Recent reviews by David Kay

I'm several hours in the game so far and I just reached the street level. I have been looking for a game like this for quite some time now. Something more tactical and methodical than the average retro shooter. I absolutely love the combat, the exploration and secret hunting this game provides.

I didn't really expect to enjoy this game so much and I'm glad I got it now instead waiting for the full release. Even now the game is already worth the price of admission. It's a more finished and polished product than many of actuall full releases and it absolutely surpased my expectations which were already high.

Do you like secret hunts? here's an entire game not only choke full of secrets but the way to actually progress and win this game is also a one constant secret hunt. And after you beat the game - there will still be a ton of secrets left. I haven't found them all yet.

Game doesn't explain what to do, how anything works, what is the goal. You need to figure it out. The clues are often well hidden and subtle buth they are there - at no point in the game I had to look up a guide - yes, I will brag about it - You will get all the hints you need. Just need to be careful and observant and willing to experiment.

My advice - do not watch youtube letsplays or reviews before trying the game yourself, do not read the forums - You will see spoilers to things that you would really love to figure out yourself. Spoilers are even in the trailers. You will get lost and confused a lot in this game but the joy of figuring out the solutions will more than make up for it.

Game is awesome and brilliant and you should absolutely play it.

EDIT

Review was written without looking anything up but since then I found out that a lot of the post game puzzles are some kind of ARG content which is completely impossible to know going by ingame clues alone. This is somewhat disappointing because people who will try to play the same way as me will also find themselves in a situation where theres is nothing else to do except start looking up guides and they will be disappointed to discover that they never had the chance to solve everything on their own. I'm sure the ARG stuff was super fun for people who were following the development of this game over the years and interacted with game's social media, but for players like me it now feels like I missed the bus on the most interesting stuff and now I can't even tell which remaining puzzles are solvable and which require a walkthrough. This doesn't change the fact that I had a blast but I do wish there were hints for all the ARG content so it would be accessible without having to refer to external sources. And looking up solutions just to get an achievement goes against everything I liked about this game. At least the ARG stuff should have no visible presence in the game so players who don't know about it don't try to figure out impossible puzzles.

Incredibly well crafted little game. Great and fun puzzles that are actually thematically apropriate since they are part of the setting. Combat takes a bit to get used to but it's also well ballanced and fun while allowing the player to decide if they want to engage or avoid.
There are two game modes and if you are familiar with survival horrors then one is easy and second is super easy. That's the only real flaw of this game if you are a veteran and looking for a challenge. But for newcomers to the genre I think it's a perfect starting point.
Story is very well implemented - starts you with a very basic premise and allows you to explore and look for notes. Every time you receive another piece of the story it feels like a reward and not interruption. The ending also doesn't disappont. I want to go back for a second run with new unlocked features and maybe this time I will find that flamethrower.
Don't wait for a sale - this ride is worth the price of admission.

On the surface it looks like another survivors clone but it actually is a cool evolution of the idea incorporating a bullet hell style gameplay - it's mostly used for bossfights but it's enough to make the player actually play the game instead relying on an autopilot build that just plays the game for you. Especially when going for a flawless run.

The meta progression is also so much better than in VS because instead giving you boring incremental stat increases it allows you to select from a wide array of unique perks that affect the playstyle but require some practice to figure out how to best utilise them.

This game has also a vibe like no other. It's like a space retro horror on drugs. On heavy drugs. It's great.

I usually don't enjoy roguelites like this - many times the combat is luckluster and the game is a slog until you get far enough to find some interesting gear.

It's NOT the case here.

Combat is stellar from the very start and it only gets better. The action is wild and although most of my runs end failing horribly they also leave me with me jaw dropped, in absolute awe of the sheer insanity on the screen.

Levels are pretty compact so any backtracking is limited to absolute minimum. The amount of equipment and game mechanics can be a little intimidating at first but the joy comes from getting familiar with all of this and mastering the game run by run.

I tried playing Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Dead Cells, Risk of Rain and even Hades but none of these games did it for me. Not saying those game are bad, Synthetik just has this speciffic spin on the formula that makes it click for me.

Played this game mostly on GOG, hence my low playtime displayed here.

I only got this game so I could say that I have played it and check it off the list. Several hours in, I have completed the first level and I'm in love. This thing is so good. I was always intimidated by the interface and the mazelike level design but the game is not really that complex. At least so far.

I don't know why people talk about this game as it was an immersive sim. Yes, it might have be one of the games to inspire the genre, but it plays nothing like Deus Ex or Thief. Guys, it's not an imsim - this is a DUNGEON CRAWLER. It's not a game where you sneak around, stack boxes and figure out if you want to hack the door or find a key to open it - It's not this kind of game - It's a DUNGEON CRAWLER - you crawl through the dungeon - the scifi setting is only a window dressing. This is a classic maze where you fight monsters, find new weapons and equipment, write notes on the map to remember where to go and push buttons that open the doors for you. And it's a bloody good dungeon crawler so if you're into those you will have a bloody good time.

Additionally - as is tradition with classic dungeon crawlers and adventure games - get a notebook and write down everything important - that includes game objectives and. You will receive all important information one way or the other but if you don't write it down you will simply forget what to do. It's part of the gameplay, do not rely on your memory alone. Poeple only get lost and confused in this game if they don't keep notes. Also - write since you can only access the map of a level you are currently in - write down which levels contain which important locations.

