- Stunning art and visual design
- Addictive gameplay and build variety
- Combines elements from popular games
- Variety, replayability, and engaging combat
- Excessive and tedious grind
- Inconsistent difficulty scaling
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 87% · Negative 13%. Score: 13 / 100
Positives:
- The game features phenomenal art and visual presentation, with a distinct pixel art style that is both detailed and easy to read. Character and enemy designs are impressive, and the overall aesthetic enhances the immersive experience. The game also features great voice acting and sound design.
- The game successfully blends elements from popular games like Vampire Survivors, Hades, and Diablo, creating a unique and enjoyable experience. It combines horde survival with ARPG-style gear drops and a Hades-like boon system. Many reviewers feel it improves upon the Vampire Survivors formula.
- The game offers a good variety of enemies, abilities, and characters, encouraging experimentation and strategic play. The randomness of levels, loot, and buffs adds excitement to each run, while the ability to customize difficulty enhances replayability. The game provides a satisfying sense of progression and continuous challenge.
- Each character features a unique talent tree, allowing for diverse builds and playstyles. This system encourages experimentation and provides a reason to play each class. The talent system is well-received and adds significant depth to character customization.
- The game is enjoyable for short play sessions and is easy to pick up and put down. It is available at a fair price and is good for killing time. The mechanics are simple and the game is not heavily luck-based.
Negatives:
- Many reviewers find the game to be excessively grindy, especially in the early game and when progressing to Act 2. This is due to slow progression, rare gear drops, and the need to repeatedly farm the same levels. The grind detracts from the overall enjoyment and makes the game feel tedious.
- The game's difficulty scaling is inconsistent, with a significant spike in Act 2 that feels unfair and unbalanced. This makes progression challenging, especially for melee characters, and renders previously acquired gear obsolete. The difficulty spikes can be frustrating and ruin the overall experience.
- The game suffers from a lack of content, with reviewers frequently mentioning the limited number of maps, acts, and overall playtime. This is somewhat expected due to the early access status, but it leads to repetitiveness and a short-lived experience. The game feels unfinished and lacking in depth.
- The game relies too heavily on RNG, affecting gear drops, skill selection, and overall progression. This can lead to frustration and a feeling of lack of control over character development. The RNG elements exacerbate the grind and make successful runs feel heavily dependent on luck.
- The game lacks upfront context and clear explanations of mechanics, leading to initial confusion. Descriptions are often unclear, and players may need to rely on external guides to understand the game's systems. This poor information flow detracts from the player experience.
Gameplay:
- The game features multiple characters, each with unique abilities, skill trees, and playstyles. These characters have different attack patterns, upgrade paths, and blessing slots, encouraging players to experiment and find their preferred hero. This variety adds depth and replayability to the game.
- The game features dynamic combat with responsive controls, including a dash mechanic for evading enemy attacks. Players can choose to dodge strategically or tank damage with lifesteal, adding depth to combat encounters. This active combat system differentiates it from more passive survivor-like games.
- Runs are time-gated, typically lasting around 20 minutes, with boss encounters at specific intervals. The game focuses on surviving waves of enemies and defeating bosses to earn rewards and progress. This structure provides a clear objective and sense of progression within each run.
- Skills are tied to different gods, and players can only pick skills from three gods per run, creating varied gameplay experiences. Deities are randomly assigned per run, creating variability. The depth of the game is determined by the blessings players choose to acquire.
- The game features permanent skill trees that provide incremental bonuses and unlock new abilities. Players earn points by defeating bosses and use them to enhance their characters outside of runs. This meta-progression system provides a sense of long-term growth and customization.
Performance:
- The game generally runs smoothly across various devices, including older PCs and the Steam Deck. Most reviewers report solid performance and optimization, even during graphically intense moments. This indicates a well-optimized and stable game experience for a wide range of players.
- Some players have reported minor performance slowdowns, particularly on the Steam Deck and towards the end of runs when enemy density increases. These frame drops, lasting around 30-45 seconds, can temporarily disrupt the gameplay experience. Addressing these specific instances of slowdown could further improve performance.
- Some players have reported crashing issues when playing in exclusive fullscreen mode, especially when changing the resolution or alt-tabbing. These crashes may be related to the game's early access status. Resolving these crashes would improve the game's stability.
- Some reviewers stated that they encountered zero bugs. While this is positive feedback, it is not very specific and is already captured by the general sentiment of smooth performance.
- One reviewer mentioned that games load in the background. While this is not necessarily a bug, it is a quality of life feature that should be noted.
Recommendations:
- Many reviewers express strong positive sentiment, calling the game fun, addictive, and a great stress reliever. They highly recommend it, often giving it high scores and praising its overall quality and potential. Some reviewers specifically mention enjoying it while listening to podcasts or playing with friends.
- Reviewers frequently highlight the game's affordable price, especially when on sale, making it an attractive purchase. They consider it a steal and well worth the money, given the quality and potential content offered. This makes the game an easy recommendation for those on a budget or looking for a good value.
- Some reviewers express strong dissatisfaction with the changes introduced in Act 2, while others praise the update. This division suggests that the update may have been polarizing, with some players enjoying the new content and others finding it detrimental to the overall experience. This inconsistency lowers the importance score.
- Some reviewers recommend ignoring the dialogue. This point is specific but doesn't appear frequently, and it's not clear if the writing is bad or just not to the reviewer's taste. This reduces the importance score.
- A recurring theme is the anticipation for future content updates, acts, and features. Reviewers express excitement for the game's potential and are eager to see how it evolves, hoping for more gods, levels, heroes, and overall improvements. This indicates a strong belief in the game's future development and a desire for continued support from the developers.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is in Early Access/Beta, which explains the limited content, potential bugs, and balancing issues. Some reviewers note slow update frequency, while others praise the developers' active involvement and communication. This status tempers expectations and suggests ongoing development.
- Reviewers express excitement for future content updates, including new acts, stages, and quality-of-life improvements. Some reviewers plan to continue playing and update their reviews as the game evolves. This indicates a positive outlook on the game's potential.
- The developers' communication with players is inconsistent. While some reviewers praise their active Discord community and responsiveness to feedback, others report periods of silence and concern about the game's development status. This inconsistency affects player confidence.
- The game incorporates humor, which may not appeal to all players. Some reviewers find the humor funny, while others may find it off-putting. This aspect of the game is subjective and depends on individual preferences.
- Reviewers suggest improvements to enhance build variety and player understanding of game mechanics. Suggestions include a collection library for blessings and mythic gear reworks with set bonuses. These recommendations aim to improve the player experience and add depth to the game.
