Info about Ultros:

Official game description:
ULTROS: DELUXE EDITION
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Enhance your somatic sensory input with the Ultros: Deluxe Edition – including the Ultros Digital Artbook, showcasing the psychedelic world through never-before-seen imagery from the visionary El Huervo, and the Ultros Original Soundtrack, blending Peruvian instruments with classic orchestral themes, lovingly orchestrated by Oscar “Ratvader” Rydelius.
About the Game
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You wake up stranded, after seemingly crashing your ship on The Sarcophagus — a giant, space-drifting, cosmic uterus holding an ancient demonic being known as ULTROS. Trapped in the eternal loop of a black hole, you will have to explore The Sarcophagus and meet its inhabitants to understand the part you play.  
Are you the gruesome breaker of this cycle, or can you become a link from destruction to rebirth?  
ULTROS is set in a multifaceted realm - a vast alien landscape teeming with life. Grounded in science fiction, ULTROS comes wrapped in an eccentric art style and a mystical soundtrack from the visionary El Huervo, renowned for his work on Hotline Miami. ULTROS explores meta-themes of mental health, life, death, and karmic cycles through deep lore and environmental storytelling.  
Experience brutal, intimate, close-quarter combat with cosmic lifeforms, driven by a sense of urgency – where precision is paramount and every cut of your blade counts. Yet this intense combat is juxtaposed with cultivating the greenery and tending to plant life in The Sarcophagus, providing precious moments of contemplation and peace. In turn, this grants deeper access to obscured paths.  
The rich world of ULTROS holds many secrets for those curious enough — and fearless enough — to seek them out. A unique loop-based mechanic will allow you to start over at key moments in the story, providing opportunities to unfold such secrets, unlock different areas of the world and new abilities on a branching skill tree. Experiment with and master your own specific fighting style as you explore the world of ULTROS. Each loop brings you closer to the truth...

Release date: 13 Feb, 2024

Categories: Metroidvania, Exploration, Gardening, Puzzle Solving, Real-time Combat, Single-player Story, Character Progression, Cycle-based Gameplay


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Incredible soundtrack and sound design (weight 0.77): The game boasts an incredible soundtrack and sound design that enhances the overall atmosphere. Reviewers highlight the music's ability to create a sense of immersion and complement the game's unique visual style, with some tracks being particularly memorable.
- Visually stunning psychedelic art style (weight 0.72): The game features a striking and unique psychedelic art style, often drawing comparisons to artists like Moebius and Métal hurlant. This visual style is consistently praised as a major highlight, creating a captivating and immersive experience.
- Innovative Metroidvania with unique mechanics (weight 0.69): The game is a unique and innovative take on the Metroidvania genre, with some roguelike elements. It emphasizes exploration, intricate map design, and a sense of discovery as players uncover the world's secrets.
- Unique and engaging gardening mechanic (weight 0.57): The gardening mechanic is a standout feature, allowing players to manipulate the environment, solve puzzles, and create new pathways. This system adds depth to the exploration and provides creative solutions for progression.
- Fluid combat with strategic depth (weight 0.14): The combat system is fluid and responsive, encouraging strategic thinking and varied attacks. While the difficulty is generally moderate, the game offers options for both challenging encounters and pacifist approaches.
- Compelling story and worldbuilding (weight 0.11): The game features a compelling story, well-developed characters, and intriguing lore that enhances the overall experience. The writing and atmosphere create a sense of immersion and draw players deeper into the game's world.
- Innovative and unique game systems (weight 0.07): The game incorporates innovative systems, such as a nutrition-based skill tree and unique attack incentives. These mechanics encourage experimentation and reward players for engaging with the game's systems in creative ways.

