Unferat

Really fun take on the reverse horror genre. I love summoning demons and zombies to do my bidding against my enemies. The "openworld" aspect of this game also allows for you to really play your own way, and I absolutely love the magic system in this game. It just all feels really well put together and enjoyable.

On first glance slow, clunky, and janky, Unferat is actually surprisingly compelling once you get rolling. Each system, simulation, or spell has its own little quirks to learn, and the game rewards experimentation. You start out weak and vulnerable, and have resort to asymmetric tactics like spying, poisoning, and ambushes to pick off specific villagers. Your spells and abilities all have little bits of friction that lend them a sense of tangibility - it really contributes to the feeling of being an underdog when you have to frantically flee from a fight to create enough space to pull up your spellbook and double check your incantation, or retreat back to your lair to spend a few minutes brewing poisons to sneak into the town's food supply and using your scrying orb to spy on the villagers in search of isolated targets to pick off. Though I wouldn't characterize it as an ImSim per se, I think fans of games like Thief will enjoy this game that forces you to carefully consider your approach, use every tool and mechanic at your disposal, and come at foes sideways. For a couple bucks, Unferat is a unique 6-8 hour game that doesn't quite play like anything else I've seen.

I really wish there were more games like this one. The only negative thing i can come up with is there should be more of what's already there. I wish there were more spells to discover, more ingredients to collect, a bigger map to explore. Other than that, the mechanics, controls, the story and music are all just art. This game is a piece of art.

A rough but creative horror sandbox with old school sensibilities. Unferat is a difficult game to play, it has minimal guidance with no handholding. But does it has a clear creative voice and a willingness to experiment. It’s a simple game with unique mechanics and ideas that stand out, but needs a larger scale with more polish.

One of those special games that are cheap, short but very unique. In this case game could be summarized as “Realistic Necromancer Simulator”. You collect resources, improve and learn new spells and try to take revenge on village. Its biggest feature by far is persistent map. Some creatures respawn, but villagers and named characters don’t. You start by culling map one by one, do side activities, until you gain power and summons to take small groups. With more humans killed, scripted events and more enemies arrive that need to be dealt with. Until you kill everyone leaving empty map as you depart. I would wish for something like this on grander scale with proper budget, as it has so much personality but sadly will be passed over and forgotten.

I am not finished with my playthrough but i think i've had enough time to give some kind of feedback. Short answer is i really really really love these kind of game premises and this one fully encapsulates the idea. (only needing lil bit of polish here and there but it personally took me awhile to notice those things) clicking on the inside of the lighthouse while dragging reagents and ingredients around usually pulls me outside and that's probably the most frustrating thing to me. That aside i am consumed by this game and i regret nothing 9.8/10 ! stuff i'd personally like to see in coming updates: (doesn't matter when) Turning people into animals or other things with a spell. (example: turns into rabbit and hunters proceed to hunt them) More environmental factors to take advantage of (leading those fools to the wolves was quite satisfying but a bit tricky) Making it so stuff happens according to the lunar cycle/moon phases would add so much! more of a balance but the runes we can make are pretty useful and i am guilty of triple or quadruple runing powerful npcs and it is funny but maybe a bit of tweaking might be necessary (Found myself chessing them a lot of the time to whittle down their numbers.) like those unique bands of npcs. One other thing is maybe being able to add different effects to runes for creative play (like plague bottle effect on smaller scale) And thats about it. a very nice gem this is!

Very creative game