Info about We Who Are About To Die:

Official game description:
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About the Game
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IMPORTANT: This game is _ACTUALLY_ different!
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**Get ready to re-learn how to fight. This game features a physics based combat system with directional attacks.** It'll take time to master! Don't worry, gladiators exist to be sacrificed. **You control your character fully**, at all times, based on complex inputs - you will never sit there while an animation plays.
**This game's combat will take practice:** at first you will find it hard to even hit anything properly. To win and master combat you will have to slow down and pay attention, pressing random buttons in a panic will only send your gladiator to an even earlier grave. You will learn how to move, how to use momentum to hit **HARD**, how to hit targeted weak spots and eventually, you will make up your own moves and fight in your own style.
An unforgiving Gladiator Roguelite experience.
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Take control of a gladiator with a **single life**, that you lead to an inevitable dea-- I mean, to victory and glory! Fight from the Pits to the Arena into the Stadium, pleasing larger and larger crowds until you finally become a legend of the Grand Stadium.
Each run is totally unique!
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There are many roads to becoming champion. Try different approaches and improvise through the randomisation to survive in the long run.
Strategise your way to victory - combat skills alone are not enough!
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Deal with random events, choose your next matches, please the rich patrons, please the crowds, expand your school, setup your training regime, bribe for information, hire professional help... and much more!
Fully modular equipment system!
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Progress and purchase/loot weapons and armor. Master 8 weapon classes that all play differently. Spend hard earned gold and influence and outfit your character piece-by-piece.
Welcome to Terantia: the city of games!
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Step into over a dozen arenas of different sizes and styles, each with random variations.
Fight in group battles or take on tense one-on-one duels that test your skills. How long can you last before your inevitable glorious death?
Other features include:
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*   Starting backstories with different traits and goals
*   Permanent bonuses for each backstory's victory
*   Dynamic audiences that respond to your actions. Don't just win: entertain!
*   A ranking system with rewards (levelling up)
*   Character skills that grow as you perform the relevant actions
*   And much, much more!
Now into the arena, Aspirant!
**To those who are about to die, I salute you!**
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Jordy

Release date: 14 Nov, 2022

Categories: Roguelike, Gladiator Simulation, Physics Simulation, Real-time Combat, First-Person Melee Combat, Management Simulation, Equipment Customization, Character Progression


- 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:
- Addictive & Deep Gameplay (weight 0.89): Players consistently praise the game's addictive nature, often leading to extended play sessions. The core gameplay is described as fun, engaging, and surprisingly deep, offering a high skill ceiling and rewarding mastery of its unique mechanics.
- Exceptional Indie Development (weight 0.81): The game is lauded as an outstanding indie title, often highlighted for its quality, depth, and continuous improvement, especially considering it's largely developed by a single person. Reviewers frequently commend the developer's passion, commitment, and responsiveness to community feedback through consistent updates.
- Unique & Rewarding Combat (weight 0.47): The physics-based combat system is a standout feature, described as unique, challenging, and incredibly satisfying once mastered. It offers deep tactical possibilities, rewarding patience, timing, and strategic movement, making each hit feel impactful and visceral.
- Authentic Gladiator Experience (weight 0.4): The game excels at delivering a brutal, immersive, and satisfying gladiator simulation. Players appreciate the unique blend of physics-based combat, strategic management, and roguelite elements that fulfill a long-standing desire for a modern gladiator game.
- High Replayability & Variety (weight 0.16): The roguelike elements, including randomized runs, diverse character traits, varied events, and extensive customization options for weapons and armor, ensure that each playthrough feels fresh and unique. This variety significantly contributes to the game's high replay value.
- Intense Permadeath & Progression (weight 0.15): The permadeath system in standard mode creates significant tension and investment in each character's survival, making victories more satisfying. This, combined with a rewarding progression system, encourages players to learn from each death and adapt their strategies.
- Immersive Atmosphere & Sound (weight 0.14): The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its immersive qualities, enhanced by realistic sound design, including crowd cheers and weapon clashes. The visual style, while sometimes described as cartoonish or janky, is generally considered aesthetically pleasing and effective in serving the brutal gladiator setting.

