Vlad Circus: Descend Into Madness

A high quality pixel art psychological horror game that blew my socks off with its presentation, atmosphere, music, art, and cast of characters. Play as Ollie, a circus clown recovering from the horrible trauma of a fire that burned the circus he was a part of to the ground. Game play is a mix of survival horror and puzzle elements, featuring inventory management (expanded with bags you can find), finding puzzle objects, and needing to visit locations on the grounds to refill your kerosene lantern / sharpen your knife. There isn't a traditional health bar, instead being a bar of stress that increases with hits from enemies / rats, or Ollie being exposed to traumatic hallucinations, which can be whisked away with a tonic from Dr. Jaspar. Ollie is a man of God, taking comfort in prayer with his mother's rosary, taking away any accumulated stress within moments. There isn't much in the way of enemies, mainly being the rats around the manor, and two types of hallucination Ollie will encounter as they progress through the mansion. The majority of your time will be spent scooting around the mansion, collecting the next object(s) to unlock the next area you need to explore, or fulfilling a task for a member of the troupe. Vlad Circus: Descend Into Madness is firing on all cylinders, strong pixel art, cutscenes, music, story, atmosphere, and a cast of characters that are well fleshed out. Exploring the mansion was a delight, always making me look forward to what the next room / section of the grounds might hold. The tragedy of Ollie's story was genuinely touching, his decent into madness quite the journey / tale by the end, that left me moved. I would recommend this one in a heart beat, even at full price. This was a fantastic time. [quote]Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45701624/]CthulhusMonocle - That Next Fest Guy[/url] for more game and Steam Next Fest demo reviews.[/quote]

Первое, что скажу, ни смотря на, то, что разработчики советуют геймпад, игра отлично играется с клавиатуры, практически даже одной рукой. И бои не напрягают. Так что те, кого отпугивал этот момент - можете смело брать. Другое дело, что возможно отпугивает высокая цена, тут соглашусь, сам брал по скидке, но игра не разочаровала. Мы играем за бывшего клоуна которому пришло письмо от владельца (собственно Влада) сгоревшего 9 лет назад цирка. Тот хочет возродить труппу и собирает народ. Наш герой типичный верующий тихоня, выращенный властной мамой и строгим отцом, в этом его характер немного шаблонный, впрочем наш герой добрый хоть и безумный. Безумие его проявляется в основном глюками, и он вроде бы как даже понимает, что это просто галлюцинации, но все не так просто. Сюжет без прикрас, он правдоподобный, жесткий, приправленный довольно красноречивыми иллюстрациями, интересно, что при этом нет ощущения перегиба и жести ради жести, все ровно так, как должно быть. Квест идет плавно, очень логичные загадки, затыков нигде возникнуть не должно. Даже беготня туда-сюда не раздражает (События происходят в особняке и ближайших окрестностях), секреток и тайных комнат нет. В этом плане все линейно и все что вы найдете так или иначе будет использоваться в продвижении сюжета. В общем, если хочется качественного пиксельного хоррора, который не заставит ваш зад гореть - смело приобретайте эту игру, надевайте наушники (это обязательное условие) и отправляйтесь в таинственный особняк.

Pretty short game, with a lot of it spent running back and forth across the same areas. Run to one end to get a key, run back to the other end to open the door. In the door is another locked door and an item that lets you get another key on the other end. Repeat and repeat. The story was a bit uninspired and predictable, and the characters did not really do much for me as far as making me care enough to feel engaged. This isn't a bad game per se, but it's underwhelming and I think probably not worth the 4 hours it took to beat it, or the money I spent to purchase it. Oh yah, and I did have to look up one of the puzzles because it was too obtuse for me. There's no option not to drink the tonic, it's a required part of the game. That's not a complaint, just a heads up for anyone like me who plays this game and thinks "I'll try to beat this game without resorting to this tonic."

I'm giving it a positive review ONLY because i enjoyed 95% of the game BUT... the ending was so so SO disappointing that I feel like I should give it a bad review. Also, why would I even think about getting/playing Curse of Asmodeus considering what now I know about the game? Spoilers: [spoiler]Basically, all they had to do is keep the supernatural elements and that's it. No "it's all in your head" lazy writing. I could see that miles away I made the stupid decision of believing that they wouldn't go that route...[/spoiler]

Pros: - Keeps track of important things to remember in your journal - Multiple weapons and ways of getting new ammo/fixing weapons - Atmosphere - Pixel art - Story was interesting - Unique characters Cons: - Map isn't detailed - Puzzles were super minimal, moreso had you going from place to place and finding items

Llegué a este juego por recomendación y lo jugué en Switch. Cuando lo vi en Steam, sentí que era una obligación tenerlo también. La historia es muy buena, con varios giros y un gran plot twist final. El gameplay es sólido, aunque tiene algunos detalles que pueden hacerse pesados. Aun así, creo que es algo subjetivo, ya que el juego busca recrear la experiencia de los survival horror clásicos. Mi única queja es que Ollie se cansa cada cuatro pasos, algo que por suerte corrigieron en la segunda entrega. En general, es un muy buen juego y una experiencia que recomendaría a cualquier fan del género.

Un excelente juego de terror psicológico en 2D Con una resolución de puzzles muy dinámicas y con ingenio Donde más destaca para mí, es en su elenco de personajes y lo bien escritos que están. Dotándoles de detalles y mucha personalidad

Really loved the art style, setting, music, and atmosphere. Running around the map got really annoying really quickly, so I wish there was some kind of fast travel once you'd been to a place. Overall I really enjoyed it though, and I look forward to picking up the sequel when it goes on sale!

Combat is very unfun, you constantly have to pray to heal yourself, which takes more time. Constant backtracking since there's very few hints. Running is a chore. The game. Gives you 8 seconds on running, then you're just magically tired again for about 3 seconds. I had to hack the game to give me infinite running to making getting around normally. Then it's actually possibly to softlock yourself. I'm giving this a thumbs down, which is a shame as I did kinda like the game.

A beautiful, tense, and tightly driven story of a man who suffers from the loss of his friends and family and tries to piece together fragments of his past. this is a must try solid 8/10