The Relic: First Guardian Review Summary

A solid game with challenging bosses and beautiful atmosphere, but blurry graphics, no settings, and a steep price hold it back.

Solid enjoyable experience: The game is frequently described as a solid, enjoyable, and well-made experience that delivers on its promise. Players express satisfaction and a lack of regret, showing general approval.

Runs smoothly overall: Many reports highlight smooth performance and stable frame rates, often noting that the game runs well even without graphical settings. This indicates strong technical polish.

Bosses challenging fun: Bosses and enemies are seen as challenging but fair, encouraging repeated attempts. The boss variety and stories add depth, making encounters motivating and rewarding.

Atmosphere and art praised: The atmosphere, art direction, and enemy designs are regarded as compelling, with a unique style that evokes classic Souls-like games. Visual presentation consistently receives praise.

Skills and upgrade system: Skills and upgrades are powerful and customizable from a menu, preventing overleveling. Weapons have satisfying impact, and progression feels meaningful.

Graphics are extremely blurry: Multiple reviews cite blurry, washed-out, PS3-era visuals with poor texture quality and a foggy appearance, often described as like a 20-year-old video or underwater.

Price is too high: Many players feel the $50 price is too high for the quality, labeling it a scam, insulting, or worth only $5-$30; some note it uses AI assets.

No graphics settings available: Users report minimal or no graphics settings, only options like DLSS on/off, no quality/performance presets, and no texture/shadow settings.

Game is unpolished: The game is severely undercooked, needs patching urgently, has bugs, long load times, artifacting, and feels like an Early Access release.

Controls are unresponsive: Controls are described as uncomfortable, unresponsive, sluggish, with key input swallowing and overall lack of responsiveness.

Parry mechanic present: Several players mention a parry mechanic in combat, which is a core feature of Souls-like games. It adds a layer of skill-based defense.

No enemy respawn: Multiple reviewers highlight that enemies do not respawn after resting at bonfires. This changes the classic Souls-like loop and reduces grinding opportunities.

Boss rush focus: The game features boss arenas and is described as a boss rush with tough but fair bosses. This suggests a focus on challenging encounters.

No graphics settings: Users note the absence of graphics settings, likely limiting customization for performance or visual preference.

Stamina for dodge only: Stamina is used for dodging and running but not for attacks, and sprinting does not consume stamina. This allows aggressive play without exhaustion.

Poor performance reported: Multiple players report poor performance, describing the game as 'running like trash' with FPS drops to 30-40 and poor optimization for PC. This suggests optimization issues for many systems.

Specific performance complaints: Specific performance problems include map lag, dark scene optimization needs, some performance issues, and defaults to ultra performance upscaling. These point to inconsistent optimization across scenes and settings.

Game runs well: Some players report smooth performance, achieving 120 FPS with DLSS and settings tweaks, while others experience no framedrops or crashes. This indicates the game runs well for certain hardware configurations.

Hardware-specific usability issues: Hardware-specific issues include inability to handle 1440p resolution, long loading times despite fast NVMe SSDs, and Alt+Tab crashes. These indicate platform-dependent problems affecting usability.

Do not buy at all: A vocal group of reviewers flatly tell others not to buy the game, calling it a waste of money even at deeply discounted prices like 10 euros. Some explicitly warn against buying in its current state.

Mixed but mostly avoid: A mix of sarcastic recommendations, warnings to avoid unless morbidly curious, flat denials, and one unqualified positive review. The overall sentiment is strongly negative, with one outlier recommending the game.

Buy and refund: Multiple reviewers advise requesting a refund or buying then immediately refunding the game. This indicates widespread buyer's remorse.

Not worth full price: Reviewers strongly advise against buying the game at the current $50 price point, suggesting a maximum value of $15. They recommend waiting for a significant sale before purchasing.

Avoid at full price: Multiple reviewers advise against buying at full price and recommend waiting for a sale or patches. They emphasize significant issues must be fixed first.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $30.00.

Souls-like Enthusiasts: Methodical, patient, learning from failure. Motivation: To complete a challenging souls-like experience. Stance: buy.

Technical Critics: Observant, comparitive, expects high technical standards. Motivation: To enjoy a polished, bug-free game. Stance: no buy.

Disappointed Souls Veterans: Experienced, analytical, compares to genre standards. Motivation: To find a true souls-like experience true to genre expectations. Stance: no buy.

Steam Deck: The game shows mixed user experiences on Steam Deck. While stability is praised by one user, others report poor control responsiveness and the need for manual graphics adjustments. Overall, it is playable but requires tinkering with settings.

Linux and Proton: The provided review does not mention Linux, Proton, SteamOS, Wine, or any Linux-specific compatibility issues. It only discusses generic graphics settings on a Windows system. Therefore, there is no evidence of Linux/Proton friction in the dataset.