed, but as it is right now I'd recommend waiting a bit longer before hopping into this one.
