INCISION Review Summary

Outstanding Weapon & Combat Design: The game's weapons are highly lauded for being fun, impactful, and satisfying to use, with excellent variety and well-implemented alternate fire modes. Combat is engaging due to diverse and well-designed enemies, making every encounter feel nuanced and challenging.

Exceptional Gameplay Experience: Players consistently praise the game's fluid, fast-paced, and satisfying gameplay, highlighting its unique blend of familiar retro elements with fresh execution. The overall experience is described as enjoyable, challenging, and dynamic, with strong fundamentals in controls and movement.

Immersive & Unique Atmosphere: The game's brutal, gritty, and grotesque aesthetic, combined with its industrial, metal-influenced soundtrack, creates a deeply immersive and unsettling atmosphere. This unique visual and auditory presentation is a major draw, often compared to classic horror and FPS titles.

Excellent Retro Shooter Homage: The game is celebrated as a standout 'boomer shooter,' masterfully blending elements from classic FPS titles like Quake, Doom, and Dusk with modern innovations. It successfully captures the fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled action of 90s shooters while offering a fresh experience.

Masterful Level Design & Art Direction: Reviewers consistently commend the game's intricate, well-crafted, and visually striking level design, which is rich with secrets and environmental storytelling. The art direction is described as unique, disgusting, and beautiful, effectively blending retro graphics with body horror.

Frustrating Save/Checkpoint System: Players are highly frustrated by the lack of quick saves, checkpoints, and autosave features, especially in long levels or during boss fights. This often leads to losing significant progress upon death or exiting the game, making the experience feel disrespectful of player time and discouraging exploration.

Unsatisfying Level Design: Many players find the level design confusing, unrewarding to explore, and often forgettable. Issues include maze-like layouts, repetitive visuals, narrow corridors, and a lack of strategic platforms for combat, leading to players getting lost and feeling bored.

Poor Weapon Feel & Balance: Weapons generally lack a satisfying feel, punch, and impactful sound design, making them feel weak or 'wimpy'. There are also concerns about weapon damage balance, inconsistent hitboxes, and an excessive number of keybinds for weapons.

Weak Combat & Enemy Variety: The combat experience is hampered by enemies that are not interesting or challenging, limited enemy variety, and a perceived lack of impact from weapons. This contributes to a bland 'hit and run' gameplay loop and an uninteresting difficulty curve.

Technical & Quality of Life Issues: Players reported several technical issues, including significant bugs, particularly during boss fights, and a lack of essential quality-of-life features like in-game keybind remapping, a weapon selection wheel, and proper mouse sensitivity settings.

Difficulty Settings and Customization: The game offers multiple difficulty settings, with players experiencing a range from enjoyable challenge to significant hurdles. There are also extensive customization options for gameplay speed, enemy projectile speed, and damage taken, allowing players to tailor their experience.

Challenging and Varied Enemies: Enemies are described as tanky, damaging, and a constant threat, regardless of player power. The roster is varied, with new enemy types introduced regularly, and some designed to overwhelm players, contributing to the hardcore gameplay focus.

No Mid-Level Saves or Checkpoints: Players frequently note the absence of mid-level saves, quick saves, or checkpoints, requiring a full level restart upon death. This design choice, while intentional, significantly impacts gameplay difficulty and player progression.

Weapons with Alt-Fire Modes: A significant feature is that every weapon in the arsenal comes with a unique alternate fire mode. These alt-fires provide diverse tactical options, from powerful single shots to area-of-effect attacks, enhancing combat versatility.

Retro Shooter Gameplay Style: The game is firmly categorized as an old-school 'boomer shooter,' drawing comparisons to titles like Quake and Painkiller. It emphasizes pure, fast-paced FPS action without complex modern features like skills or tactical elements, appealing to a specific niche.

Performance issues at start: Players experienced significant frame rate drops, specifically at the beginning of levels, with performance plummeting to 1-3 frames per second. This severely impacts the initial gameplay experience.

Mixed reception, general recommendation: Player sentiment is divided, with many recommending the game for its aesthetic and potential, while others suggest waiting for further development or trying alternatives. Despite the mixed views, a significant portion finds it enjoyable and worth the price, especially for fans of the genre.

Strong appeal to boomer shooter fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of the 'boomer shooter' genre, especially those who enjoy retro FPS games and a specific aesthetic. Comparisons to games like DUSK and Quake are frequent, suggesting it caters to a niche but dedicated audience.

Early Access considerations: Many players advise caution due to the game being in Early Access. They recommend waiting for the full release or a sale, and to set expectations appropriately for an incomplete product. Some are willing to support the developer through Early Access.

High anticipation for future content: Players are very excited and eagerly awaiting future episodes, content, and the full release of the game. There's a strong desire to see the game develop and evolve, indicating a positive outlook on its potential.

Save system is a divisive feature: The current save system is a point of contention. Some players find it acceptable or even prefer it, while others strongly desire a more traditional mid-mission save system, suggesting it impacts their enjoyment and willingness to play.

Incomplete Episodic Release: The game is currently released in an episodic format, with two out of three planned episodes available. Players are anticipating the final episode, which is expected to complete the game's story and content.

Rich Lore and World-building: Despite its simplicity, the game features deep lore and small, fitting narrative bits that enhance its unique world. This contributes to a 'fever dream' like experience, blending dystopian body horror with artistic elements.

Concise Gameplay Experience: Players describe the game as relatively simple and short, offering approximately six hours of content. While some find it a good value, others might desire more extensive gameplay.

Solo Developer's Vision: The game is the creation of a solo developer, Sami 'SmoothBrain' Malaska, and represents their first foray into game development. This context is important for understanding the scope and ambition of the project.

Affordable and Discounted: The game is considered fairly cheap compared to other 'boomer shooters' and offers a discount for owners of 'Dusk'. This makes it an accessible option for many players.