Alright, Apparently i bought this game a while back, left it to collect dust in my Library, and by sheer dumb chance did i stumble across it today. I downloaded it, and got playing.
Honestly, it's a great little game! It looks absolutely GORGEOUS, the soundtrack is ballin, and while the controls on keyboard took some getting used to for me, I got it all down pretty soon. Great work, especially considering there is just one single name in the credits before the Special Thanks started. I would absolutely spend money on this again in a heartbeat.
HOWEVER! Not for this price. I don't know how much I spent on it back then, but the €13 it's priced at right now, December 2021, is simply too much.
- There are some unresolved bugs. Most notably, the Race in Ariadne's Desert. When you get the teleportation ability in another area, the game makes a BIG thing of it. "You can even use it to find shortcuts!" it says, or something similar. However, if you do so in the Desert, the game WILL glitch out. I found 2 potential shortcut area's, rather close to each other. But if I dare use them, the game will simply not count the lap i'm on anymore. I have ran multiple "Final Laps" in the same race, promptly falling from a comfortable lead to dead last, without anyone ever passing me. This is no new bug either, a quick look on the forum resulted in a thread from 2015 talking about it, and one single post from 2016 under it detailing the issue. The solution I found was to simply not use the teleport then, but we as players shouldn't be forced to ignore a part of the game so that another won't bug out.
- Final chapter is a bit much. There are several attacks which are barely dodgeable, and using your Vampire Mines to replenish some energy will usually result in taking more damage from the afterburners than you heal back up in the first place. I know this sounds a lot like a "Boohoo game hard" argument, but really, a tad more telegraphing would've been nice.
- Last but not least, playtime is low. I have spent 2,9 hours to get from my first time booting this game up, right to the end of the credits. Granted, i haven't done any bonus missions yet, but still. 174 minutesy, give or take, to finish the game. I think that's absurdly low for the money you pay for it. Again, one man devteam, he needs bread on the shelves as well, I get it. But the sad truth of the matter is that the game simply isn't worth €13.00 as it is right now; and i think its safe to assume that support has been dropped by now. It won't get any better.
My advice would be to wait for a sale. Despite my detailed complaints, I really did enjoy playing this game, I commend Past Me for buying it, and I do think other people will enjoy it as well. But for €13.00, you can get a whole lot more bang for your buck.
