epicuu
2019
fun little game with solid gimmicks. everything is pretty simplistic but it works fine, just wish there was something more here. perhaps more levels, better visuals, or just more mechanics in general. ultimately its a good bit of fun but nothing particularly special necessarily, just a good time.
though, the netcode is not ideal and if you want to play this on controller, be warned that the input is kinda screwed up. it's either input lag or the fact that theres no movement speed scaling based on where your stick is and so theres an arbitrary point at which it starts moving your character. might be better with dpad but my thumbs are trash.
though, the netcode is not ideal and if you want to play this on controller, be warned that the input is kinda screwed up. it's either input lag or the fact that theres no movement speed scaling based on where your stick is and so theres an arbitrary point at which it starts moving your character. might be better with dpad but my thumbs are trash.
2017
i dunno. it seems silly that if you get bodyhorror you basically instantly win the game no matter what, and i got bodyhorror 2 runs in a row. game's kinda tedious as well in all honesty. also inventory management is truly horrific, its funny at first but it gets stale real quick.
the aesthetic is charming and all, and the combat has some interesting ideas, but at the end of the day there's honestly not much here. maybe im missing something.
the aesthetic is charming and all, and the combat has some interesting ideas, but at the end of the day there's honestly not much here. maybe im missing something.
Update:
After playing through 50 or so hours of Elden Ring, this game is still the best "souls-like" I've played yet. I think there's something to be said specifically about interactivity with enemies in video games.
I didn't really realize until I thought about it over a long period but the actual reason why this game works so ridiculously well is because of how interactive each of the enemies are. Instead of simply slamming a big sword down onto or shooting a magic bolt into a boss and they take hit point damage and maybe stagger a little like in Elden Ring, the bosses in this game actually react to your offense and to your defense. Instead of rolling through attacks that, in reality, should've hit you but you are actually in a pocket dimension when you roll I guess, you are forced into either repositioning at the perfect time or to deflect the attack.
The prosthetics and different skills you unlock further the interactibility even more. Using firecrackers disrupts humans for about one swing, giving you a little breathing room, but with bosses like Blazing Bull it genuinely frightens them, opening them up for multiple hits. Lady Butterfly falls down from the air when you throw a shuriken at her. You can literally throw pots of oil at bosses then set them aflame with your flamethrower prosthetic, opening them to more posture damage, but this doesn't really work against spirit bosses, which you need Divine Confetti to actually do damage to (a dynamic that also plays into the lore of the game, implementing storytelling into the gameplay). The Armored Warrior forces you into kicking him off the bridge to kill him because Sekiro's sword cannot pierce through his armor.
These are only a few examples of the immense amount of thought put into this game's dynamics in combat that really give it an edge over quite literally any other game in the genre, and it's the reason why, despite all of the reused enemies, I've decided to give it a perfect rating. I hope to see the day where this sort of design is commonplace in games. It makes the combat in this game feel alive, and makes even the best games in the same genre feel stiff.
:End Update
cannot believe how good this game makes you feel as you get better and better at the combat, which is extremely well designed as well.
but the amount of recycled content here sort of tarnishes the experience in some ways. ashina castle is used 3 times with damaged variations, hirata estate is used twice, the corrupted monk bosses are very similar even with slightly different movesets, headless ape is quite literally just a copy paste of the second phase of guardian ape just with an annoying second monkey. for minibosses, there are 3(4) drunkards, 2 centipedes, 2 bulls, 2 elite ninjas, 3 general-types, 3 shichimen, and 5 headless (2 underwater and 3 on land). just seems like such a lack of variety, and it especially shows when you replay the game 4 times for each ending.
that being said, game is still amazing with regards to everything else.
After playing through 50 or so hours of Elden Ring, this game is still the best "souls-like" I've played yet. I think there's something to be said specifically about interactivity with enemies in video games.
I didn't really realize until I thought about it over a long period but the actual reason why this game works so ridiculously well is because of how interactive each of the enemies are. Instead of simply slamming a big sword down onto or shooting a magic bolt into a boss and they take hit point damage and maybe stagger a little like in Elden Ring, the bosses in this game actually react to your offense and to your defense. Instead of rolling through attacks that, in reality, should've hit you but you are actually in a pocket dimension when you roll I guess, you are forced into either repositioning at the perfect time or to deflect the attack.
