Onirism Review Summary

Abundant Content & Value: Players consistently praise the immense amount of content available, including a lengthy story mode, diverse environments, numerous weapons and customization options, and various extra game modes (like a CoD Zombies-style mode). This vast content is often highlighted as offering exceptional value for its price.

Engaging & Diverse Gameplay: The core gameplay is described as fun, fluid, and varied, blending elements of shooting, platforming, and action-adventure. Reviewers appreciate the smooth controls, satisfying gunplay with a wide array of unique weapons, and challenging yet fair difficulty. The inclusion of co-op further enhances the experience.

Charming & Unique Art Style: The game's visual design receives high praise for its colorful, dream-like aesthetic and artistic enemy/character designs. Many find the overall art direction, graphics, and production values to be exceptional, contributing significantly to the game's unique charm and appeal.

Nostalgic Genre Blend: The game is frequently celebrated as a love letter to classic PS1/PS2 era 3D platformers and old-school shooters like Serious Sam or Doom. It effectively combines these genres while incorporating numerous references, creating a strong sense of nostalgia and a unique gameplay experience.

Captivating Main Character (Carol): Carol, the protagonist, is a standout feature, praised for her cuteness, strong personality, humor, and 'adorable violence.' Players enjoy her sassy dialogue, diverse outfits, and the seamless integration of her character into the game's mechanics and narrative.

Unfinished and Buggy Release: Players widely report that the game feels like an early access title rather than a polished 1.0 release. It is plagued with numerous bugs, performance issues, and janky mechanics, leading to frequent frustration and game-breaking experiences.

Poor Navigation & Map System: The game suffers from a lack of guidance, including absent or unhelpful quest markers, an ineffective map, and no minimap. Players frequently get lost in large, empty levels, making progression unclear and tedious.

Broken & Unintuitive Controls: Controller support is abysmal, with frequent bugs, unremappable buttons, and menus that don't recognize controller input. Keyboard and mouse controls also have issues, making basic movement and actions frustrating and difficult to perform.

Lacking Quality of Life Features: The game lacks essential QoL features such as fast travel, proper audio settings, and functional inventory management. This contributes to a feeling of unpolish and can detract from the overall player experience.

Enemy AI & Encounter Issues: Enemies frequently get stuck in environmental objects, teleport, or exhibit poor pathing, leading to soft-locks or unfair combat. Stealth mechanics are ineffective, and combat can feel hectic due to large hordes in confined spaces.

Diverse Game Modes & Content: The game offers a wide array of game modes beyond the main adventure, including various multiplayer options (co-op, versus), survival, challenge levels, and unique gimmick levels like zombies mode. Difficulty settings are also available, ensuring varied experiences for players.

Genre-Bending Core Gameplay: The game uniquely blends elements from multiple genres, primarily a 3D platformer and third-person shooter. It also incorporates action-adventure, parkour, and even first-person shooter mechanics, offering a dynamic and varied gameplay experience.

Heavily Inspired by Retro Shooters: The game draws significant inspiration from classic late 90s/early 2000s shooters and platformers like Serious Sam, Ratchet & Clank, Doom, and Crash Bandicoot. This influence is evident in enemy design, weapon variety, humor, and map structure.

Local & Online Multiplayer Focus: The game strongly emphasizes local multiplayer, including split-screen co-op for both arcade and story modes, and versus options. Online multiplayer is planned for release shortly after launch, indicating a commitment to social play.

Dynamic Level Design & Scale: Levels vary significantly in design, from small, intricate platforms to vast, open-world-like maps that incorporate vehicles and large-scale battles. The game also features genre-switching segments and themed level transitions, adding to the variety.

Significant Performance Issues: Many players report severe performance problems, including low frame rates, crashes, and demanding hardware usage, even on systems meeting or exceeding recommended specifications. Users often need to drastically reduce graphical settings to achieve playable performance.

Steam Deck Playability: The game is generally playable on Steam Deck, often achieving around 30 FPS. However, performance can dip into the mid-20s during intense combat, though the touchscreen assists with menu navigation.

SSD Recommended: Due to the game's large file size and detailed maps, an SSD is recommended for better loading times and overall performance, as HDD usage can impact performance and cause overheating.

Mixed Performance Experiences: While many report issues, some players with high-end systems or after specific updates experienced good performance. Others note performance improvements over time.

High FPS Potential: In some instances, the game can achieve extremely high frame rates (up to 1000 FPS) requiring an FPS limit to prevent system lock-ups, indicating periods of very efficient rendering.

Wait for patches and fixes: Many players advise waiting for significant patches and bug fixes before purchasing or playing the game to ensure a smoother experience. Despite its potential, the current state of the game in early access is seen as unpolished and warrants caution.

Highly enjoyable and recommended: Players express strong positive sentiment, recommending the game for its fun, content, and soul. Many consider it a must-play, particularly for fans of specific genres, and have high hopes for its future.

Appeals to specific genre fans: The game is particularly recommended for fans of classic shooters, 3D platformers, and those who enjoy games similar to 'Ratchet & Clank' or 'Serious Sam'. It caters to players looking for a light-hearted yet action-packed experience.

Refunds requested: Several players have requested refunds, indicating dissatisfaction with the game's current state. This aligns with the sentiment that the game needs significant improvements.

Cautionary purchase advice: Some players offer conditional recommendations, suggesting that a purchase now is acceptable if one doesn't mind an unpolished experience, or advising to wait for future improvements, especially regarding specific gameplay elements.

Ongoing Development and Updates: Developers are consistently working on the game, releasing regular updates, and addressing bugs. Players are optimistic about future improvements and look forward to the full release, expecting positive changes.

Strong Potential, Lacks Polish: Players see immense potential in the game, viewing it as a 'hidden gem' and 'one of the best' despite its current unfinished state. It is acknowledged that the game needs significant polishing and further development to reach its full potential.

Extended Early Access Period: The game has been in early access for an exceptionally long time (4-6+ years) and is still considered unfinished, with only a fraction of planned content implemented. While developers are actively working on it, players note its 'rough diamond' state.

Desire for More Content: Players express a desire for more diverse game modes, additional levels for the story, and a stronger emphasis on story and exploration content.

Unique Artistic and Thematic Blend: The game has an intentionally low-polygon art style reminiscent of 'Splatoon' but combines this with mature themes and 'perverted memes' from the community. Its premise is likened to 'Serious Sam meets Conker's Bad Fur Day'.