Info about Monomyth:

Official game description:
_As the sun sets on the empires of mankind and civilization crumbles under great storms ravaging the world's surface, the people of Ariath retreat to the underground.  
Amidst the chaos of this dying world your father, King Ferodin the Third sent an expedition to the fallen fortress city of Lysandria.  
It is said, that within the ruins of the fortress lies the primeval seed - a divine gift that may calm the gods' anger and put an end to the roaring thunder in the sky.  
Spearheaded by your own brother, the expedition hoped to retrieve the sacred object but was never heard of again.  
Against your father's wish, you decide to travel to Lysandria yourself.  
Find your brother and retrieve the divine gift, but beware: The ancient fortress is not as deserted as it seems..._  
MONOMYTH features a vast, interconnected game environment. Wander from the highest towers to the lowest caverns, find secret chambers, uncover hidden passageways and explore a multitude of differently themed areas.  
Explore a highly interactive underworld, filled with items, puzzles, monsters and a variety of peaceful inhabitants. Talk to characters using a detailed keyword-based dialogue system and combine items to interact with your surroundings. Trade, pick locks, break doors or throw objects! You can even bake bread!  
Swing your sword, cast spells, dodge, parry, and block. In MONOMYTH you move freely through the world, using a rich arsenal of deadly weapons and powerful magic.  
In MONOMYTH you are free to develop a unique character build. Invest into six different character attributes and thirteen skills, unlocking dozens of different playstyles. Will you be a nimble assassin, a fearsome battlemage, or maybe something completely different? The choice is all yours!  
Set in an apocalyptic fantasy world, MONOMYTH combines magic and technology into a new, unique setting. Open the gates to a dark, mysterious realm, beset by horrifying monstrosities and discover the secrets of the fortress city of Lysandria.

Release date: 3 Oct, 2024

Categories: Dungeon Crawler, Exploration, RPG, Real-time Combat, Puzzle Solving, Resource Management, Crafting, Immersive Sim


- 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:
- Immersive, nostalgic, and promising experience (weight 0.93): The game world is immersive, with a strong atmosphere, good graphics and sound design, and engaging gameplay. It successfully captures an old-school feel while incorporating modern elements, making it enjoyable for both nostalgic players and newcomers. Many reviewers highlight the game's potential and solid foundation, especially considering its Early Access status and single-developer origins.
- Intricate level design rewards exploration (weight 0.77): The game features intricate and rewarding level design that encourages exploration and discovery. The interconnected world, reminiscent of classic dungeon crawlers, offers verticality, hidden paths, and a sense of freedom. Players are rewarded for experimentation and problem-solving, with the game avoiding excessive hand-holding.
- Captures classic dungeon crawler essence (weight 0.71): The game successfully evokes the spirit of classic dungeon crawlers like Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis, blending old-school mechanics with modern sensibilities. Reviewers frequently mention the game's immersive sim elements, challenging gameplay, and the sense of nostalgia it provides. The game is often described as a love letter to the genre.
- Rewards player ingenuity (weight 0.18): The game avoids excessive hand-holding, allowing for player discovery and problem-solving. The game respects logic, allowing players to use environmental elements to their advantage. Overcoming obstacles and using physics to reach new areas provides satisfying dopamine hits.
- Unique and enjoyable magic system (weight 0.15): The game features a unique and enjoyable magic system that enhances the overall gameplay experience. Reviewers praise its complexity, balance, and immersive qualities. Playing as a mage feels authentic and rewarding, with spells effectively replacing traditional tools and weapons.
- Multiple solutions, player choice (weight 0.15): The game offers multiple options for approaching combat, exploration, and quest completion, allowing for player choice and experimentation. NPCs offer quests with multiple solutions, and players can use creative problem-solving to overcome obstacles. This open-ended approach enhances replayability and player agency.
- Dedicated developer, respects players (weight 0.15): Reviewers appreciate the developer's dedication and responsiveness to feedback, especially considering the game is primarily developed by a single person. The game's quality often exceeds expectations for a solo project, and the developer's commitment to the project is evident. This fosters trust and encourages players to support the game's development.
- Engaging and well-designed puzzles (weight 0.1): The game features puzzles that are generally well-designed and engaging. Reviewers appreciate the balance between challenge and accessibility, with puzzles that are intuitive yet require thought and problem-solving. Uncovering secrets and solving puzzles is a satisfying experience.
- Manual weapon repair system (weight 0.06): The game features a manual weapon repair system, requiring players to use forges and anvils to maintain their equipment. This adds a layer of immersion and resource management to the gameplay experience. Weapon durability and repair are important aspects of the game.
- Reviewer enjoys the game (weight 0.05): This cluster primarily expresses general enjoyment and positive feelings towards the game. While positive, it lacks specific details or constructive feedback, reducing its overall importance. The points are based on subjective experiences without providing concrete examples.