Common complaints:
- Unsatisfying, easy combat system (weight 0.95): Many reviewers found the combat system to be a weak point, citing issues such as clunky controls, lack of challenge, repetitive enemy behavior, and limited variety in attacks and enemy types. Some felt the upgrade tree was wasted because enemies weren't challenging enough to require advanced skills. The combat is often described as easy, trivial, and not a central focus of the game.
- Tedious, punishing loop mechanic (weight 0.79): The game's core loop mechanic, involving reincarnation or time loops, is widely criticized for resetting player progress, including skills, abilities, and items. This leads to repetitive backtracking, re-earning abilities, and a diminished sense of progression. Some reviewers found this mechanic tedious, frustrating, and ultimately discouraging.
- Clunky, unresponsive controls (weight 0.69): Several reviewers reported issues with the game's controls, describing them as unresponsive, clunky, and unrefined. Some specifically mentioned problems with keyboard controls, recommending a controller instead. This makes actions like jumping, attacking, and rolling feel awkward.
- Confusing, uninspired level design (weight 0.63): Reviewers frequently mention poor level design, confusing layouts, and a lack of clear direction, making exploration tedious and frustrating. Areas often look too similar, making it difficult to remember locations and navigate without constant reliance on the map. The game lacks sufficient guidance, leaving players unsure of where to go or what to do next.
- Poor visual clarity/eye strain (weight 0.55): The game's visuals, while initially appealing, suffer from excessive detail, unclear foreground/background distinction, and an overly vibrant color palette, leading to eye strain, difficulty in navigation, and an inability to focus on key elements. This makes it hard to distinguish interactive elements and enemies from the background. Some reviewers found the art style to be ugly and lacking understanding of color palettes.
- Excessive, tedious backtracking (weight 0.53): Many reviewers noted that the game requires a significant amount of backtracking, which, combined with the repetitive combat and level design, makes the game feel tiring and drawn out. This is exacerbated by the lack of a fast travel system in the early game. The backtracking is often described as needless and tedious.
- Game-breaking bugs (weight 0.3): Several reviewers reported encountering bugs, including issues that hindered progression and even corrupted save files. These bugs caused frustration and negatively impacted the overall gameplay experience. Some reviewers dropped the game due to these issues.
- Incomprehensible, cryptic narrative (weight 0.12): The game's narrative is frequently criticized for being confusing, cryptic, and difficult to understand. Reviewers found the story to be thin, filled with jargon, and lacking sufficient explanation of the storyline and objectives. This makes it difficult for players to connect with the game's world and characters.
- Punishing permadeath mechanic (weight 0.05): The game features permadeath, deleting the save file upon death. This, combined with the loss of upgrades and inventory, can lead to significant frustration and loss of progress.
- Mislabeled genre/philosophy (weight 0.05): Some reviewers felt that the game was mislabeled as a roguelike/roguelite or slasher platformer, as it is more focused on exploration, puzzle-solving, and intellectual challenges than combat. Additionally, some found the game's hippie/naturist philosophy to be off-putting.
- Flawed, irrelevant skill tree (weight 0.03): Some reviewers found the skill tree to be flawed, with useless skills and frustrating energy consumption mechanics. Some felt the skill tree was basically irrelevant and didn't need to exist.
- Floaty, imprecise jumping (weight 0.03): Some reviewers found the jumping mechanic to feel floaty or sticky, making platforming sections feel awkward and imprecise. This impacts the overall feel of movement and traversal within the game world.

