Decided to grab this game and give it a go. It’s not a very long game, and that’s ok. I don’t mind my short and sweet games at all.
Gameplay has a lot of solid ideas, and most of it is realized. The momentum based platforming was introduced early on, but didn’t really feel integrated into the later 2 stages unfortunately. I liked the idea of using the environment to increase your jumping distance, as it gave a pretty satisfying flow to general basic movement. I would see platforms and think to myself if I could make it there with just my basic jump. There were no enemies to speak of, no bosses, it was just RAW platforming challenges with a few collectibles and some tricky hazards. I couldn’t seem to find anything the collectibles did, but I went outta my way to get every one of them I could find, and they presented some good challenging segments. The “sling shot” mechanic that was introduced in stage 2 was well utilized and made me work for collectibles. I also had a lot of fun working with it as a potential movement option, bringing the pace of the game even higher and allowing for some neat movement options. While I typically prefer my game to have bosses or enemies of some kind, this game had some good platforming challenge that I wasn’t too disappointed with those exclusion. The general gameplay and presentation were pretty good! While the story and characters don’t leave too much for me to grasp onto, the younger sister seemed pretty funny, and I liked the idea of her leaving to become more immersed in this weird world. Idk how she got through everything here cuz LORD was it tough sometimes.
Presentation wise, the game has a very nice art style, especially the character portraits. Always love being able to see more detail on the characters faces. The environments are abstract enough to feel very weird and odd to traverse (in a good way) but grounded enough to hit that fantasy vibe. The music was really solid, with some good tunes I was humming along too while platforming my way through some challenging levels. The animations on display are very minimal, and not too impressive, but they get the job done. The idle animation being a little jog/hop in place was weird, but goofy. While checking the options menu, I turned down the SFX slightly to hear the music better, but there didn’t really feel like there were any sound effects to reduce too much to begin with.
As for cons, I had quite a few unfortunately. The OVERALL issue I’d say is with the polish of the product. While each stage was a good length, they felt like they overstayed their welcome. Maybe it would’ve felt a bit cleaner if stages 2 and 3 were cut in half or segmented off? The presentation, while visually pleasing, was also a bit odd to traverse. A lot of assets blend together and were hard to distinguish from foreground and background elements. This was the worse in the first stage, where some elements just didn’t even look like they were intractable, and the spikes tended to blend too well into the environment. While I appreciate the level of detail making the world seem natural as possible, it comes at the cost of readability as a player. I think aspects of the overall polish could be put into question. For example; some of the hitboxes didn’t feel as accurate as I’d like. I would end up taking damage from spikes from what looked like a decent distance away. Maybe giving the spines a smaller hitbox would solve the issue? In stage 2 while trying to land on some of the sand platforms using my “sling shot” ability, I found myself hitting an invisible wall occasionally. This might be due to the two platforms being placed too close together, and some weird hitbox interactions. Moving platforms also seemed to be finicky, sometimes they’d move if I brushed up against the side of them, and other time I’d jump on top and they wouldn’t move at all. As I said earlier, it’s a neat and fun mechanic, but didn’t feel polished enough for me to filly enjoy it. Another issue I had was with the “glowflies” ball mechanic. It was used to traverse the 3rd stage and get rid of thorny hazards for a short time, however, due to its physics, it actually would roll and get stuck on certain terrain. This made it hard to reclaim and occasionally lead to deaths I felt could be avoided if I had more control of the object.
Some smaller issues I had were the “Sling shot” had a few hiccups as well. This could very well be on my end, but it was inconsistent with its activation. I would clip the mouse button quickly and sometimes it would activate and other time it wouldn’t. Some aspects felt designed for the quick fling activation, but it was surprisingly hard to nail down. This isn’t an overall issue, like I said, it might be my mouse or setup. Another small thing I wish I could change was, the controls. Specifically, I wish I could have jump on the W key, I think that would feel much better. However, key binding and such can typically be a challenge so I understand for a small title like this. And the last issue I had was the checkpoint system. At somepoint during the final stage, I ended up falling down a pit, which took me to a previous section of the stage. I had to cross a previous checkpoint to get through the area, as it was too tight for me to jump or fling myself over. And upon replaying the challenge section again, I found dying would take me back to the previous lower section. Kinda just wish the pit killed me j seat of actively taking away progress, was by far the most frustrating segment of my playthrough. At its worst, the game makes me question id a death was actually my fault, which could lead to occasional frustrations.
Overall, Willows Descent was “decent”. I’d give it a solid 6/10, as its low price and playtime are respectable, it didn’t feel as polished as I had hoped. Still, for a small indie game, there was clearly a vision here, that if polished up and crafted, could be a really neat little challenging platformer. Any game is a challenge to release, so this one finally making its way out on Steam was great to see. Hope the team puts forth more effort to make great projects in the future.
