Don't trust big-site reviewers... ever. This game was rated very high across the board, but for the life of me, I can't begin to understand why. I have played as long as I could honestly give a damn, but I've officially run out of fucks to give about this one.
Story: In a single question, "What story?" The game opens up with a cut-scene about some kind of light explosion, your character (apparently just called "Drifter") appearing in this world, and coughing up blood that either becomes or summons a giant black goo-monster. After failing to escape the goo, he wakes up next to a camp fire, only to face off with it again... and be saved by a swords-man.
Waking up in his place after he left, you have only one clue... he went north... and that's all of the main story you will ever get. Sure you will be given the locations of bosses and small 1-3 panel comics about the stories of others, but that's about it. Seriously, the game is cryptic as all hell, since the developer wanted to tell the tale with the environment itself "like old console games used to." Unfortunately for him, he forgot that those games came with a little booklet called a MANUAL which would at least give you the backing the world of the game might (on occasion) build on. Without this base, these opening scenes become nothing more then a random set of (albeit pretty as hell) scenes with no meaning what-so-ever. It's literally so bad Metacritic actually took the quote from a major reviewer saying they played it twice and STILL don't get it. And looking up the game on Wikipedia will tell you how they wanted to tell this story and little else.
3/10
Graphics: Unlike the plot, I have nothing but love for the look of this game. The developers went into making it with the intent to be like an old-school SNES game, and while I am not sure they succeeded, they certainly made a thing of beauty. It's bright, it's vibrant, and while heavily stylized, it moves smooth as butter in every possible way. And yes, that includes the rather cryptic introduction, giving it a vibe like your main character was animated by rotorscope. It really is a delight to see in all it's retro-glory.
The only issue I have here is that there are times the limits they put on themselves get in the way of the graphics being functional. For example, there were a couple places where I found myself not trying to go where I was supposed to right away because it looked like a hole rather then solid ground or try to walk into a wall. Looks only go so far when the game becomes confusing to navigate... so thankfully this wasn't a common issue.
7/10
Sound: Honestly this game has no major issues in the sound department, but it has nothing spectacular in it either. The music is generally good for what you are playing, but you really only "notice" it when its a single alien tone to set the mood... or it's not there at all.
Sound effects are also fairly standard affairs here, with monsters occasionally having a roar all their own, your sword having the proper swish and thinks depending on what you hit. If anything, guns are the weakness here, yours or others. They have a sound to note they fired, but it's not powerful by any means. But it does give you the hint to watch out.
6/10
Gameplay: And this is where the game starts to get bad quickly. Let's get the obvious out of the way: this game is HARD. And while this isn't bad in it's own right it can be very frustrating when you are not really sure what you are doing, where you are going and why, so this is going to turn off a LOT of gamers from playing it on normal... not that that will help you much. The only differences I could find between versions is the amount of health you get (6 instead of 5 hits) and that teleporters will give you your life back when you use them.
But with that out of the way, I have to admit, the controls to navigate it are actually very solid. You will not have a problem with your character's response time or actions in this game, at least for the most part. There are a few specific things where this can be an issue, specifically around your "warp" and healing.
Your "warp" is effectively where you basically phase between locations and is used both to jump between locations and in combat as a dodge. It works effectively in this manner and is a key part of the way you fight and move. Mastering it is absolutely imperative if you want even a chance at finishing this game. Unfortunately, this can be next to impossible the moment you upgrade it to be able to bounce across multiple jumps before being forced to stop. It can be difficult to get the chained entries you worked so hard for to work via timing of the button press. On top of that, these "extra jumps" don't work to extend your movement over empty space, rendering it's potential best use in the game (finding new places you can reach) non-existent. And by the time you realize this, you have already spend very hard earned currency AND auto-saved so you are stuck either restarting or playing on with "buyer's remorse."
So why is that? Because the currency are chips you find as you play. Get four and they form an actual item you can use to buy things in town, from extra space for more med-kits to more room for additional ammo to new weapons, to even new more devastating ways to swing your sword at other beings. But on average you will need 2-3 for each upgrade... and there are finite chips in the world. When you find one, it will NEVER respawn again after you get it, so you are forced to choose wisely. Meanwhile you choose based on a picture of the item without any text to help you along, not even a name. You have to hope you get that choice right.
And to talk about those med-kits, you can find them all over the place (and unlike chips if a room/location resets, so do these), but they can be less then helpful if you are in the wrong place. You have to stand still to use one, and there is no invulnerability to do so, meaning if you get hit while healing you will take the damage and possibly die in your attempt to prevent such a fate. This can be more then frustrating if you are in an arena-room (usually only one screen in size) and are looking to clear a space to take care of your eminent medical needs.
But lets talk about that monster placement, because that is complete and utter bullshit in this game. It is not uncommon for something to charge out of a wall you were just up against with no warning to rip you a new asshole. Some placement is rough, but things like a wall you were just leaning against belching out a hound in full run is absolute bullshit design... and a design choice you will see often. Expect to get your ass kicked in the cheapest manner by this type of choice often.
5/10
Bugs: Most of the time, this game ran perfectly. But it did have one major glaring issue I can NOT believe made it past beta. If you have another gamer you wish to play with, it does support a "co-op" mode, but choosing it causes all your controls to go absolutely ape-shit. I went from playing with an Xbox One controller to scrambling over the keyboard and hoping to find new controls I could use to get things back to normal... and even setting it back, the controller refused to work again until I quit and restarted the game. Considering player 1 was the xbox controller by DEFAULT, there was no excuse for this.
Overall: This is a game I REALLY wanted to like. From the opening scenes, I wanted to delve into this one. But when the game started to pull cheap bullshit with enemy spawns (especially from within walls I was just at), I began to lose interest. When it refused to give me more story then the cryptic start after 5 hours, I began to question why I was even there. When I found the reason to take a warp upgrade to be pointless as the game refuses to let you use it in the most useful way there is after spending half my currency (which I'm still not sure what that currency is, by the way), I literally stopped caring entirely. The unfortunate reality is this game is not worth the headaches for the hopes that it might reveal just what the fuck is going on.
Score:
3/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i5 or equivilant
- 4 GB RAM
- DirectX 10 compatible graphics card
- Windows 7/8/10
- 2 GB Hard drive space
- AMD A8-9600 Radeon R7 APU (3.1 Ghz)
- 16 GB RAM
- Windows 10
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