Vomitoreum

This is a bad game. It feels like it was made purely for the joy of creation, driven by the idea of what the game should be - rather than what it actually was. Like, it's made by someone who shouldn't make games. But they didn't get the memo, and made it anyway. And thank the stars for that, because this game is a delightful experience. It's very much a first person Metroidvania - and it certainly plays like one. The world feels large without actually being clumsily huge, it offers good interconnectedness with no fast travel; and the top-down Doom style map really helps out with exploration. Vomitoreum has a strange relationship with combat. There is no ammunition whatsoever: all your weapons can fire indefinitely. No reloading needed, either. I actually liked this. Another unusual thing is that once you kill something, it stays dead. No respawns on saving or leaving the area (not that you can leave the area, the world is seamlessly connected in a single map). So backtracking is boring... right? Not necessarily. The areas and rooms are mechanically small, but visually large: this means that you'll often have some kind of vista to look at while travelling. The world is detailed and strange enough that observing the weird surroundings takes combat's role as a way to sweeten up traversal. Of course, you'll still have to fight through the new areas, but is the combat actually good? Kind of? Again, mechanically not really, but there's enough aesthetic variety that your "What the unholy F-" senses will be doing all the work. So it's still fun, even if it's "bad". One area in particular has enemies that tie excellently into the story's upcoming twist; a tense and engaging moment. Mechanical complexity be damned, it's good stuff. The bosses are a different story. They all have a theme and there's even some dialogue here and there, but they're either easy or bothersome; never truly difficult. The final boss has a small amount of strategy involved in the sense that just circlestrafing will not work, you need to do [i]gasp[/i] something else. But I don't care! Do you care? You shouldn't. I'm the first person to fire a game into the sun for having bad gameplay, but in this case it's not bad. Even if it is. I... look. Friction is bad, until it's good. Can you imagine doing anything without friction? Holding a fork? Walking? Having sex? The trick is where the friction is to be applied. Vomitoreum applies it in places you'd normally not expect, while smoothing out the other parts. And of course, this goes without saying: the game's aesthetic is where it's at. Wonderful body horror mixed with Christian and sexual imagery - hell yeah. Unfortunately, the story requires both some curiosity and a degree of being able to read between the lines to make sense; the last third is going to very disjointed and maybe even nonsensical otherwise. I liked it - even if I'm not entirely sure if my interpretation is correct... It's a strange, acquired taste-type experience. Not for everyone. Glad to have a friend who got me to play this! [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42922988/]Vomiting Angelology is trying to kill me, but I am a Survivor. Normal. (4)[/url]