Recent reviews by ✪ CRX ✪

Nyras Demo Review

Performance note:
I played the demo on a Ryzen 9 3900X, RX6600 8GB(4 year old entry level GPU) and 32GB of RAM on a resolution of 2560x1080 (21:9) with the High preset and i got about 45-60fps. Although not tested, 1920x1080 might be close to stable 60FPS. I actually expected it to be worse but its doable and didnt really feel like lagging. But since the full game might be somewhat slower, I plan to upgrade my PC anyway.

Pros:
- World/characters/armor does look just like i imagined it from the original (Sleeper peek in the vision at the end of the demo is EPIC!!!)
- Sound effects are 90% just like the original (quest update, dieing, etc) which is really cool and some seem like they changed a bit but for the better
- Music is amazing, great to see Kai Rosenkranz' work in this, he made my childhood amazing with his scores in the Gothic/Risen games
- Combat progression feels good after training with Kirgo, the controls are a bit strange but so were the original ones and we got used to it, althought I wondered how you will implement the original idea into a modern game and i think you nailed it. However, personally, I will change the control keys in the final game
- Swimming, while not a big game feature in itself, felt more responsive than I initially expected, just pointing it out.

Cons:
- While the movement itself is more realistic, with the character actually accelerating, stopping, it does feel kind of unpolished, I would like to see starting to move/changing directions while moving being more responsive
- Sometimes I was right next to a scavenger, which didnt dodge, and my sword hits didnt count. Even after being trained. Also what sometimes happened is if a tree is next to me, and i swing the sword, the hit also wont register, it was like hitting the tree itself, even if it seemed like i should be able to hit.
- I would really like to see the inventory/pause menu UI moved to the right of the screen instead like in the original. in modern games, even if we might have the classic centered camera, the character is usually on the left side of the screen. Why should the camera move when pausing/opening inventory when there is already empty screen space on the right?
- It felt strange that I couldnt pause the game in the middle of some animations. I know this might be the case because we shouldnt be able to save during those, but still.
- While i love the overall look of the game, colors sometimes do look very strange and way too washed out in some areas. Reflections on the ground too, depending on how the light hits at certain angles they get too white all of a sudden and dont really feel natural. Also, I hope there wont be as much of that thick fog in the distance in the final game.
- The barrier effects themselves look nice but I would've loved to see them retain the darker shade of blue from the original, it seems a bit too cyan like.
- Also, speaking of the Inventory (and in-game UI itself), while it looks okay overall, it's not really Gothic like. But I do like the main menu/settings pages

While its still just a demo and there will certainly be even more updates/change for the final game, based on all the released videos and screenshots of the remake, I would like to point this to the devs:
Please update Lee's model and armor. Lee from the remake looks like Ratford.. and his armor also looks almost like Ratford's.. Lee is supposed to be a war general, somewhere in his 50s perhaps, due to some gray hair from the original who leads the mercs and wields the strongest Axe in the game.. please..

--- EDIT ---
New feedback for the updated version then.
First of all, just a technical heads up, the aspect ratio is messed up, I have a 3440x1440(21:9) monitor and was using the 2560x1080(21:9) resolution in fullscreen. Now apparently if i use 1920x1080/2560x1440 (16:9) the game is stretched to 21:9, if i use 2560x1080(21:9) the game gets stretched to 16:9 which seems very odd xD

- Movement does feel way better
- Pick up animations are amazing
- Looting a chest animation speed is slightly faster, however nowhere near the comparison in the video. The direction your camera AND character is facing when pressing F seems to matter because the character has to turn around and the camera turns aswell before actually starting the animation, which i think could really be polished.
- I dont recall the video talking about inventory opening/closing faster or if its just placebo knowing there were some changes made however it does seem a little faster, but i would still like it to be instant (perhaps a best of both worlds, a setting for this in the final game)
- Speaking of UI in general, it s still annoying that its on the left, instead of just being on the right. As i said in a previous comment, regardless of the camera setting used by the player, the character will either be in the center or the left of the screen, so why not just have the inventory/menu on the right...?
- I like that now if we have a torch in hand, and we draw our weapon the torch is put out instantly, but if we try to put out the torch manually (press 3 on the hotbar again for torch) its still stuck to the ground
- Combat-wise.. i use unreal engine aswell, i know this has to do with collision but if i m too close to a tree for example and i attack with my sword, its registers as if i m hitting the tree and the character is knocked back, even though the weapon itself looks short enough with almost half a meter before i would actually hit that tree..
Also, the HP of enemies when using the bow i think is shown only when very close. I suppose increasing the bow skill will increase the distance but i feel like we should be able to see it from further away.
Finally, in the original game, melee combos were possible in any combination, the skill indeed increased the number of moves possible in a combo (3 for trained, 4 for master if i remember correctly) and the speed of the attack. But in the demo, the only combos that work after kirgo trains you is either (LMB -> RMB -> Q) or (RMB -> LMB -> Q). Any other combination I tried doesnt work. I think we should be able to do whatever combination we want even if limited to 3 moves for example for "trained" skill level.