Recent reviews by Amalgorithmic

It's alright I guess

As an avid fan of both the classic Megaman games, and the Metroid series, I knew I had to at least give this a shot just by looking at it, and man oh man did it deliver. It captured the difficulty of Megaman, albeit in a new way. Rather than unfairly placed enemies taunting you into a bottomless pit, nearly every hazard you touch will likely kill you. While this sounds rather punishing, it feels great to weave in and out of death's grip once you master the controls. Not to mention the various health upgrade to help protect you from many of them, and the lack of lives and/or continues really helps speed things up.

Ultimately, the truly challenging parts of the game are entirely optional anyway. Just visit 60 rooms of the 81 available, collect the power cells within, and defeat the 4 bosses not guarded by completion progress. But, for all of you hardcore completionists out there, don't worry. You certainly get a reward for obtaining that shiny 100% save file. (Or rather half of one, for the moment.) However, that reward's value is truly in the eye of the beholder. I've personally found it to be worth it so far, but I could definitely see others not being as excited about it.

Pros:
- Oddly nostalgic, despite it's age.
- Very easy to just pick up and play, while still feeling like it rewards a better player.
- Autosaves every room so you don't have to worry about losing progress due to power outages or crashes, should they happen. (Other than the trek back, but it's never time consuming.)
- Rewarding for players who put in the extra playtime.
- Great soundtrack that sounds modern, but still very faithful to old Megaman songs.

Cons:
- Pretty short. While the games it draws inspiration from weren't very lengthy games themselves, this one still feels pretty short. Even with the bonus levels, which are extremely challenging and will take quite a bit of time to finish. It'd be pretty cool if there was a "Create a sector" function, or something along those lines. Just something to pad the content a little bit.
- Some rooms seem to be exceedingly difficult compared to the rest of the game. Rooms that are required for 100% completion at that. Mind you that every boss leads to a "Challenge Room", or a room that is supposed to be hard. But there are still a couple that almost feel punishing for not knowing some "secret technique".
- Inconsistent boss difficulty. The Sector 3 main boss is certainly challenging if you aren't prepared for it, and in my honest opinion, is probably the hardest fight in the game regardless. None of them feel soul crushingly difficult, but it's always disappointing to see the final boss be easier than a number of "lesser villains".

If you enjoy the fast paced, side scrolling, run-n-gun action of Megaman, and the exploration and sense of adventure of Metroid, this is definitely the game for you. Just be ready for a challenge. My first run took me almost 3 hours and over 500 deaths to achieve 100%, but I managed to get that down to about 1 hour and 45 minutes with only 240 deaths, and I don't plan on stopping until I earn that sub-20 minute achievement.

Keeping in mind that this is an early access game, I went in with pretty low expectations. So this game completely encapsulated me. While it may not initially seem like there is a lot of content, you'll quickly find exactly how deep the rabbit hole goes, with the ability to upgrade your characters after ending a match, carrying items between games, and a plethora of items and upgrades to use while playing. It very quickly becomes a surprisingly expansive game, compared to it's initial appearance, and mind you, I only finished round 1 at the time of this review. The combat system feels fluid, and the the game runs very well on my low-mid end computer, even on the highest settings, and man oh man, are there a lot of settings to give the game a completely personalized feel.

There isn't much in the way of plot in the game. You're a random guy, with a random team, fighting some random intergalactic demon looking things. I'm a guy who loves a good backstory, but I'll let it slide because there is an entire randomly generated world for us to explore. Each world is composed of 5 areas, and each area is linked to at least one other. I say that, because not every sector is linked to each other, or linked to more than one for that matter. To get from area 1 to area 2, you may end up needing to walk to area 3, then 5. This give the game a very intricate sensation, and makes it seem like a proper dungeon in an RPG.

