Recent reviews by Skull

...it doesn't include any of the fantastic trailer music.

I am... seriously pissed off that they made an iconic song, sold the music, and then didn't give me the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ iconic song.

update: the exciting music was made by someone else, and not included in here.

lying basterds, not wild basterds. it's not the true OST.

REALLY wish steam had a middle thumb option. on the one hand: the music is fantastic. on the other hand, the files are UTTERLY FUBAR. it's ridiculous. not only are track names wrong, they're assigned to the wrong albums, and they even have different lengths! the songs are literally different, labelled wrong, and with different LENGTHS OF THE MUSIC when you go to the actual files. HOW DO YOU ♥♥♥♥ THAT UP!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
I've never seen this before in my ENTIRE LIFE.
WHAT THE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
HOW?!
FIX. PLEASE. THIS IS *BIZARRE*
the music is AMAZING but it's hard to love when it... isn't what it says it is?!!?!?!?!?!?!?
SERIOUSLY WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

This game had huge potential, but it is so incredibly janky I just can't recommend it. I could go on and on and on listing the issues, but suffice to say for now: if this had released as an early access alpha build, I'd be forgiving and keep it. but a full "polished" product? no no no no no no no.

I've written a thread in the discussions if anyone wants to know more, it's titled "JANK. SO MUCH JANK." and it lists the insane mountain of little problems that add up to an unplayable mess.

there is potential for a great game in here, but it is NOT there yet.

I will look again in maybe 6 months, see if there's been improvements. but as it is? no. no no no no no.

Okay, so, this is pretty great, especially from one creator. Hat off to you. This is honestly a game I've been thinking about making myself since I was a kid playing the games this takes influence from: that an RPG dungeon crawl of it could be great. and in my HS years I even ran many DnD games like it. So stumbling upon this was a DELIGHT. I'll be honest: I was... skeptical, though, at first. But I decided to give it a try. well, now, about 4 hours in, I have to stop because it's 3AM and whoops. Yeah, it hooked me quite well. I HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone who liked the old silent hills, resident evils, and their lesser known ilk.

However... If the dev happens to read this? I do have some constructive criticism.
1: It'd be nice if there were some way to increase carrying capacity, or make some things inherent: like in... was it resi 0? that the tool kit was just a given, it didn't take up a slot. that's... annoying. and yes, I know that a certain level of annoying is actually the point: it adds tension and makes you debate about what to keep and what to give up, and that's good! but maybe give a bit more leeway, especially when there are so many different kinds of items to pick up.
2: The hitboxes can be a little wonky sometimes: and I can't exactly tell you what is wrong (as far as too big or too small or oddly shaped etc, it's hard to tell) but a pretty common occurrence would be me very clearly a good foot or two away from a hazard and then it hurts me, or me standing halfway on top of it and it doesn't. primarily this happened with the wall-spikes and the steam... vents(?) if that helps you narrow down the issue. I was also playing with Lydia, if perhaps that matters too.
which actually brings me to:
3: It's... not clear what selecting different characters actually does: and I note that they have auto-applied co-op partners. is it purely aesthetic? because their descriptions seem to hint that they would have different progression trees for leveling up. and if I take my lvl8 lydia and switch to another character: is that character lvl8? are they all? or only lydia? and will lydia lose all those levels if i switch her out?

Honestly, a few things could just be more clear, and you've already got very helpful ghosts, it wouldn't be too hard to add in a little bit of detail about the above questions :) it'd really help!

I haven't tried the co-op yet, but very much looking forward to it. also confused as to whether the coop partner will level up, or have my levels, or have their levels wiped when they leave, etc. same general unclear as to how this data is being saved or not.

Lastly: I'm sure this is just an issue of being a one-man team, but, the fact that I had to get up a few inches from the monitor and squint to tell the difference between magnum ammo and pistol ammo is odd when you've been wisely using other colors for other types elsewhere: I'd suggest another color. Or, hell, do what STALKER did with special ammo types and just put a big stripe through it. something easily recognizable.

I sincerely hope you take this as helpful happy constructive criticism and not bashing, because I'm really really enjoying this game! I think it'll turn into one of my favorites for kinda zoning out and enjoying with audiobooks.

oh that reminds me, one more thing: separate audio sliders for music and sound effects. I couldn't even hear the gunfire over the music sometimes, and it made playing with other audio (be it another person talking or an audiobook) impossible. should be an easy fix :)

To anyone still reading: give this a try! don't let my heap of critiques scare you off: they're little specs of dust to be polished off an already very solid game. I really loved that you added the quick 180 turn and the multiple camera angles is a really cool idea! And as I said: this is a game I have wanted to exist for like nearly 25 years and even seriously considered making myself: so I'm delighted to have found you made it!
to any fans of roguelikes: it's got that "just a little bit more... I can risk it!" vibe, and to survival horror fans it has good tension and overall archaic (in a good homage way) mechanics.
to fans of both? buy it! try it! worst case you can refund it of course, you get a good taste of it within the first few hours (hell, minutes actually) and it promises nigh-endless fun to come.

I really look forward to seeing what more you can add in future! I see SO much potential in here! :)

I honestly didn't believe the hype. I can't be that good.
OH YES IT IS. OH. YES. IT. IS!
Best adrenaline rush money can buy... short of an epi-pen I suppose.
BLOOD IS FUEL. AMMO IS INFINITE. GAMES ARE FUN AGAIN.
Highly recommended. 11/10 genuinely exceeded my expectations or even wild hopes.


tiny critique would be a lot of the maps feel short, but that goes with the fast pace, so, it works. and there will very likely be level editors and such down the line, community content. so, win-win.

