What an incredible journey this game is. Your Ex is the Lord of the Vampires, and she is about to destroy the world. You go on a pill infused journey to stop her.
The storytelling and soundtrack especially are world class. There were so many times I couldn't put the game down, as I felt a strong need to see what happened next. You learn about how you were with Draculae, how you'd speak to each other, past dramas, your inner struggles as you are faced with a decaying body, and wanting to go back to a simpler time, while still feeling the need to keep going to stop the world from ending. It's enthralling. The cutscenes are shot perfectly, the voice acting feels very real, and the soundtrack lifts the entire experience to the next lvl. Despite the game's indie budget, it feels incredibly AAA (in a good way) in these departments.
The gameplay itself has you running around, shooting monsters. You have a full arsenal of guns, a dodge-roll, and a slow motion mechanic (that I forgot to use throughout the entire game, oops). You can also dive, which I also forgot to use. Oops.
Despite the simple premise, the game is quite satisfying to play. The enemies are placed in ways that make you really have to think about who you want to prioritize. Shooting werewolves in front isn't going to be of much use when you re being sniped by energy-balls from the back.
That said, what is holding this game back from being a full 5/5 stars, is its pacing in the gameplay lvls. While the story pacing is great, you can often feel like the game drags on. The game spends a very long time between introducing new enemies, so you are stuck fighting just a basic enemy that runs towards you for a good hour or so. Then they'll introduce one more enemy, and it once again takes forever before you see anything new. After everything has been introduced, the same issue persists, it takes too long before something special happens. That's not to say the gameplay isn't fun, I think more the issue is that the devs did not have enough resources to make everything they wanted to.
A side-complaint I also wanted to mention is that for most of the game it is simply too easy. Out of all the levels, I think I only died on 3 of them, one of which being the first boss, and one of my deaths was because I got stuck in the geometry and was unable to move. While not a huge issue, I would have loved to see a difficulty mode where they don't necessarily boost any numbers, but make resources and ammo a bit more scarce, forcing you to use your whole arsenal while not having instant access to healing, and without the slow-motion bar. While I played the entire game without using the slow-motion, if I were to use it it would completely invalidate any challenge in this game if I were to use it.
Usually when a game offers a slow-motion mechanic, the enemies and world design is balanced around it. For example, the enemies that charge energy-balls are very easy to locate and take out, even with full-speed gameplay, before they ever get to shoot. They could have made it a lot more interesting if the player was forced to use the slow-motion to deal with situations like these.
It feels like there should have been more enemy types, it feels like there should have been at least one more environment to explore, and it feels like there should have been more secrets. Because of what I can only assume is budget constraints, they had to do the best with what they had. They wanted the story to have this length, and they wanted you to have this amount of time between the hard hitting story beats, so instead of making something new, they remixed what they had. While not a big issue, it can sometimes feel like the game drags on a little too long before new things are introduced. It does get repetitive.
Personally, with this many levels in the game, there should have been more enemy variety. Once you overcome the challenge of one enemy, and how they are combined with other enemies, throwing more of the same at the player is ultimately pointless. They should either have added more variety, or cut down on the repetitiveness.
That said, the game is full of awesome moments, unique setpieces during the lvls, and the main character's monologues never get old. In the end, "I wanted more game" is probably not the worst critique a dev can get.
I really hope this game does well so they can make a sequel. I need to know what happens next.
The storytelling and soundtrack especially are world class. There were so many times I couldn't put the game down, as I felt a strong need to see what happened next. You learn about how you were with Draculae, how you'd speak to each other, past dramas, your inner struggles as you are faced with a decaying body, and wanting to go back to a simpler time, while still feeling the need to keep going to stop the world from ending. It's enthralling. The cutscenes are shot perfectly, the voice acting feels very real, and the soundtrack lifts the entire experience to the next lvl. Despite the game's indie budget, it feels incredibly AAA (in a good way) in these departments.
The gameplay itself has you running around, shooting monsters. You have a full arsenal of guns, a dodge-roll, and a slow motion mechanic (that I forgot to use throughout the entire game, oops). You can also dive, which I also forgot to use. Oops.
Despite the simple premise, the game is quite satisfying to play. The enemies are placed in ways that make you really have to think about who you want to prioritize. Shooting werewolves in front isn't going to be of much use when you re being sniped by energy-balls from the back.
That said, what is holding this game back from being a full 5/5 stars, is its pacing in the gameplay lvls. While the story pacing is great, you can often feel like the game drags on. The game spends a very long time between introducing new enemies, so you are stuck fighting just a basic enemy that runs towards you for a good hour or so. Then they'll introduce one more enemy, and it once again takes forever before you see anything new. After everything has been introduced, the same issue persists, it takes too long before something special happens. That's not to say the gameplay isn't fun, I think more the issue is that the devs did not have enough resources to make everything they wanted to.
A side-complaint I also wanted to mention is that for most of the game it is simply too easy. Out of all the levels, I think I only died on 3 of them, one of which being the first boss, and one of my deaths was because I got stuck in the geometry and was unable to move. While not a huge issue, I would have loved to see a difficulty mode where they don't necessarily boost any numbers, but make resources and ammo a bit more scarce, forcing you to use your whole arsenal while not having instant access to healing, and without the slow-motion bar. While I played the entire game without using the slow-motion, if I were to use it it would completely invalidate any challenge in this game if I were to use it.
Usually when a game offers a slow-motion mechanic, the enemies and world design is balanced around it. For example, the enemies that charge energy-balls are very easy to locate and take out, even with full-speed gameplay, before they ever get to shoot. They could have made it a lot more interesting if the player was forced to use the slow-motion to deal with situations like these.
It feels like there should have been more enemy types, it feels like there should have been at least one more environment to explore, and it feels like there should have been more secrets. Because of what I can only assume is budget constraints, they had to do the best with what they had. They wanted the story to have this length, and they wanted you to have this amount of time between the hard hitting story beats, so instead of making something new, they remixed what they had. While not a big issue, it can sometimes feel like the game drags on a little too long before new things are introduced. It does get repetitive.
Personally, with this many levels in the game, there should have been more enemy variety. Once you overcome the challenge of one enemy, and how they are combined with other enemies, throwing more of the same at the player is ultimately pointless. They should either have added more variety, or cut down on the repetitiveness.
That said, the game is full of awesome moments, unique setpieces during the lvls, and the main character's monologues never get old. In the end, "I wanted more game" is probably not the worst critique a dev can get.
I really hope this game does well so they can make a sequel. I need to know what happens next.