Common complaints:
- Clunky, unsatisfying combat experience (weight 0.66): Many reviewers found the combat clunky, unpolished, and unsatisfying due to stiff animations, poor enemy AI, and a lack of impactful feedback. Melee attacks often miss, enemies are damage sponges, and the overall combat system feels outdated compared to modern standards. Some reviewers also noted the difficulty and lack of variety in combat encounters.
- Poor navigation, lack of direction (weight 0.61): Players frequently get lost due to confusing map design, lack of clear direction, and absence of fast travel. The game lacks a player-created map or visual markers, forcing reliance on memory and leading to frustrating backtracking. This makes navigation a chore and detracts from the overall experience.
- Poorly explained game mechanics (weight 0.46): The game lacks clear instructions and explanations for its mechanics, including the magic system, skills, and stats. This lack of guidance can be frustrating for players, as they are left to figure things out independently through trial and error. The magic system, in particular, is criticized for being complex, tedious, and poorly explained.
- Incomplete, short early access content (weight 0.45): The game is currently incomplete due to its early access status, with some features still in development and the story abruptly ending. Some reviewers felt saddened by the end of the early access, indicating a desire for more content. The game is too short, ending just as the player becomes invested and understands the mechanics.
- Empty, unrewarding world (weight 0.41): Reviewers noted that many areas feel empty and underdeveloped, with limited loot, repetitive environments, and a lack of engaging content. Chests often contain underwhelming or useless items, making exploration feel unrewarding. This contributes to a sense of emptiness and a lack of depth in the game world.
- Noticeable bugs and glitches (weight 0.38): Several reviewers reported encountering bugs, including issues with swimming, double jumping, and getting stuck in spellcasting mode. While some bugs are minor, they contribute to a lack of polish and can disrupt the gameplay experience. The game's early access status may contribute to the presence of these issues.
- Low weapon durability, repair issues (weight 0.37): Weapon durability is low, causing them to break quickly, especially against armored enemies. There is no way to repair clothing items, only metal equipment can be repaired. Players are often forced to use weak weapons or backtrack to repair gear.
- Poor inventory management system (weight 0.36): Reviewers expressed frustration with the lack of quality-of-life features, particularly regarding inventory management. The game lacks auto-sorting and other features that would make inventory management less cumbersome and time-consuming. This contributes to a clunky and frustrating user experience.
- Unclear stats, limited build options (weight 0.32): Stats can be unclear, requiring trial and error to understand builds. Skill and equipment combinations lack variety, limiting customization and strategy. Lack of respec options discourages build experimentation.
- Repetitive, intense combat music (weight 0.04): The combat music can be too intense, especially when the player is waiting for mana to regenerate. The music feels like a generic, repetitive background track. The combat can feel a little slow at times, lacking polish.
- Not suitable for children (weight 0.04): The game is not designed for children, implying a level of difficulty or complexity that may not appeal to younger audiences. The game does not allow the player to choose a gender for the character. The game is very hard and not suitable for kids.

Gameplay feedback:
- Old-school RPG dungeon crawler (weight 0.22): The game emphasizes old-school RPG elements like methodical exploration, manual note-taking, and challenging navigation through maze-like corridors without a minimap. Players must rely on memory, visual cues, and backtracking to solve puzzles and progress, contributing to a sense of danger and discovery.
- Combines mechanics from classic games (weight 0.22): The game blends elements from various classic titles like Dark Souls, System Shock, Thief, King's Field, Arx Fatalis, Skyrim, EverQuest and Oblivion, creating a unique experience. It combines exploration, crafting, combat, puzzle-solving, and stealth within a dark dungeon setting, encouraging experimentation with different playstyles.
- Unique rune-based spellcasting system (weight 0.09): The magic system, inspired by Arx Fatalis and Dungeons and Dragons, involves discovering and combining runes to create spells. It encourages experimentation and offers a unique spellcasting experience, with spells evolving as the corresponding magic skill increases.
- Interactive physics and crafting (weight 0.06): The game incorporates physics and dark/light effects, allowing players to interact with the environment in meaningful ways. Players can stack boxes, bake pies, brew potions, and hand-craft spells and spell books, adding depth to the gameplay experience.
- Cheesable enemy AI (weight 0.03): The game allows players to lure enemies one by one, and those further away may lose interest in pursuing the player. Also, enemies can be cheesed by running around them and hitting them while they constantly try to turn around.

