Valor & Blade

First and foremost, this looks as though it is the first title of "TechGladiator" and a very promising one at that. I am looking forward to playing more, it's got lots of potential. Good job. [u] What I enjoyed [/u] : [list] [*] The game ran smoothly. I used the Vulkar loading option, as I would for Baldurs Gate as a Laptop gamer and it ran extremely well. [*] The visuals are very nice, I love the map design at the beginning as you are crossing the bridge, it feels very beautiful. [*] The game is very well-lit. For a dungeon-based game, it doesn't feel dreary, it's got the perfect balance of atmosphere and it is quite enjoyable. [*] The tutorial is amazing, its explained very well. It has just enough text to make it intuitive and engaging and explains very well. [*] A lot of love has clearly gone into this game from just the developer's updates, profile, steam page but also the game itself. You can clearly see a lot of inspiration like the death screen, the colours of the UI and just in general the game but its their own unique spin on it to make it a very relevant title and a project of love. [/list] Despite not having played many of these sorts of games, it was quite gripping and interesting enough that I certainly will be playing more (especially with updates as they release). I'm not very well-versed with souls-like games and this is honestly maybe the first genuine one I have played so take this review with a pinch of salt. A lot of my 'negatives' must be prefaced with the insane skill issue on my behalf. Here are my criticisms: [u] First Loading Up[/u] [list] [*] The menu scrolls down alongside the cursor moving down which makes navigating the menu a tad bit frustrating. It makes it a bit hard to click on. [*] The font/general look of the menu is off-putting and feels not on theme with the game. I think I would have preferred that the menu be the same colour scheme and font choice of the tutorial boxes that come up in-game. They feel much easier on the eye, suited to the game and just more relevant. Pedantic, I know :p [*] The music in the title screen is very overpowering - even at "Master Volume" 1, I had to separately turn the music down to half of that. [/list] [u] Gameplay [/u] [list] [*] The movement is a bit strange. The character model for both I and the enemies seems to move in such a way that you're constantly turning around. When fighting the enemy, my camera will pan my character to turn around and attack and do the same for the enemies. They would constantly be facing away from me attacking. [*] It would be a nice touch if you could somehow animation cancel/cancel an attack to dodge. This could be just so that your movements and attacks are more intentional and therefore punishing if you attack when you should've dodged/parried, however. I am speaking more with a Monster Hunter perspective where you can cancel a potion animation/attack animation to roll. [*] The range feels quite large. The various swords you pick up have insane range I'd say. I am standing very far away sometimes and attacking where the enemy cannot even reach me. [*] Juxtaposing the above point, it feels as though the way the camera is centred so close to the character/moves weirdly, that you are almost always on top of the enemy instead. I got swarmed by Skeletons all of which were on top of me, similar to the first boss fight. He was standing on top of me, but then turned around to attack anyway. (Albeit, I did die to him anyway). [*] The first boss has crazy healing. It took me 4 extra attacks once he had reached 4hp as he kept healing up to 40 almost instantly. Made it a close fight! [*] With regards to healing... it would be nice if there were some mention as to how much the potions heal. [*] For mouse and keyboard (the screenshots on steam seem to have a more controller-based player), it could be better to have heavy attack defaulted to middle mouse button as that feels a bit more intuitive. [*] Perhaps a few lootables in the boss rooms - like vases in Elder Scrolls dotted around the room (most of which are empty but can contain an extra potion for example, or a rock to pick up for the room after the boss). The rooms feel a little soulless otherwise. The walls are quite bare and the map feels barren despite the detail. [*] It would be nice if the game paused on the menu, I was getting killed by skeletons off the get-go even when tabbed out. [*] I agree with another review here that you do just get bombarded by these skeletons, and as they're always so fast to get to you, you're stuck with 4 of them hitting you while you're turning around unwantingly. [*] Typo in the tutorial - "anaware enemies" when it should be "unaware". [*] I wish there were some voice acting, like grunts as you swing the sword, or some enemy death noises like skeleton falling apart or something. The audio side of this game feels lacking. The character is dead silent other than sword sounds. It really weakens the immersiveness of the gameplay. [/list] Another little comment would be to include steam achievements. The description in the store mentions that this a game of learning enemy patterns and getting better mechanically to overcome, rather than being bombarded by variety so it would make it feel more rewarding to overcome obstacles with some achievements.