Gameplay feedback:
- Gardening-based Metroidvania puzzle gameplay (weight 0.4): The game uniquely blends Metroidvania elements with gardening and puzzle mechanics. Players strategically plant and manipulate plants with unique abilities to solve environmental puzzles, unlock new areas, and progress through the game. This system emphasizes exploration, discovery, and non-violent interaction with the environment.
- Simplistic combat, puzzle-focused gameplay (weight 0.18): The game's combat is generally considered simplistic and easy, with a focus on methodical play and puzzle-solving rather than challenging encounters. While some depth is added through combo mechanics and varied attacks that influence loot quality, combat is often a secondary focus compared to exploration and environmental manipulation.
- Skills unlocked by consuming nutrients (weight 0.06): Players unlock skills through a unique system of consuming nutrients obtained from enemies and fruits. The quality and type of nutrients depend on the player's combat approach, encouraging varied and efficient combat. This system adds a strategic layer to both combat and character progression.
- Detailed, evolving world map (weight 0.06): The game features a detailed and interconnected map that encourages exploration and discovery. The world evolves as plants grow and animals create new fertile patches, changing the explorable environment. The map retains information about previously visited locations, and persistent changes can be made to the world.
- Story lacks depth (weight 0.04): The story complements the game's theme and graphics but lacks depth, featuring short and basic cutscenes without voice acting. Each zone has a unique gameplay gimmick, but some are poorly implemented and detract from the experience.
- Eliminate shamans to contain Ultros (weight 0.03): The main objective is to eliminate shamans to prevent the awakening of Ultros. Gameplay involves destroying capsules of 7 shamans to contain a god-like entity called Ultros, followed by re-infecting the capsules with "flower energy".
- Strategic ecological puzzle gameplay (weight 0.02): The Living Network requires planting seeds, fertilizing saplings, and feeding enemies to open up the whole map and find all the lore. The game transforms into an engaging ecological puzzle game when linking all shamans to the life network, involving strategic manipulation of nest exits, plant placement, and branch direction.
- Psychedelic sci-fi setting (weight 0.02): The game's sci-fi setting is unique, more like a psychedelic experience incorporating life, death, reincarnation, eating and being eaten, plants, animals, and ecological balance. The game subtly changes the way the player approaches it, with violence eventually becoming a last resort and peaceful endeavors taking precedence.
- Plants enable fast travel (weight 0.02): Unlocking mechanical doors and enabling fast travel require the use of plants. Teleports must be manually connected by running organic cables between them, often requiring specific seed placements to ensure the cable can reach, making fast travel a laborious process.
- Losing abilities is insignificant (weight 0.02): Losing abilities in each cycle means almost nothing, as you can recover and lock the most important ones, and there are no different builds to be created, making the process unnecessary.
- Plant species interact with obstacles (weight 0.02): Various types of plants can be sown, each behaving differently and interacting with obstacles in their own way. Mechanics include planting different plant species and interconnecting them to create a network of life.
- Abstract and alien items (weight 0.02): Late-game "alien gardening" wiring mechanics hint at creativity, involving some form of plant hybridization. The seeds you plant and items you get are very abstract and alien.
- Fast and precise movement (weight 0.02): Movement feels fast and precise in most cases. The game features a gradual acceleration on running.
- Map changes after reincarnation (weight 0.02): After reincarnation, experience (skills), weapons, and items are cleared, but the map undergoes changes such as becoming larger, NPC dialogue changes, and new story content is added. From the second reincarnation onward, a new item called "memory hyphae" is added, allowing players to lock or unlock any acquired skills, preventing them from being cleared upon reincarnation.

Performance notes:
- Generally solid technical performance (weight 0.06): The game's technical performance is generally solid, with many players reporting a lack of significant bugs or crashes. However, some players have encountered minor bugs that, while not game-breaking, can be annoying.
- Tedious loading times (weight 0.05): The game suffers from frequent and noticeable loading times, especially when transitioning between small rooms or map sections.  This negatively impacts the flow of exploration and can become tedious, particularly when backtracking.
- Poor performance on some PCs (weight 0.04): Some players have reported poor performance, including unstable frame rates and the need to disable post-processing effects to maintain playable performance.  Additionally, some players have encountered game-breaking bugs that require a reset.
- Runs well on Steam Deck (weight 0.01): The game runs well on the Steam Deck, indicating good optimization for that platform.
- Frame limiter activates late (weight 0.01): The frame limiter only activates once the player is in the game, which may cause issues in menus or other pre-gameplay sections.
- Infrequent game freezes (weight 0.01): Some players have experienced infrequent game freezes, such as during teleportation. The issues are not widespread, but can still disrupt gameplay.