Performance notes:
- Generally smooth, optimized performance (weight 0.18): Many players report the game generally runs smoothly and is well-optimized, even on the Steam Deck and with mid-range GPUs like the RTX 3070. Some users share specific settings for optimal performance. However, others note that lighting settings impact performance and require adjustment.
- Settings reset after loading (weight 0.02): The game resets mouse sensitivity and FOV settings after exiting a loading screen. This is an annoyance that requires players to readjust their settings frequently.
- Noisy surface audio is jarring (weight 0.02): The volume of sound effects when traversing noisy surfaces is too loud compared to the ambient sound. This creates a jarring audio experience for the player.
- Close weapon viewmodels (weight 0.02): The weapon viewmodels are positioned too close to the player's perspective. While the FOV slider helps mitigate this, the default positioning is still a minor issue.
- Air jump spam consumes stamina (weight 0.02): Players can repeatedly jump in the air, which consumes stamina. This could be unintended behavior or an exploitable mechanic.
- Audio pauses on window unfocus (weight 0.02): The game's audio pauses when the game window loses focus. This can be disruptive for players who multitask or switch between applications.
- Accidental secret room discovery (weight 0.01): A secret room was unintentionally revealed due to an open gate. This suggests potential issues with level design or trigger implementation.

Recommendations:
- Strongly positive overall impressions (weight 0.94): Many reviewers express strong positive sentiment, recommending the game and highlighting its potential, solid base, and overall quality, especially for fans of the dungeon crawler genre. They are eager for future updates and the full release, anticipating a great final product. Some reviewers are giving the game the benefit of the doubt due to its potential and the engaging early access experience.
- Support the solo developer (weight 0.52): Many reviewers recommend purchasing the game to support the solo developer, praising their passion and dedication. They consider the game a worthwhile purchase, especially given it was made by a single person. Some reviewers are giving the game the benefit of the doubt due to its potential and the engaging early access experience.
- Evokes classic RPGs/immersive sims (weight 0.4): Reviewers frequently compare the game favorably to classic titles like Arx Fatalis, King's Field, Thief, Ultima Underworld, and early Elder Scrolls games, emphasizing its immersive sim elements and old-school RPG feel. Some suggest focusing on Dark Messiah-like elements to enhance appeal. However, one reviewer notes it doesn't feel like Elder Scrolls.
- Good value for the price (weight 0.39): Several reviewers feel the game is a good value for its price, especially considering the amount of content available in early access. Some reviewers consider the purchase to be money well spent.
- Not unique, overly punishing (weight 0.04): One reviewer suggests that only hardcore fans of Ultima Underworld who enjoy enduring pain should try the game. The reviewer suggests that the game doesn't offer anything unique compared to other dungeon crawlers like Lunacid and Dread Delusion, which have better exploration, combat, and atmosphere.
- Hyperbolic praise (weight 0.02): These points are hyperbolic and lack specific details, reducing their importance. They consist primarily of cultural references and emotional language without specific details.
- Play without spoilers (weight 0.01): One reviewer highly recommends going in fresh with no spoilers.
- Easy with AI abuse/save-scumming (weight 0.01): One reviewer notes that the game is easy if you abuse enemy AI and save scumming.

Other player notes:
- Unreal Engine, modding potential (weight 0.04): The game runs on Unreal Engine, which allows for potential modding and the use of UEVR mods. This opens up possibilities for community-created content and enhanced VR experiences.
- Experimentation and thorough investigation (weight 0.03): Crafting, forging, and cooking require experimentation, and thorough investigation is necessary to avoid missing content. This encourages exploration but may also lead to frustration.
- Lacks ambient soundtrack (weight 0.03): The soundscape is adequate with realistic sounds, but the lack of ambient music makes the world feel empty. Adding ambient music could improve immersion.
- Detailed, gritty graphics (weight 0.02): The game features detailed graphics comparable to Exanima, with a gritty and lived-in aesthetic. This visual style contributes to the game's atmosphere.
- Interactive NPCs, branching dialogue (weight 0.02): The game features interactive NPCs with branching dialogue choices, allowing players to gather information. This enhances the RPG elements and player agency.
- UI requires constant attention (weight 0.02): The UI contains a lot of information that requires attention, such as easily burning through wooden torches without noticing. This could be improved by making key information more prominent or providing better feedback to the player.
- Inaccessible save file location (weight 0.01): The save file location is not easily accessible, making it difficult to transfer saves between PCs. This is a minor inconvenience for players who want to back up or move their save files.
- Prison escape, lengthy tutorial (weight 0.01): The game starts with the player escaping from prison, which leads into a lengthy tutorial. This provides context for the story and introduces the player to the game's mechanics.

Emotions:
No emotions}