This game was a mess at launch, but the devs instead of acting like brats burying their heads in the sand, like many other devs would, they took the criticism like men and worked their ass off to fix the issues. I'd say thats an attitude that should be supported. Bugs were fixed, gameplay was balanced and improved to feel satisfying.

The main selling point of this game is stil the aesthetics, this is like an artwork of a heavy metal album made videogame. It's 100% metal

This game is excellent (now) I have it since launch day and it was awful but now all the awfulness is gone, devs have done an incredible job bringing it up to be a fantastic game.

-Great music
-Beatifully done pixel art
-Satisfying combat
-Challenging enemies
-Awesome bossfights

and many more thins that you will discover for yourself my metal friend, BUY IT NOW!!

I really wanted this game to be good (I had it in my wishlist for months and this style and theme of games are my favorite) but it pains me to say that in its current state I would not be recommending it.
Although the art design and theme are amazing the gameplay feels extremely unresponsive (you won't move unless you hold down the key for half a second) and the combat system is really lackluster as a result of that.You only have 2 moves which would've been almost ok if it wasn't for the horrible movement.
Also the music in the trailers is pretty good but from the little I've played it gets really repetitive and boring after a couple of minutes.Moreover there seems to be a near complete lack of sfx.
Maybe after a couple of updates this game will be worth checking out but in it's current state it feels like an unfinished (from a gameplay perspective) but gorgeous game.

Edit: also for the time being my progress isn't saved at the checkpoints and --there is no way to exit the game other than alt-tab--you can exit by pressing P apparently but it never says so in the game,.Just goes to show how unfinished this game really is.
Edit 2: The response from the developers has been great, they are willing to fix the problems with the game which a step in the right direction.Personally I think if the game released in early access not that many people (including me) would've been so angry over the many problems the game has because there would've been room for improvement until release.

Achievement in 'Slain: Back from Hell‘
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Several months after the initial release you can definitely claim that 'Slain: Back from Hell‘ has done an interesting evolution: back in march critics totally 'slayed‘ the game, branding it as a bug-ridden mess with bulky gameplay and a massive lack of variation. Overall it was more a lame attempt on side-scrolling-arcade-games from the 80’s and 90’s than a great memorial.

However 'Slain' provided one aspect that even a lot of bigger and better games lack: a team of developers that was willing to see bad decisions, accepted them and did their best to improve the game. They started releasing lots of updates and fixes to improve nearly every aspect of the game and listened to the (small) community: the gameplay was improved and the fights became more diversified, they re-wrote the mostly 'meh‘ dialogues, eliminated most of the bugs and added some more content to improve the games‘ overall length (e.g. additional bosses).

At least once a week there was a new update and now in August they re-released the game as 'Slain: Back from Hell‘ (and even handed out a gift key copy for persons who already bought it). And to cut a long story short: their work was not in vain - Slain has improved massively over the last months.
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One thing that can be seen nearly instantly is that the graphic style and the design definitely looks beautiful. It‘s not only colorful and dark at the same time but it also fits the overall metal-gore style perfectly. In combination with the (mostly badass) metal soundtrack Slain is definitely an interesting retro-arcade-adventure for ears and eyes.
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Take your sword and start slicing skeletons, witches and other demonic beings into little bits while trying not to be killed by their weapons, spells or some nasty traps. Every now and then you will be confronted with a jumping passage or a boss fight to bring some diversity to the way you die.

The battle system comes with handy charged attacks, blocks, ripostes and some (chargable) mana powers and you will definitely need their help to get further in this hellish realms. At first some timings and hitboxes seem a bit weird but you get used to it pretty fast and then the system feels easy and mostly comfortable – there’s not much to complain about though I’d have liked some more depth and some additional weapons (the metal sword, the fire blade and the ice axe feel quite alike).

The difficulty level is set pretty high and you will see the 'You have been SLAIN‘ screen a lot. Everything (aside from probably one or two NPCs) wants to kill you and the enemies and traps are quite capable of doing so. You’ll die a lot and if you plan to get all of the achievements you can probably say goodbye to your nerves and patience - the menu option 'Restarting from Checkpoint‘ will become your best friend when trying to beat some nasty bosses without taking damage (yes, I'm talking about you 'Mother Beholder').