Throughout these areas, you'll encounter barriers of varying sizes, shapes, and colors. It's up to you to find and destroy the generators keeping those barriers up. This involves playing a minigame with an orb of light, and staying in a designated area it provides. Sounds simple enough, until the hordes of monsters come to make sure those barriers survive. Manage to out last them, and you're rewarded with several pieces from a vast array of items, many of which you use to upgrade your character on the main menu, while others are pieces of gear you can equip right then, or share with your teammates. There is also a currency known simply as "Shards" which you use in the item shop.

No RPG would be complete without the shopkeeper. While there is no true shop, there is a travelling merchant assigned to one of the 5 areas, who's wares have been ransacked and locked in a barrier. After destroying the proper generator, the items are free, and you can trade with the merchant.

Clearing out a specific barrier, and capturing the artifact, will reveal the crystal needed to finish the stage. This is where things can get rather challenging. If you're like me, you feel the urge to complete every available task before moving on. While this would be fine under normal circumstances, this game almost punishes you for it. By doing so, I managed to get the boss up to level 26, while I was still using mostly starting gear. It's not too bad with practice and patience, however.

While all of this is well and good, there are the inevitable gripes with the game. Not too many game breaking issues, just some things that could be fine tuned. The enemies seem to get exponentially more challenging. By the time I finished stage 1, they were already level 26, and the boss was nearly insta-killing me and my AI team. Thankfully with the help of actually helpful and competent AI, I was able to beat him, but it made for a very lengthy and agonizing fight. Mind you, this was on the "Basic" difficulty, which I assumed was easier than "Standard".

I say "assumed" because of a rather large complaint I personally have. The lack of explanations. While this can pretty much sum up everything, this is even more true with the stats, especially on the armor. I assume "Light Armor" means a resistance to light type damage. But why is "Min" a larger number than "Max" most of the time, and other times "Min" is lower? If Min was consistently lower, I'd assume it was the minimum percentage of damage blocked. If it was consistently higher, I'd assume it was the minimum percentage of damage received. But it alternates, which confuses me, and makes it really hard to judge which gear is better or worse, especially since the "Quality" stat in the inventory, actually means the "Durability" stat, shown on the item, and there is no definitive "Armor" stat. I'm not quite sure what the "Tier" category in the inventory list means, but I assume it is a very basic guide as to which item is better, similar to World of Warcraft's "Item Level" system. The higher the tier, the better the item in theory. However, you also need to check stats to make sure you are getting what you need for your class. Everything seems to be wrapped in mystery, and I couldn't seem to find any information on any of it. Just some simple tool tips would suffice.

The worst issue I have though, stems from the random crashes. My first time making it to the boss of stage 1, we fought an epic battle. Both teammates down, and I was out of potions, after a lengthy stage. I manage to fake him out, and deal the killing blow... or not. Because the game just randomly closed, making me lose all of my progress. I know it's still in beta, and the crashes seem to be getting ironed out fairly quickly. The unfortunate issue is, I've had several different crashes, all stemming from different issues. I had a crash just walking around. I've had a crash while travelling from area 2 to area 5. I've had a crash from staying on the main menu. There seems to be no basis for what causes the crashes.

A few minor things I'd like to bring up, and it is mostly just graphical things. Even after fixing the game and putting it into an optimal resolution, the font still seems rather small for some things, mostly the options menu. Granted, I'm not exactly playing on a massive 70-inch screen, but I still think it could benefit from SLIGHTLY larger text. A brighter glow for loot would also be appreciated, or a thicker outline through the terrain, to give a better sense of location, since many of the items appear to be really small, and can sometimes hide under the ground, or in the grass. The smallest little thing to suggest, maybe add an easier way to compare gear. Hovering over an unequipped piece of equipment could show it's stats in one box, and the currently equipped piece in another, then have green or red numbers, symbolizing if the stats were better or worse, respectively.

Beta game issues aside, the game feels like it has absolutely AMAZING potential, and I'm excited to see what lies in wait for it's future. Maybe some new game modes, new species, new classes, new maps, or new map themes. So many possibilities, and for a free game, it is absolutely worth playing either alone, or with friends.

I got a brand new gaming computer because my laptop didn't run it properly. This computer is better in every way but crashes constantly. Fix your game .