Okay, so, Yes, this is a neat game. HOWEVER.
HOWEVER.
WORST. TUTORIAL. I. HAVE. EVER. SEEN.
JESUS CHRIST. 30 YEARS OF GAMING. MOST OBTUSE CONFUSING MESS I HAVE EVER SEEN EVER.
The game's themes are heavily based on Kabbalah: I have studied Kabbalah. KABBALAH IS EASIER TO UNDERSTAND THAN THE FEKING TUTORIAL.
AND THIS IS *AFTER* THE UPDATED IMPROVED TRANSLATION.
I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW BAD IT MUST HAVE BEEN FOR EARLIER PLAYERS.
HOLY. *CRAP!*

....so, yeah, it is a genuinely really interesting game, and I think I'll get a lot of fun out of it. but good god this is a Master Class on how NOT to do a tutorial or teach playing.
examples? randomly pausing and unpausing time, telling me I can do that "at any time" and then disabling that function during the tutorial. so some long paragraphs went by in 5 seconds before I had a chance to read them. redid the same tutorial 4 times: still couldn't read it even with foreknowledge and speed reading. and then when I was trying to follow directions, suddenly time would stop, and I'd have to pan around the screen searching for what the hell it wanted me to look at now, because it doesn't move the camera for you when it wants you to see something. in a tutorial. oy vey.

...I could go on ranting for hours about how mind-bogglingly terrible the tutorial is, but I won't. I will say:
Cool theme, obvious SCP etc influences, interesting to have the Kabbalah stuff in there too, nice art style, overall, it seems pretty cool, it really does.

but whomever made the tutorial should be put in a pilory in the public square and have rotten vegetables thrown at them for the rest of their lives *oh my god it's the worst i've ever seen* O__O

so, beware, it doesn't have a learning curve, it has a learning WALL. a wall that is electrified and covered in razor wire and that has a personal grudge against you.

but other than that: neato! I look forward to fully enjoying this game once I understand what they flying fek is going on.

incredibly frustrating to download. took me something like genuinely 30+ times to get it to work. the units are worth it though, but UGH make it easier to get free things, please??

Short version: Fantastic. Buy it.
Longer: For something like 15 years I have been blown away by Aria Of Sorrow, and constantly tried to find more like it. I've played almost every castlevania game, and just about every 'metroidvania' game I could get my hands on, and none of them quite scratched that same itch as Aria Of Sorrow.

Well, Bloodstained *IS* aria of sorrow, but cranked to 11. more weapons, more monsters, locations, variety, characters, deeper lore, deeper mechanics, ...it's just aria of sorrow but polished to a mirror shine. It's freaking fantastic. I was a major kickstarter (probably too major. my poor wallet aches.) but it was genuinely worth it. Started playing around 9AM, stopped playing about 14 hours later. straight. and I only stopped because my hands were cramping up: I wanted to continue! And with the upcoming additions of co-op modes and more content, this will be HUNDREDS of hours of value, and it's damn good.

get it. it's fantastic.

if I have any complaints, it'd be 1: the stats could be a lot better explained. I can take educated guesses based off of similar games etc, but, it doesn't explicitly tell you things like just how much of a modifier a stat has, it merely tells you a number which is bigger or smaller than before when you're looking to put on new gear etc. so that's... annoying. and the hit boxes can be a little bit odd. generally they're very good, actually, better than most in the genre. but some lanterns you have to pixel-perfect hit in order to break, and it makes you feel like an idiot hopping up and down chopping at the air over and over and over trying to get 1$ out of a lantern, some monsters I seem to be able to hit before they're actually in range, and some you have to be on top of to hit even with long weapons? It's... odd. and again, the stats: it'll indicate that a weapon has elemental damage, but if you look at your actual attack rating, some with the same element will be super low damage and others quite high, but their base ATK is the same? sooo logically they do more or less elemental damage right? but why can't you just give me a number for it??? why hide that information? it's just weird.

that might be patched, or wikis might be created for it, so it's by no means a deal breaker, it's just... annoying.

but on the whole, this has become probably my favorite vania game ever, beating out hollow knight and even actual castlevania games. so if you like vanias: get it. it's brilliant.

Where the FEK is local multiplayer in an OBVIOUSLY designed party-game?!?!?!?!
Seriously, wtf are you doing not putting local in a local-perfect game?! and you've been promising local play for like 4 years! JUST DO IT!

I don't know why this is getting so many negative reviews: It's really fun.

It took all of the stuff I liked out of 7days (and I am NOT into that kind of game, but played with friends) and removed most of the stuff I hated, and then plugged it into something like STALKER/Soviet-Fallout fanfiction, and it's fun! The atmosphere is decently spooky, the voice acting is pretty good, the visuals are pretty good, I like the wide variety of objects that have hidden uses (like using a toaster to repair an elevator instead of selling it for scrap) I like the sort of soviet atomic-punk aesthetic, i like the many nods and homages to STALKER (my favorite thing ever) ,,,it's fun! It ain't perfect, but it's damn fun, and worth it. play it!

and for those who whine about the weapon degredation: I would generally agree, but 1: customizable difficulty, including reducing that a lot, 2: it does add to the atmosphere 3: it's actually fairly slow: I've been using the same 2 weapons for 6 straight hours, and only one has been repaired. ...so it really isn't that bad.

yes, the very first starting weapon, a stick, literally a stick and called a stick, is terrible... but have you ever... ya know... played with a stick? ._. they're not like the hunk of rebar i've been using for the rest of the time.

so, broadly: I'd like to see more content added in the form of... like... polish. overall more content would obviously be good, but right now little things like buffing some textures and enhancing some sound effects, little things. (and yes I have everything cranked to max). and more customization re: difficulty.

tl:dr: don't listen to the haters, this is really genuinely good, and nearly every complaint I saw from early access people has already been addressed and fixed. so ...enjoy it!