Common complaints:
- Technical Issues & Lack of Polish (weight 0.96): Players frequently encounter game-ending bugs, crashes, and performance issues, which are unacceptable for a game that has been in Early Access for an extended period. The overall lack of polish, including janky controls and visual glitches, detracts significantly from the experience.
- Unbalanced Difficulty & Progression (weight 0.86): The game suffers from an uneven difficulty curve, with early-game being too punishing and late-game becoming either too easy or frustratingly hard due to overpowered enemies. The lack of meaningful meta-progression and the punishing permadeath system make character loss feel unrewarding and demotivating.
- Clunky & Repetitive Combat System (weight 0.86): The core combat system is widely criticized for being janky, clunky, and repetitive. Players report inconsistent hitboxes, awkward physics, and a lack of depth that makes fights feel monotonous and frustrating, especially in later stages. This is a significant issue given combat is 95% of the game.
- Lack of Content & Replayability (weight 0.86): Despite being a roguelite, the game is criticized for its lack of content, leading to quick boredom and repetitiveness after only a few hours. The roguelite elements themselves are often seen as poorly implemented and do not provide sufficient motivation for continued play.
- Unresponsive Controls & Camera (weight 0.78): The game's controls, especially for combat and camera, are frequently described as janky, clunky, and imprecise. This makes it difficult to execute intended actions, particularly with throwing weapons and specific attack directions, leading to frustration and unfair deaths.
- Poor Weapon & Equipment Balance (weight 0.64): There is a significant imbalance among weapon types, with many feeling useless or underpowered, while others are overpowered. Legendary weapons often lack durability and can be less effective than lower-tier items, making progression feel unrewarding. The repair system also adds to the frustration.
- Frustrating Stamina System (weight 0.59): The stamina system is a major point of frustration, draining too quickly and recovering too slowly, forcing passive gameplay. Many players feel that enemy AI does not adhere to the same stamina rules, creating an unfair disadvantage and limiting combat options.
- Poor Hit Detection & Feedback (weight 0.54): Players report inconsistent hit detection, where attacks often miss or hit shields despite aiming for exposed body parts. The lack of clear visual and auditory feedback makes it difficult to understand if hits are landing, blocked, or absorbed, leading to a less satisfying combat experience.
- Unresponsive & Exploitable AI (weight 0.5): Enemy AI is inconsistent; sometimes they are damage sponges with instant attacks, and other times they can be easily exploited by simply walking away. This leads to either frustrating encounters or overly simplistic strategies, diminishing the challenge and engagement.
- High Price for Current State (weight 0.41): Many players feel the game is overpriced given its current state of polish, content, and numerous technical issues. They suggest it feels more like an experimental project or an extended demo rather than a full-priced title.

Gameplay feedback:
- Roguelite with Permadeath (weight 0.29): The game is a roguelite gladiator simulator with permanent character death. Each run starts with a new, randomly generated gladiator, and death means starting over. This system creates tension and encourages strategic decision-making, though some meta-progression elements carry over to ease subsequent runs.
- Physics-Based Combat System (weight 0.28): The game features a unique, physics-based combat system, often compared to Mount & Blade, Mordhau, and Chivalry. It emphasizes directional attacks, precise timing, and momentum, requiring skill to master rather than button mashing. While initially perceived as clunky or difficult, players find it rewarding once understood.
- Strategic Management Layer (weight 0.21): Beyond combat, players engage in a management layer, making strategic decisions about their gladiator's career. This includes managing finances (gold, fame), purchasing and repairing gear, training skills, choosing fight types, and cultivating relationships with sponsors. These choices are crucial for progression and survival.
- Steep Learning Curve & Difficulty (weight 0.14): The game is generally considered difficult and has a steep learning curve, especially due to its unique physics-based combat. Players often struggle initially but find the game becomes more manageable and enjoyable after investing time to master its mechanics and strategic elements. Difficulty modes are available to assist new players.
- Varied Character & Weapon Options (weight 0.13): Players start with randomly generated gladiators, each with unique backstories, traits, and goals, influencing playstyle and run objectives. There's a wide array of weapon types and armor, each with distinct mechanics and strategic implications, encouraging experimentation and adaptation.
- Gladiator Simulation Focus (weight 0.07): The game is primarily a gladiator simulator set in a pseudo-Roman arena. Players embody a gladiator, fighting until death or retirement, with the core gameplay revolving around arena combat and the brutal life of a fighter. The physics engine aims to enhance the realism of these engagements.
- Long-Term Progression & Mastery (weight 0.03): While challenging, players report that mastering the game's systems and combat can lead to long and successful runs. Reviewers indicate that completing all character backstories or reaching high difficulty levels requires significant time investment and skill development.

