- Satisfying and skillful gunplay is a highlight.
- Immersive dark fantasy atmosphere.
- Challenging but rewarding gameplay experience.
- Dedicated developers provide updates.
- Excessive and unfair difficulty is present.
- Unclear mechanics and poor enemy design.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 90% · Negative 10%. Score: 10 / 100
Positives:
- The game features satisfying and impactful gunplay with unique, balanced weapons that encourage diverse playstyles. Enemies are smart and fun to fight, and the game rewards skill and punishes mistakes. The blend of shooting, weaving, and casting spells creates a dynamic and engaging combat experience.
- The game features a well-realized dark fantasy setting with detailed environments, immersive atmosphere, and excellent sound design. The world feels alive and encourages exploration, creating a captivating experience for players.
- The game effectively blends elements from multiple genres, including Soulslike, roguelike, extraction shooter, and FPS, creating a unique and engaging experience. The combination of weapons, spells, and upgrades allows for interesting character builds and varied gameplay.
- The game doesn't hold the player's hand, requiring them to learn through trial and error, and rewards planning and adapting to changing situations. The game is challenging but not too hard, and encourages exploration, activity completion, and creative problem-solving.
- The game features a rewarding progression system where leveling up focuses on upgrading health and abilities rather than direct damage increases. Weapon upgrades unlock new abilities, and the game encourages experimentation and mastery, transforming the player from a novice to a powerful character.
Negatives:
- The game's difficulty is a major point of contention. Many reviewers find the game brutally difficult and punishing, citing issues like stamina depletion on hit, overwhelming enemy numbers, and a lack of clear explanations for mechanics. Some suggest the difficulty feels artificial, relying on bullet-sponge enemies and unfair mechanics rather than skillful challenges.
- The game suffers from a lack of clear explanations for its mechanics and systems. Reviewers report confusion regarding leveling, elemental effects, and the Calamity system, often needing to consult external resources. This lack of guidance contributes to initial frustration and a steep learning curve.
- Enemy design and encounters are frequently criticized. Enemies are often described as bullet sponges with unfair spawning patterns, and their attacks can be overwhelming due to tracking and status effects. The game's difficulty scaling often involves simply increasing enemy health and numbers, leading to repetitive and frustrating combat.
- Many reviewers express disappointment with the lack of co-op multiplayer. The game's design often feels suited for cooperative play, and its absence is seen as a missed opportunity to enhance replayability and enjoyment. The developers have stated that there are no plans for co-op.
- The game's progression system is often described as grindy and unrewarding. Leveling up and upgrading weapons require excessive farming, and the benefits gained often feel minimal. This makes the game feel artificially lengthened and diminishes the sense of player progression.
Gameplay:
- The game blends elements from various genres like roguelikes, extraction shooters, and soulslikes, creating a unique experience. It combines fast-paced FPS combat with RPG progression and challenging gameplay, drawing comparisons to games like Doom, Destiny, and Dark Souls. The core loop involves entering maps, fighting enemies, collecting resources, and extracting to upgrade gear and skills.
- Maps are procedurally generated or have randomized elements like enemy and item placement, encouraging exploration and adaptation. The game rewards players who explore, solve puzzles, and uncover secrets, with new areas and mechanics unlocking as the player progresses.
- The Gnosis system allows players to control the game's difficulty, unlocking new content, enemies, and challenges as they progress. Increasing the Gnosis level introduces new elements to familiar maps, encouraging revisits and providing a sense of progression.
- Upon death, players lose resources but can retrieve them by returning to their death location, adding a risk-reward element to exploration. This mechanic is similar to the soulslike genre, where players must recover their lost souls.
- The game features a stamina system that affects movement, with actions like sprinting and jumping consuming stamina. Players have access to movement options like double jumps, dashes, and slides, which are essential for dodging enemy attacks and traversing the environment.
Performance:
- The game generally exhibits good performance, with many players reporting smooth gameplay and high frame rates on various hardware configurations. Some players have reported experiencing occasional frame drops, stutters, or crashes, especially during intense combat or in specific areas of the game. The game is also reported to run well on Steam Deck.
- The game features visually appealing graphics, although some reviewers find the visuals dated due to the use of Unreal Engine 4. The game has a limited color palette, dominated by grey-brown tones and mist, which some players find dark, gritty, and creepy.
- The game's performance on Steam Deck varies, with some players reporting locked 45 FPS even in demanding scenes, while others experience frame rate drops in the hubworld after updates. Some players have reported issues with screen resolution on Steam Deck after an update.
- The game includes an 'unstuck' option in the pause menu that allows players to escape environmental glitches. This feature has been reported to be effective in resolving issues where players get stuck in the environment.
- Specific in-game actions, such as going underground or using the lightning ball with fire stake, can cause significant FPS drops, indicating potential optimization issues with these elements.
Recommendations:
- Many reviewers express excitement for future content, updates, and the full release of the game. They are eager to see how the game evolves and what new features and content will be added. This suggests a strong interest in the game's potential and a desire for continued development.
- Many reviewers express strong positive sentiments towards the game, calling it fantastic, amazing, a hidden gem, and even a potential game of the year. They highly recommend it, praising its quality and potential. Some reviewers rated the game with a perfect score.
- The game's value proposition is viewed differently by reviewers. Some believe it's worth the full price, especially in Early Access, while others recommend waiting for a sale or find the current price too high for the content offered. This indicates a split in opinion regarding the game's cost-effectiveness.
- The game is recommended for fans of specific genres, including roguelikes, FPS, dark fantasy, and extraction shooters. Reviewers suggest that players who enjoy these types of games will likely find the game appealing and rewarding.
- The game is recommended for its engaging and addictive gameplay loop, which keeps players hooked and coming back for more. Reviewers highlight the satisfying nature of the game, making it enjoyable for both short and long play sessions.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is in Early Access with a roadmap for future content, including new maps and features. Currently, the game has a limited number of maps available, with more planned for the full release. Many reviewers are looking forward to future updates and content additions.
- The game is developed by a small, dedicated indie team, which is impressive considering the game's polish and content. The developers are passionate about the project and responsive to community feedback. This is especially notable given the scope and ambition of the game.
- The game features a dark fantasy setting with a moderate level of lore, presented through item descriptions and environmental details. The player takes on the role of a witch hunter in a world filled with mythical creatures. While the lore is interesting, some reviewers desire more story content.
- Some reviewers feel the game lacks engaging music during combat and in key locations. They suggest more blood and gore, and a passive skill tree to enhance character progression. Some reviewers also relied on external guides to understand the game.
- The game blends elements from various genres and games, including Souls-like, roguelike, FPS, and extraction shooters. This combination makes the game's genre difficult to define. Some reviewers compare it to games like DOOM, Dark Souls, Tarkov, and Destiny.