The overall length of the game is approximately around five or six hours. Sadly there’s not much replay value aside from some hidden talisman parts and the achievements. Some more hidden rooms and stuff to explore would have been an interesting addition to the game.
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As already mentioned the levels are quite linear and there’s nearly nothing to explore. That's a shame as the areas look interesting and provide a bit of lore as well - the potential for additional paths, rooms and secrets is definitely there. Moreover the game has some annoyingly hard passages due to spamming mobs or difficult ambushes. This can be very frustrating and even if you're used to challenging titles and tough sequences, you will probably end in hating the game or at least some areas as much as you like other parts.

In addition the game has some achievements that are right out of hell as well. One example here is to finish the whole game without loosing a life. Sure…
...I love challenges but that sounds like a total nope.
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'Slain' is a great example to show what can happen when developers care about their product. After their failure with the initial launch of the game (they released it early due to internal problems) they accepted their mistakes and made lots of patches to fix the problems. Now the game is very different compared to the first release and it’s finally the game it should have been from the start: a nice little homage to oldschool arcade-action adventures.

Maybe the Metascore of 44 was deserved back in march when it was first released, however now the game is a lot of fun, the developers care about their product and still continue to support it - I’d give the game at least an 7.5 out of 10. Because I bloody love gory-retro-hellish-viking-styled fantasy-metal-monster-slayers (...even with some flaws and a lack of depth).

By the way: your character is able to headbang to celebrate the victorious slaying of a boss and his hair is definitely fabulous. Metal as f*ck.
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This endorsement approved by The Reviewers' Union, providing better standards for reviews and reviewers.

NOTE: This game is NOT a Metroidvania. It is a series of levels and each one is 99% linear.

Slain! looks great, and it looks even better in motion. But that's the only thing any effort was put into. The controls are awkward and the enemy design is worse. Animation/collision bugs cause your combo to drop or your swings to not complete. 75% of the big enemies can have their AI broken by simply ducking and mashing attack. WHAT!

I feel like this game was not rigorously playtested. This is because when I beat the game in about 4 hours (I didn't finish the sewer level, I think that's an after game challenge level?) I was treated to invisible credits and a soft-lock. Really.

If you read the credits (via the menu, since the end-game ones never show up) there is no writer credited. Which makes sense, because the sloppy drivel is rife with grammatical and punctuation errors. Phrases like "BTW" and "THX" are used at certain points. Those lines freaking killed my soul. Was this written on a cell phone? Why would they be so lazy here? It almost seems like an intentional middle finger. The stupid thing is, the story could (and should) be completely removed and it would feel much better. Just like old Castlevania games or whatever. No reasons needed, just do some platforming and fighting cool monsters.

I also want to hate on the music, since every one else likes it for some reason. Yes, it is indeed heavy metal and it does use live guitars. But that's it. It's just a constant chug-chug-chug in the background with no variety or even solos. Remember how Symphony of the Night used rock organs and synths and had Baroque pieces, creepy ambience in the caves, and only brought out the rockin' when s*** got REAL? Yeah, that's why it was so GOOD. I guess it's not fair to compare this against what might be the best VG OST of all time, but WHATEVER man. The music in this game doesn't even loop correctly. Ever. Also, I've been a metalhead since my teens (about 20 years going) so it's not a genre thing. Believe me, I was hyped.

TLDR: Super disappointment. Sorry. Wait for Bloodstained to come out a year or so from now.

Slain Expectations

Full disclosure: review copy provided by developer/publisher!

And so like The Lady before it, Steam has sharted out another half-baked indie title for us to enjoy in the waning days of winter – this time it's Slain!, an arcadey, 2D hack n' slash. Let me get this out of the way right off the bat: this isn't an AWFUL game. It looks great... no, it looks SPECTACULAR. This is lovingly crafted stuff: the baddies, the bosses, the backgrounds, the foregrounds, the GROUNDgrounds! It's a slick looking, heavy metal album cover of a game.

But it all falls apart, unfortunately, like a conversation with a beautiful airhead.

“So what kind of hobbies do you have, Slain!?”

“Pizza!”

“Pizza isn't a hobby, Slain.”

“Horses!”

“Alright, we're done here.”

