I really love this game!
Art and designs are some of my favorites from lately, music is incredible, the characters are likeable and interesting. I really, really enjoyed my time in the world of NSR.
Sadly, this game REALLY falls off in the gameplay department. It has neat ideas and it has all the pieces to make a good action game, but doesn't manage to make anything work. Combat feels pretty stiff, parrying can sometimes feel unresponsive (or sometimes telegraph but just not execute), the normal enemies are awful.
Having the rhythm play a part in the combat is a neat idea, but doesn't really work since all the chaos just feels like sensory overload. Stickers don't really feel like they have an impact. A lot of mods feel useless and don't really do anything interesting.
Bosses, one of the highlights of the game, also have a ton of problems. While they are mostly good at the start, the execution starts to nosedive after the third boss. The ideas are definitely there, but it fails to make a functional boss fight. I just wish the Approach sections (which are very obtuse and uninteresting) were scrapped to enhance the bosses.
Another big problem I have is that there is a very clear lack of testing. Co-op has a ton of bugs and the camera is AWFUL!!! Tons of things in the game were very clearly no though out for the co-op mode.
No Straight Roads is a really entertaining game with a lot of heart behind it. Every little thing about it shows how much the dev team loved the project. I just wish I could give it a 4.5, but the unpolished gameplay is something that I can't just turn a blind eye to.
Still, for a first game, this is REALLY good. I'm really looking forward to more games from this team. This was a really enjoyable experience, one of the most charming games I've played!
Art and designs are some of my favorites from lately, music is incredible, the characters are likeable and interesting. I really, really enjoyed my time in the world of NSR.
Sadly, this game REALLY falls off in the gameplay department. It has neat ideas and it has all the pieces to make a good action game, but doesn't manage to make anything work. Combat feels pretty stiff, parrying can sometimes feel unresponsive (or sometimes telegraph but just not execute), the normal enemies are awful.
Having the rhythm play a part in the combat is a neat idea, but doesn't really work since all the chaos just feels like sensory overload. Stickers don't really feel like they have an impact. A lot of mods feel useless and don't really do anything interesting.
Bosses, one of the highlights of the game, also have a ton of problems. While they are mostly good at the start, the execution starts to nosedive after the third boss. The ideas are definitely there, but it fails to make a functional boss fight. I just wish the Approach sections (which are very obtuse and uninteresting) were scrapped to enhance the bosses.
Another big problem I have is that there is a very clear lack of testing. Co-op has a ton of bugs and the camera is AWFUL!!! Tons of things in the game were very clearly no though out for the co-op mode.
No Straight Roads is a really entertaining game with a lot of heart behind it. Every little thing about it shows how much the dev team loved the project. I just wish I could give it a 4.5, but the unpolished gameplay is something that I can't just turn a blind eye to.
Still, for a first game, this is REALLY good. I'm really looking forward to more games from this team. This was a really enjoyable experience, one of the most charming games I've played!