Performance notes:
- Generally good performance and optimization (weight 0.05): Many players report smooth gameplay, good frame rates (around 120 FPS), and quick loading times, even on mid-range hardware like a GTX 1650 and Steam Deck. Some even describe the game as 'perfectly coded' with no bugs or crashes.
- Minor visual and physics glitches (weight 0.02): Some players encountered minor bugs, such as corpses getting stuck or ragdolling erratically, and occasional funny ragdoll physics. These are generally considered acceptable and rare.
- Shadow settings impact FPS (weight 0.02): Players noted a significant drop in frame rate when increasing shadow quality from low to medium, indicating that shadow rendering is a performance-intensive setting.
- Steam Deck compatibility nuances (weight 0.02): While some report good performance on Steam Deck, others find it 'not very great' and suggest using specific Proton versions (e.g., Proton 4.2-9) to avoid freezes and ensure playability.
- High VRAM usage for an indie game (weight 0.01): One player noted that the game runs poorly on systems with only 1GB VRAM, which they consider unusual for an indie title, suggesting higher than expected memory requirements.
- Lowering settings prevents crashes (weight 0.01): One player found that reducing visual and blood settings helped prevent game crashes, indicating these settings might be linked to stability issues for some users.

Recommendations:
- Generally Recommended with Caveats (weight 0.45): The game receives a strong general recommendation from many players, often with high ratings. However, a significant portion suggests purchasing it on sale or trying the demo first, indicating some hesitation about the full price or current state.
- Combat System & Controller Issues (weight 0.08): Some players express significant dissatisfaction with the combat system, citing issues like directional swiping or micro-stutters, leading to refunds. There are also conflicting opinions and issues regarding controller support, with some recommending it while others report poor implementation.
- Early Access State & Future Potential (weight 0.06): The game is currently in Early Access, and while many see its potential and are excited for future updates (like sandbox mode or new quests), some recommend waiting for the full release or later versions (1.5/2.0) before buying, especially at full price.
- Try Demo Before Purchase (weight 0.03): Many players strongly advise trying the free demo to assess the unique combat system and overall gameplay. This is crucial for potential buyers to determine if the game suits their preferences, especially regarding its peculiar attack mechanics.

