The Abyss

funni game

2D Dark souls. executed perfectly. Game of the Year. Amazing idea. it is a gaming master piece.

In this game you move through each level until you reach the end where you encounter a boss that you must defeat in order to finish the level. The learning curve isn't too step because you only need to learn a handful of controls. As you progress through the game the bosses get harder almost at the same rate your skill increases which makes the game always challenging. A better tutorial would be helpful but it doesn't take very long to learn the controls anyways, a better tutorial would just help you learn faster. The only REAL complaint I have is that there is no window between when you encounter a boss and when they start attacking you, a quick 2-3 second window between when you encounter a boss and their first attack would be nice. Overall this is a decently well made game and for only 5 dollars its worth a try.

A copy of this game was provided to me by the developer for review purposes. [h1]Good Idea, Poor Execution[/h1] [quote]Please [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38944951-Bottom-of-the-Dumpster-Fire/]follow my Steam Curator for more interesting games like this[/url] and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbST5JiVsu0]feel free to watch this review in video format[/url].[/quote] I'm going to be honest, I have a very soft spot towards games that have ambition and heart poured into them, so I tend to overlook some flaws as a result. I like the concept that's being provided here, as a skill-based side-scrolling platformer where you have to dodge tons of bullets and die in one hit. I appreciate the developer for finishing their dream project. The problem is that I don't really like anything else about the game. The worst part is how dark it is. Thankfully, the playable character has eyes, but when you have a black character on a black background with black ground makes it very hard to see anything other than the bullets, and to properly dodge things as a result. It also doesn't help that the entire character appears to be one massive square hitbox (although it might not be, not like I can physically tell on account of how dark it is) and it's very easy to misjudge if you were hit by something or not. The next problem is essentially a three in one deal, having only one life with a massive hitbox is problematic enough, but add in the mix of bullets sometimes being too fast to react to makes it borderline unplayable. Essentially, these two raise the skill floor up to be a sheer cliff you'd have to climb, but it's made worse with the spice - floaty movement, like you're on ice. It's not quite as bad as games where you actually run on ice, but it's way too easy to accidentally slide into a bullet that kills you, and there's a fraction of a second where you realize that there's nothing you can do as the player to try and avoid this. The boss battles themselves are, from my limited experience fighting five or so of them before turning the game off, for the most part, unfair. You don't enter the souls-like boss arena only for the boss to be mid-swing, but even that wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the "one hit and you're dead" mechanic. Thankfully, the game's fast at reloading the level, but add on checkpoints that you can just miss activating (yes, you have to manually hit checkpoints), and sometimes surviving a gauntlet of a level only to be instantly deleted is just an experience of frustration. The game also mentions how your only stat is your skill level, but the only skill I've personally found is "issue". Maybe you, the reader, might have a better time than I do, but I didn't find that the game works. It might work if you have a speedrunner mentality and love getting the perfect run, because that's basically what the game demands, but that's not for me.