"Why does Vagante have an Overwhelmingly Positive score, yet such scathing reviews on the difficulty?"

Well, this is a question I spent my first 15 or so runthroughs with my girlfriend questioning. We went straight into multiplayer, which skips the tutorial aspect of the game... and even with the tutorial, there is a LOT that isn't explained to you when you start out, that you learn through trial... and a lot of error.

This game is hard. If you're looking at this review wondering whether or not you want to buy it, the answer is... do you feel ready to face a Dark Souls level of learning curve? This game isn't forgiving, and very hard to fully comprehend when you start BECAUSE of how much detail the developers put into it. There are strategies, tricks and secret aspects to this game that run so deep that it actually makes getting started quite confusing.

If you want to make this easier, you need to look at the wiki. This isn't all too comprehensive, but try some strategy guides for your class, read up on what your abilities actually do/how to use them... and from there, you can start to make stuff up a little more on your own, but this'll stop you from investing in something that has an application you can't properly utilize.

Is the game itself good? It's rich, deep, and full of promise from some devoted developers who are planning to add more. I would heartily recommend it.

Is it worth $15 in its current state? Yes. 20 hours in and even in co-op we're struggling to beat the last level, and that's on my first class choice- I have three others to test out for entirely different gameplay experiences!

How's the co-op? Thus far, for all the devs warn about it being 'unstable', we've encountered one bug in 20 hours of gameplay and over 50 individual games. The devs know their stuff, and 'unstable' by their standards is far from that of most other indie greenlight stuff.

Is this my kind of game, and will I enjoy the experience? Well, I like to compare it to experiences like FTL over Don't Starve. If you die, you're not going to cry for hours. It's pretty easy to get back to where you are, and much less brutal for ten hours of progress lost or something. For the gameplay itself as opposed to the roguelike side of it, it's very much like the Spelunky era of games, very similar to going caving in Terraria but much more structured and complex.

In its current state, I'd give the game an 8/10. To address the downsides that aren't solely the difficulty curve... It does at this stage lack a little bit of content, the soundtrack leaves something to be desired, and I have no idea how to unlock that %#*$ing chained chest- plus a little more starting character customization would go a longer way. The unlock system is nice as it stands, but I feel like it needs work/more complexity to add a bit more starting flavour than one trait and YOLO it up on the RNG. The new resurrection system (you need a certain amount of health to resurrect your teammates by walking over their graves) is great, though a bit more mechanic specification for co-op would be helpful (took us ages to figure this out.)

"Why does Vagante have an Overwhelmingly Positive score, yet such scathing reviews on the difficulty?" Well, this is a question I spent my first 15 or so runthroughs with my girlfriend questioning. We went straight into multiplayer, which skips the tutorial aspect of the game... and even with the tutorial, there is a LOT that isn't explained to you when you start out, that you learn through trial... and a lot of error. This game is hard. If you're looking at this review wondering whether or not you want to buy it, the answer is... do you feel ready to face a Dark Souls level of learning curve? This game isn't forgiving, and very hard to fully comprehend when you start BECAUSE of how much detail the developers put into it. There are strategies, tricks and secret aspects to this game that run so deep that it actually makes getting started quite confusing. If you want to make this easier, you need to look at the wiki. This isn't all too comprehensive, but try some strategy guides for your class, read up on what your abilities actually do/how to use them... and from there, you can start to make stuff up a little more on your own, but this'll stop you from investing in something that has an application you can't properly utilize. Is the game itself good? It's rich, deep, and full of promise from some devoted developers who are planning to add more. I would heartily recommend it. Is it worth $15 in its current state? Yes. 20 hours in and even in co-op we're struggling to beat the last level, and that's on my first class choice- I have three others to test out for entirely different gameplay experiences! How's the co-op? Thus far, for all the devs warn about it being 'unstable', we've encountered one bug in 20 hours of gameplay and over 50 individual games. The devs know their stuff, and 'unstable' by their standards is far from that of most other indie greenlight stuff. Is this my kind of game, and will I enjoy the experience? Well, I like to compare it to experiences like FTL over Don't Starve. If you die, you're not going to cry for hours. It's pretty easy to get back to where you are, and much less brutal for ten hours of progress lost or something. For the gameplay itself as opposed to the roguelike side of it, it's very much like the Spelunky era of games, very similar to going caving in Terraria but much more structured and complex. In its current state, I'd give the game an 8/10. To address the downsides that aren't solely the difficulty curve... It does at this stage lack a little bit of content, the soundtrack leaves something to be desired, and I have no idea how to unlock that %#*$ing chained chest- plus a little more starting character customization would go a longer way. The unlock system is nice as it stands, but I feel like it needs work/more complexity to add a bit more starting flavour than one trait and YOLO it up on the RNG. The new resurrection system (you need a certain amount of health to resurrect your teammates by walking over their graves) is great, though a bit more mechanic specification for co-op would be helpful (took us ages to figure this out.)