It's just kind of... vapid? That's my biggest complaint, and the most damning, unpatchable one. The combat has no impact... and that's CRITICAL for a hack n' slash. What it lacks in combat depth it should make up for in VIOLENT, RADICAL, FEEL-GOOD COMBAT. It doesn't sound good, and it doesn't feel good. The majority of the game you can spam the attack button and watch as the minions of SATAN crumble like so much tissue paper before your standard sword. Hell, I didn't realize I could switch between elemental weapons or use spirit bombs until halfway through the game (I figured they mentioned fire, ice, and steel as a Game of Thrones reference or something, honestly). I guess that's another issue in and of itself: the game doesn't really explain itself well. “Spirit bombs are great for clearing out tons of enemies!” Thanks game! How in the ♥♥♥♥ do I do that?

And besides all that you run along a fairly linear path, slapping switches and jumping on platforms. It's all very uninspired, save for the brilliant art design. And the story? Forgettable. You play as one Geralt - I mean Bathoryn? And you have been brought back to life to destroy evil? And that's that. Go around and kill evil. And the dialogue is bizarrely disjointed - sometimes they stick to the old timey spiel, sometimes there's a weird modern tone that's just short of "LOL."

This is likely a byproduct of this game having been rushed out the door before it was ready... it was delayed at least twice as far as I know, and it still feels unrefined, unpolished, unfinished. The platforming is MOSTLY okay, but there are some serious spatial issues with some platforms (lookin' at you Wolfswood Caves with your stupid aggravating smashy, insta-death falls if you don't jump on the last frickin' pixel of a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ LEDGE ♥♥♥♥). The enemies all look cool, but they're just so much fodder – even the bosses. Slash 'em, run around 'em, slash 'em, rinse and repeat, dead. I seldom had to dodge, just casually smack them as they (in futility) try and break through my attack spamming.

Despite there being checkpoints, if you quit out of the game during a level you have to start the whole damned thing over again – and some of the more frustrating, platformy ones can take a substantial amount of time. If you decide you have somewhere else to be don't quit out until you actually beat the damned boss. Once you beat an area you're free to explore, replay a level... but why would you? It's mostly linear, the combat is unsatisfying, and the “puzzles” aren't all that puzzley.

At the end of the day this is a gussied up pig. It looks AMAZING – but wipe away the makeup and you'll see it's a Berkshire boar with beady little soulless eyes. Even if they fix the myriad of issues (achievements, control issues, sound issues, typos) this is one to avoid unless heavily discounted.

Its what it was supposed to be! .. its FINALLY WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE!

After the most recent update and change to "Slain: Back from Hell", this revamped version is everything we wanted from the game. Its a hardcore trial by error slog that feels challenging and rewarding to succeed. The music is amped up, the animations have been made even better and the combat system is much more fleshed out and intuitive.

If you already have the game but was dissapointed by it, now is the time to play it.

If you liked the look of the game but never bought it (understandably), now is the time to try it out!

patch#1 has made Slain the game I was hoping it would be. I use a 360 controller and it plays smooth and responsive. I love the graphics and music in this game. Totally worth buying now if you like sidescoller action platformers!

Patch #1.25 Better controller support and I love the new block button. Great job getting this game fixed devs.

I would say that Slain: Back from Hell is NES hard but that would not give it justice. The difficulty is not exactly fair and frankly, the game mechanics like counter-hit and block are not very reliable. METAL music and Pixel art is top of the line but if you can't beat the level, you won't see a whole lot of the game. Platforming elements are lacking so you just gonna mash buttons and hope all that cluster-**** on the screen does not kill you. I can't classify it as a bad game but if you have no tolerance for BS difficulty you probably won't enjoy it.

Man the achievements for this game. "Beat the game without Dying" which only 0.1% of players have after presumably 5000+ people who played the game. Basically, the developer made a joke and nobody gonna get completion for this game. You will have better luck beating Battletoads blindfolded.

Gameplay

It is not much of a platformer. All you have is a basic jump and a back-dash which does not give much mobility. 90% of the game is the just timing your attack and counter-hit. Hope you can kill them before they kill you. There are some secret areas but for the most part, the game is rather linear. Even though the game is focused on combat that part is also lacking, to say the least. Aside from basic attack, you have charged attack which is too slow for the pace of the game. You will get some powerups such as different weapons that deal extra damage to specific enemies ( and...they don't really change how you play )

Overall pretty generic mechanics and not all that interesting. Skill in the game is mostly gained by trial and error instead of good judgment. Usually, there are too many enemies on the screen to apply any strategy on the go. You will mostly progress by dying over and over until you know exactly what to do.