Other player notes:
- Future Content & Improvements Expected (weight 0.32): Players are eagerly anticipating new content, features, and general improvements, including more lore, characters, RPG elements, and optimization. Many are waiting for the full 1.0 release, hoping for a more polished and complete experience.
- Multiplayer Mode Highly Desired (weight 0.29): A strong and consistent request across reviews is the addition of multiplayer, including co-op, PvP, and local options. Players believe this feature would significantly enhance the game's fun and replayability, especially with friends.
- Solo Developer's Passion & Potential (weight 0.19): There's widespread acknowledgment and appreciation for the game being developed by a single, passionate individual. This context often tempers expectations for rapid updates but highlights the game's significant potential given its unique concept and solid foundation.
- Early Access & Bugs Expected (weight 0.06): Players generally understand that bugs are part of the early access experience and appreciate the developer's active presence in forums to address them. However, some bugs are significant enough to halt gameplay for individual players.
- Combat System Needs Rework (weight 0.04): The core combat system, while essential, is noted as requiring a significant learning curve and potentially another rework. Players need to adapt to different weapon mechanics, and some specific elements like throwing weapons are highlighted for improvement.
- Pricing Concerns (weight 0.04): Several players feel the current price is too high for the game's early access state, suggesting a lower price point or recommending waiting for a discount. This indicates a perceived mismatch between current content/polish and cost.
- Comparison to Other Games (weight 0.02): The game is frequently compared to 'Mount & Blade Arena' and 'Swords and Sandals,' suggesting players see it fitting into a similar niche but with unique physics-based action. This helps frame player expectations and potential directions.
- Roguelike/lite Genre Expectations (weight 0.02): Players familiar with the roguelike/lite genre expect immediate character changes and distinct playstyle development. There's a suggestion for the game to lean more into combat techniques within its roguelite system.
- Gameplay Fatigue & Difficulty (weight 0.02): Some players experienced fatigue after around 20 hours, and one noted a tough learning curve. There's a suggestion for a 'revive' option to mitigate the impact of character death, indicating a desire for more forgiving mechanics.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.26): Players feel satisfied by mastering the challenging, physics-based combat system, leading to memorable victories and a sense of accomplishment. The game's deep progression, character customization, and consistent post-launch support from the developers also contribute to a fulfilling gladiator simulation experience, offering significant replayability and value.
- Frustration (weight 0.13): Frustration stems from various technical issues, including game-ending bugs, crashes, and janky physics that lead to unfair deaths. Players also struggle with clunky controls, inconsistent hit detection, and unbalanced enemy encounters, particularly against shielded opponents, which can make progression feel punishing and unrewarding.
- Excitement (weight 0.12): Excitement is driven by the game's addictive and intense combat, unique roguelike elements, and the immersive gladiator fantasy it fulfills. Players are also excited by the game's potential for future development, including new features, content updates, and the prospect of multiplayer, which promises a gigantic lifespan and continued engagement.
- Disappointment (weight 0.1): Disappointment arises from the game's perceived lack of depth, particularly in meta-progression and content variety, leading to repetitive gameplay. Players are also let down by technical issues like bugs, poor optimization, and clunky combat, which detract from the cool concept and unfulfilled potential, sometimes making the game feel unfinished or worse after updates.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.08): Players enjoy the game's fun and addictive gameplay loop, especially its unique and challenging combat system, which offers satisfying physics and engaging progression. The overall gladiator simulation, combined with varied match modifiers and the ability to play on Steam Deck, provides an entertaining and time-consuming experience.
- Hope (weight 0.04): Hope is centered on the game's future potential, with players eagerly anticipating more content, features like multiplayer and sandbox mode, and continued improvements from the developers. There's a strong desire to see the game reach its full 1.0 release, addressing current issues and expanding on its promising foundation.
- Joy (weight 0.04): Joy comes from the sheer fun and entertainment derived from playing the game, often enhanced by its janky physics and unique roleplaying opportunities. Players experience joy from winning battles, the ease of returning to the game, and the overall intense and engaging gladiator experience it provides.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Players appreciate the game's innovative design and the dedication of its active and responsive solo developer. The continuous updates, consistent content additions, and the developer's clear care for the community and product are highly valued, contributing to the game's ongoing quality and success in early access.
- Admiration (weight 0.02): Admiration is primarily directed towards the solo developer for their exceptional dedication, vision, and the impressive achievement of creating such a high-quality game. Players are inspired by the consistent updates and the overall masterpiece that has emerged from a small team or single person's passionate effort.
- Anticipation (weight 0.02): Anticipation is driven by the expectation of future updates, new content, and the eventual full release of the game, including desired features like sandbox mode, multiplayer, and improved character creation. Players look forward to the game's continued improvement and its potential to become a truly great gem.
- Challenge (weight 0.02): The game's challenge stems from its steep learning curve and difficult, strategic combat, which often leads to frequent deaths. Players find the game hard to beat, especially in 1vMany scenarios and against elites, requiring skill and thought to survive and master the physics-based attack system.
- Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement is found in the game's minor glitches, chaotic outcomes, and exaggerated physics, which often lead to humorous and unexpected gameplay moments. Players also enjoy the unique and challenging audience interactions and the ability to perform silly yet satisfying actions like dismembering opponents with unconventional weapons.
- Desire (weight 0.01): Players express a desire for more features, including additional save slots, more meaningful progression, and more challenging AI. There's also a strong wish for new content such as more weapon types, backgrounds, and the implementation of missing features like achievements and multiplayer.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is caused by critical bugs, fatal errors, and game crashes that lead to unfair deaths and significant loss of progress. Players also express anger over perceived 'shitty design' choices, frustrating combat, and developer decisions that make the game feel unplayable or mock the player upon death.
- Addiction (weight 0.01): Addiction is driven by the game's highly engaging gameplay loop, which makes it hard for players to stop playing and leads to losing track of time. The 'one more turn' or 'just one more run' nature of the roguelike mechanics, combined with the engaging physics and strategy, creates a strong craving to play again.
- Engagement (weight 0.01): Engagement is fostered by the game's addictive nature, deep strategic elements, and the permadeath system, which encourages players to become attached to their gladiators and invest many hours. The captivating 'try and die' loop, combined with challenging gameplay, keeps players hooked and continuously exploring the game's mechanics.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arises from inconsistent combat mechanics, such as attacks not landing or coming off strangely, and a lack of clarity regarding the game's physics. Players are also confused by the discrepancy between very positive reviews and their own experience, as well as unclear UI, narrative logic, and achievement requirements.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Nostalgia is triggered by the game's resemblance to classic gladiator games like 'Swords and Sandals' and 'Mount and Blade', fulfilling a childhood dream for many players. The game evokes past memories and a long-held desire for a specific type of arena combat experience.
- Boredom (weight 0): Boredom sets in due to the game's repetitiveness after a certain amount of playtime, stemming from a lack of content variety and repetitive combat encounters. Players find the gameplay loop becomes uninteresting and stops being fun without new challenges or features, especially in the absence of multiplayer.
- Annoyance (weight 0): Annoyance is caused by minor glitches, visual bugs, and UI issues, particularly when changing gear. Players also find the combat and roguelite loop to be a bit janky, and are annoyed by issues like weapons breaking quickly after significant investment or the time spent rerolling for desired character traits.}