Recommendations:
- Conditional Metroidvania recommendation (weight 0.54): Many reviewers offer a conditional recommendation, suggesting the game is worthwhile for fans of Metroidvanias, especially those seeking a unique or experimental experience. However, some caution that it may not appeal to those expecting a traditional Metroidvania with steady progression or challenging combat. Some reviewers suggest trying the demo or waiting for a sale.
- Strong art style, flawed gameplay (weight 0.52): The game's unique art style, atmosphere, and music are frequently praised as highlights, making it worth experiencing for some players. However, others find the gameplay, combat, and overall design to be flawed, tedious, and frustrating, detracting from the artistic merits. Some suggest that only patient players who appreciate the aesthetics will enjoy the game.
- Strongly positive, high scores (weight 0.28): Some reviewers express strong positive sentiment, giving the game high scores and praising its overall experience. However, these points lack specific details about what makes the game enjoyable, reducing their constructiveness. The high scores suggest a positive experience for some, but without specifics, it's difficult to understand why.
- Compared to other Metroidvanias (weight 0.08): The game is compared to other Metroidvania titles like Hollow Knight, Prince of Persia, and Castlevania, suggesting it shares elements with these games. However, some reviewers caution that it may not be a pure Metroidvania experience, especially for those prioritizing excellent gameplay in that genre. This highlights the game's potential appeal to fans of specific games and genres.
- Endgame tedium, initial hours better (weight 0.06): Several reviewers suggest that the initial hours of the game provide a different experience than the endgame. Some recommend playing through the first ending but advise against pursuing the true ending due to tedious tasks. This suggests a potential pacing or design issue that impacts the overall enjoyment of the game.
- Rewards patience and exploration (weight 0.03): The game rewards experimentation, exploration, and patience, with much of the beauty coming from slow discovery. This suggests that players who are willing to invest time and effort into understanding the game's mechanics and world will be more likely to enjoy it. Rushing or relying on guides may diminish the experience.
- Collecting, map completion enjoyable (weight 0.02): The game is recommended for players who enjoy collecting items and completing maps. However, blindly pursuing the platinum trophy, especially the 100% map completion and full memory collection achievements, is not recommended. This suggests that these completionist tasks may be tedious or not worth the effort.
- Recommended on sale (weight 0.02): Several reviewers recommend purchasing the game when it's on sale. This suggests that the game may not be worth the full price, but is still enjoyable at a discounted price. This could be due to the game's length, quality, or replayability.
- Support unique development (weight 0.02): One reviewer recommends buying the game to support the development of its unique ideas. This suggests that the game is innovative and worth supporting, even if it has flaws. However, this point is more about supporting the developers than providing specific feedback on the game itself.
- Divisive, not like Hollow Knight (weight 0.02): One reviewer feels the game is divisive because it's not like Hollow Knight, but more like Death Stranding. They recommend the game because the developers could create a sequel rivaling Hollow Knight if they learn from the execution flaws and expand upon the original ideas. This highlights the game's unique identity and potential for improvement.
- Try demo for visuals, controls (weight 0.01): One reviewer recommends trying the demo to see if the visuals and controls are suitable. This suggests that the visuals and controls may be polarizing or require personal preference. Trying the demo allows players to assess these aspects before purchasing the game.
- Appeals to specific art styles (weight 0.01): The game is recommended for those who enjoy art by Moebius, Kilian Eng, and James Jean. This suggests that the game's art style is similar to these artists and will appeal to fans of their work. This is a niche recommendation based on specific artistic preferences.

Other player notes:
- Unique psychedelic style and narrative (weight 0.13): The game features a unique, psychedelic art style and cryptic narrative set within a bizarre, organic spaceship environment. Players awaken with amnesia and must unravel the mysteries of their surroundings and the cosmic entities within, leading to an unusual and thought-provoking experience.
- Low completion/achievement rates (weight 0.03): A very low percentage of players have completed the game or even unlocked early achievements. This suggests a high level of difficulty, lack of player engagement, or potential issues with game progression, but could also be a sign of review bombing if the game is being deliberately marked down.
- Genre and progression are debated (weight 0.02): Reviewers are unsure of the game's genre, with some considering it a 'casual metroidvania'. This ambiguity contributes to the game's uniqueness but may also confuse players about its core mechanics and progression.
- Repetitive soundtrack (weight 0.01): The game's soundtrack is initially enjoyable but becomes repetitive after extended play. This suggests a need for more variety or dynamic elements in the music to maintain player interest throughout the game.
- Map completion requires guide (weight 0.01): One reviewer purchased a guide to help with 100% map completion, including locations of collectibles and basic connection strategies. This suggests that the game may have a large map with many collectibles that are difficult to find without assistance.
- No Russian language support (weight 0.01): The game lacks Russian language support. This is a specific piece of information that may be relevant to players who prefer or require Russian language options.

Emotions:
No emotions}