The prosthetics and different skills you unlock further the interactibility even more. Using firecrackers disrupts humans for about one swing, giving you a little breathing room, but with bosses like Blazing Bull it genuinely frightens them, opening them up for multiple hits. Lady Butterfly falls down from the air when you throw a shuriken at her. You can literally throw pots of oil at bosses then set them aflame with your flamethrower prosthetic, opening them to more posture damage, but this doesn't really work against spirit bosses, which you need Divine Confetti to actually do damage to (a dynamic that also plays into the lore of the game, implementing storytelling into the gameplay). The Armored Warrior forces you into kicking him off the bridge to kill him because Sekiro's sword cannot pierce through his armor.
These are only a few examples of the immense amount of thought put into this game's dynamics in combat that really give it an edge over quite literally any other game in the genre, and it's the reason why, despite all of the reused enemies, I've decided to give it a perfect rating. I hope to see the day where this sort of design is commonplace in games. It makes the combat in this game feel alive, and makes even the best games in the same genre feel stiff.
:End Update
cannot believe how good this game makes you feel as you get better and better at the combat, which is extremely well designed as well.
but the amount of recycled content here sort of tarnishes the experience in some ways. ashina castle is used 3 times with damaged variations, hirata estate is used twice, the corrupted monk bosses are very similar even with slightly different movesets, headless ape is quite literally just a copy paste of the second phase of guardian ape just with an annoying second monkey. for minibosses, there are 3(4) drunkards, 2 centipedes, 2 bulls, 2 elite ninjas, 3 general-types, 3 shichimen, and 5 headless (2 underwater and 3 on land). just seems like such a lack of variety, and it especially shows when you replay the game 4 times for each ending.
that being said, game is still amazing with regards to everything else.
2017
I've been thinking a lot about why my opinion of Dead Cells has degraded over time, and ultimately it boils down to an immense amount of design conflict.
- There are many interesting areas in this game, but the most interesting are simultaneously the most annoying and tedious to get through, mostly based on the enemy design.
- The game simultaneously seems to point the player toward speedrunning the game and taking it slowly to look through every crevice for loot. You'd think going faster would be better, but all signs point to looting everything being the better approach. If you go quickly, you get to open doors that contain loot. If you go slowly, you miss out on those doors, but you end up more powerful as a whole from picking up every stat boost and hitting every store.
- Another point about game speed, slow weapons seem to be much worse than fast weapons due to the amount of hitstun you can apply. The only way you can use slow weapons effectively is by pairing it with a shield and parrying every single attack, or taking a freezing weapon, which also seem insanely good in any build.
- Enemy design, time after time, slows the pace of the game down. Enemies that damage you when you hit their back, enemies that shoot projectiles through the floor at you, enemies that damage a substantial AoE around them, enemies that hook you to them, etc.
I dunno. I'm open to hearing people's thoughts about this but as of right now (at 2BC) it seems like the game is sluggish to play most of the time. I'm sure if I played the game at the base difficulty again I would have a blast, but at this point it's just kind of tedious to play.
- There are many interesting areas in this game, but the most interesting are simultaneously the most annoying and tedious to get through, mostly based on the enemy design.
- The game simultaneously seems to point the player toward speedrunning the game and taking it slowly to look through every crevice for loot. You'd think going faster would be better, but all signs point to looting everything being the better approach. If you go quickly, you get to open doors that contain loot. If you go slowly, you miss out on those doors, but you end up more powerful as a whole from picking up every stat boost and hitting every store.
- Another point about game speed, slow weapons seem to be much worse than fast weapons due to the amount of hitstun you can apply. The only way you can use slow weapons effectively is by pairing it with a shield and parrying every single attack, or taking a freezing weapon, which also seem insanely good in any build.
- Enemy design, time after time, slows the pace of the game down. Enemies that damage you when you hit their back, enemies that shoot projectiles through the floor at you, enemies that damage a substantial AoE around them, enemies that hook you to them, etc.
I dunno. I'm open to hearing people's thoughts about this but as of right now (at 2BC) it seems like the game is sluggish to play most of the time. I'm sure if I played the game at the base difficulty again I would have a blast, but at this point it's just kind of tedious to play.