I love metroidvanias, existential horrors beyond my comprehension, and swinging a weapon at more enemies than you can shake a stick at. And Sundered does this well. There's a lot of detail-work in the game; the graphics are hand-drawn, there's descriptions and lore, and I think they even made their own language.

But the thing is -- there's not much beyond that. There's no plot besides "ancient eldritch deity piggybacks on your hip for the foreseeable future." Combat, while engaging, gets monotonous, and there's only a handful of enemy types throughout the game. There's, like, 4 varieties each of ground-based and flying enemies, and most, if not all, of the minibosses are just amped up versions of the regular enemies. Bosses, while much more memorable and awe-inspiring, suffer from the common problem of being just too darn big. I get lost in the screen and combat feels extremely slow and unwieldy.

I like the game; I actually do. The voice acting, the animations, the art direction, the level-up system, how your choices impact your abilities and even the endings -- this is all spectacular. But just like with the bosses, the game often feels cumbersome and bogged down when it should feel fast-paced and exciting.

But as you can see from the 40 hours I've spent playing this game, I like it fairly well. I'm just about done with everything in the game and am currently standing at 18/20 achievements. Clearly, the pros outweigh the cons for me. Each playthrough takes about 10 hours, or at least it did for me, so it's a decently sized game if you take your time and explore literally every corner of the map.

Ranking time
Combat/leveling system: 8/10 (the air attacks are breathtaking)
Enemy design, including bosses: 9/10
Boss fights: 5/10
Exploration: 6/10
Final score: 7/10

I love metroidvanias, existential horrors beyond my comprehension, and swinging a weapon at more enemies than you can shake a stick at. And Sundered does this well. There's a lot of detail-work in the game; the graphics are hand-drawn, there's descriptions and lore, and I think they even made their own language. But the thing is -- there's not much beyond that. There's no plot besides "ancient eldritch deity piggybacks on your hip for the foreseeable future." Combat, while engaging, gets monotonous, and there's only a handful of enemy types throughout the game. There's, like, 4 varieties each of ground-based and flying enemies, and most, if not all, of the minibosses are just amped up versions of the regular enemies. Bosses, while much more memorable and awe-inspiring, suffer from the common problem of being just too darn big. I get lost in the screen and combat feels extremely slow and unwieldy. I like the game; I actually do. The voice acting, the animations, the art direction, the level-up system, how your choices impact your abilities and even the endings -- this is all spectacular. But just like with the bosses, the game often feels cumbersome and bogged down when it should feel fast-paced and exciting. But as you can see from the 40 hours I've spent playing this game, I like it fairly well. I'm just about done with everything in the game and am currently standing at 18/20 achievements. Clearly, the pros outweigh the cons for me. Each playthrough takes about 10 hours, or at least it did for me, so it's a decently sized game if you take your time and explore literally every corner of the map. Ranking time Combat/leveling system: 8/10 (the air attacks are breathtaking) Enemy design, including bosses: 9/10 Boss fights: 5/10 Exploration: 6/10 Final score: 7/10