Take some time remap the keys - the defaults are awful. I guess it's like a first meta puzzle to filter out people who will or will not enjoy the game - if you can figure out a working control scheme then you will do fine in the game. If you don't then you will suffer. It's still miles better than the original edition where there was no mouselook or key rebinding - I tried playing it and noped hard. Thank gods for the enhanced edition. Mouse with side buttons is also recommended

Oh and I agree with another reviewer's advice to get this on GOG - latest patch fixed some problems but introduced a horrible stutter that tanks the performance regardless of your specs. GOG lets you easily revert to previous version. The drawback is that sometimes the monsters will bug out and get stuck and the map notes wil randomly disappear - the thirst thing can be somewhat mitigated by increasing the combat difficulty and the second by having a notebook and taking a lot of notes - which you should be doing anyway.

Just finished the first episode. It's good.

Just as I thought I was getting a bit tired of retro shooters I decided to try this one looking for something more simple and straightforward. And it is in many ways - there are no advanced mobility techniques, no dashing, walljumping, no grappling, no skilltrees or weapon upgrades... And that's exactly what I wanted from this game. It's very focused and determined to do very few things but to do them so damn well that you don't ever feel like anything is missing. It's simple but not brainless - navigation and exploration is a core component and you will be refering to the map quite a lot - even though all objectives are marked you still have to find your way to reach them. Game also doesn't mess around - it goes from zero to eleven really fast even on normal skill and can really catch you off guard if your'e not careful.

As for presentation, you can probably se for yourself - looks and sounds perfect and when you play it it feels even better. Certain guns kick so hard the recoil will literally affect your movement.

What's not so obvious is the quality of story and writing - It's one of the best I ever experienced, especially in a classic retro shooter. It does require the player to stop and read a few pages now and then but because it's so well written it doesn't feel like it's slowing the game down - it actually provides a much needed break between encounters. It's a great read and you can tell that the writer knows their craft.

Can't wait to play more

Rating as positive but there are several significant issues in this game. It's beautiful and full of style but it's also a mess with an identity crisis. Going in you should expect a spectacle walking simulator with a some simple puzzle solving here and there. The puzzles are not on the level of Limbo or Inside and there is a lot of just pressing forward and interact to move forward. The only stumbling blocks will be places where you will miss a collision box and the expected interaction will not trigger. Most puzzles are very simple and based on a gimmick mechanic that gets old pretty fast. And a lot of situations which look like puzzles are actually just scripted events where all you need to do is move in the right direction.

So gameplay is not great. This game could really use a combat mechanic, even the most basic one. Most of the puzzles feel like an excuse to show off their fancy shader and they are milking it dry.

You can't jump or even control when you walk or run so there is also no real platforming in this game. Treat it more like an interactive experience rather than a game. But even then the story is just not that great. It's all over the place and parts of it feel very disconnected from the whole. Emotional beats don't land becuase the story from the player's perspective doesn't make much sense and it's hard to connect with the characters. And the constant vibe of all of this not being real just reinforces that feeling. The ending is particularly atrocious becuase I felt like it was supposed to be some kind of payoff - a moment where you can utilise the skills and abilities you gained through this whole journey. But in reality the outcome of an ending is pretty much random because you have no clue what you're doing and why. Feels like the game is just pretentious artsy nonsense that tries to be profound but falls flat on it's face trying to communicate what it's trying to do.

Still it's pretty to look at and it has some cool stuff going on, so get it on a sale and see for yourself.

I know that a lot of folks enjoyed this game and I can assure you I wanted to love it too. It's just the amount of tolerance to stupid nonsense required to endure this game is far beyond my capacity.

This game clearly wants to imitate the style of old games, but it also recreates the cumbersome nature of those games, making many sections tedious and boring. Even something so simple as walking a flight of stairs is made to be frustrating.

What exactly is wrong with this game?

it wants to be a survival horror but also an action horror. In order to beat this game you have to engage in most combat encounters because you need to farm enemies for money to buy necessary ammo, healing items and weapons. This would be all well and good if the combat was well designed and implemented.

It's not.

So you have a game that is heavily focused on action and it presents you with a confusing camera, janky controls and very basic, unpolished combat and then asks you to enjoy the game despite all this...

Oh and wait till you try out the aiming system in this game. Absolutely horrendous if you are using anything other than the saber.

Difficulty is not the main problem, I play a lot of difficult games. It's that You waste so much time between retries - save points are often far away and some of the chalenges are behind several unskippable cutscenes, dialogues or just a very long set of stairs... So you spend a chunk of the game just traversing empty hallways, waiting for the game to finish animating or talking to stuff you already know. Many times you pick up one key item and then go to some distant location only to receive another item that needs you to get back when you left off... With nothing interesting going on inbetween because you killed all the mobs for cash.

The first bossfight will infuriate you and leave you gobsmacked of how unapropriate it is for this kind of game.

Then you will reach a giant maze. With constantly changing camera that will confuse your sense of direction every second. And if you use the modern control scheme your character will constantly walk in and out of the frame because the controls are relative to camera. And you will deal with very fast enemies with very frustrating attack patterns in a game that has very janky combat with frustrating aiming system and camera angles.

Tormented Souls also had a lot of frustrating nonsense but it had combat that felt good and had proper autoaim and also it's interface was far more user friendly.

With all that I cannot recomment the game without a huge caveat - You may like this game but it's very possible that you will hate it instead. I gave up when I reached the maze. I feel like I can't do this anymore. I'm done.

I rarely bother with negative reviews but this game disappointed me so much. I can tell when a game is not for me, but of all games out there this one absolutely was supposed to be my kind of game. I love survival and action horrors. I do not love this one.

A real banger with some very cool and unique systems. Every weapon has speciffic features, stats and perks that you have to match with speciffic skills and upgrades. Some builds in this game are absolutely crazy and the real fun comes from experimenting and figuring them out