How fair is the Difficulty

There are some beginner traps but you can spot them visually. It may not seem like a big problem until enemies start to bounce you back into instadeath spots. One of the sections in the game took me maybe 40+ respawns and was the only level 2. It is kinda like birds in Castlevania feeling multiplied by 3. Since the game has a lot of tedious button mashing, restarting the same section over and over is not particularly fun.
Checkpoints can be pretty unforgiving. It seems like the game always wants to push it one step too far out of your comfort zone.

In some spots, I am not even sure if it is possible to avoid damage. Like you are completely surrounded by enemies with a bunch of projectiles coming from both sides. The only solution sometimes is to take few hits on purpose and get to one side of the screen.

So the game teaches you to use block which by the way has extremely poor consistency in the game. Some of the regular enemies, go right through with no indication. Even if you do block the damage reduction is abysmal. I find it easier to either avoid close combat completely or rely on charge/counter hit. Counter-Hit is the name of the game. You need it to get through many big enemies but even if I time it to animation it just works 33% of the time. It depends on the enemy but you cannot rely on the damn thing even though you have to do it consistently throughout the game.


Pixel Art & Music & Presentation

This is one thing that game does flawlessly. Some of the coolest pixel gore in the business but it might be hard to enjoy aesthetics when the game requires so much focus. Everything has a METAL theme which makes constant deaths appropriate. I like the occasional boobies, very nice touch. Animations look great and there is a good variety of enemies and levels.I also like the small story bits and interactions between characters.


I generally do not hold the difficulty against the game but it could use some "difficulty settings". The gameplay depth is not even that deep or unique in any way. The saving grace for me and the only reason I can recommend it is the fantastic pixel art. Hard games are fun when frustration is balanced by fun gameplay but here you get a lot of frustration and a lot of tedious repetition.

The developers of this game have an excellent talent for aesthetics and music. It doesn't quite extend to the writing (mostly mechanical stuff like punctuation; the story itself is a pretty fun cheesy power metal romp).

However, the real flaw is in game design:

- Enemies, even the most basic enemies, soak up an enormous number of hits.
- There appears to be an elemental weakness system (???), but there's no rhyme or reason to what enemies are weak to what, other than what you are explicitly told. No consistent color scheme, animation, or other visual cue, nor is there a special sound effect for hitting a weakness.
- The elemental "upgrades" are given to you at the *start* of levels where none of the enemies (as far as I can tell) are weak to that element.
- The basic sword with no elemental enchant is often the best weapon. It is faster and deals more damage than elemental weapons to many enemies (killing the annoying knife ghosts in 1 hit rather than 2+).
- Switches and moving platforms are often set up so that you have to wait for them to complete a full movement cycle to board them.

However, the thing that made me put the game down out of sheer disbelief was a section in a later level with "flaming skellywags" (skeletons with fire sword/shield). These enemies have multiple annoying mooks accompanying them that knock you out of animations. Furthermore, an NPC cheekily tells you that ice will counter their fire magic. Equip the ice axe and go to town, right?

- Their sword slash instantly kills from full health.
- Their shield blocks all damage while they aren't attacking.
- You can't simply walk back and forth to bait an attack, since they have a pulling effect that extends a fair distance in front of them.
- Ice magic shots do nothing special.
- Charged ice magic shots do nothing special.
- Pulling off the extremely slow charged-up heavy attack with proper timing does nothing special.
- Blocking their attacks with the ice axe achieves nothing (it one-shots you anyway).
- Parrying and countering with the ice axe requires 3 (!!) iterations plus some extra hits. Remember, if you slightly mistime your parry you die instantly.

- There are TWO of these, plus mooks, in a row in the span of one save point. And *then* there's a durable enemy with a ranged attack that leaves a lingering AoE effect, placed right after the second skeleton.

Dying to the instant death traps is pretty amusing, the game looks nice and has decent music and compelling theming. The wolf level is definitely the best one.
However, it is frustrating, more than a little abstruse, and lacks polish in enemy, level, sound, and boss design. I wouldn't pick this up if I were you, but I look forward to what this developer creates in the future.