I would like to start off by saying the game is fantastic and has great visuals. The movement is very fluid and the combat offers a nice challenge. I wouldn't let the negative reviews sway you from checking this out. I have done my best to properly address the core game play loop and offer better insight on some of the common complaints. Please see below.

You start with 4 lives and the goal is to kill the 3 Crown bosses and then the final boss within the span of your 4 lives.
In order to fight a Crown Boss, you need to first fight the Prism Bosses (Elite Enemies) to get keys to unlock a Crown Boss. Each time you die, you gear will degrade by 1 point. If all points are used up on the gear, it is gone.

Beating the boss or losing the run (dieing enough times to fully exhaust all 4 lives) will prompt you to reset the cycle (reload the map). Before the map is reloaded, you will be graded on your performance on the previous cycle. Depending on your grade, you will be given a varying amount of Golden Rations. These items can be used to upgrade your character or the vendors located in the town. I found grabbing all the loot and killing every Prism boss typically nets you 5 Rations.

You start the game with 1 Character and class unlocked. As of the time of writing this, there are 2 other un-lockable characters with 2 classes each. Their starting equipment will be based on their selected class. Each time you start a run (Enter the Over Growth) the map is populated with Prism Bosses, Blades, Guns, and Holobytes (These are basically mods that apply skills to your character and are essential to builds. Guns, Blades and Utility Items like Grenades, Turrets, .etc can either be equipped or cached (sent to your bank to be used on a later run) The holobytes can not be cached as easily.

You can eventually unlock a store that will sell holobytes. This is pretty critical as the Holobytes bought here can be swapped out with what you have equipped, thus allowing you to bank your higher end holobyes.

When you enter the map, you can choose to try to kill the mini bosses and make you way to a Crown boss or you can spend time collecting gear and extracting before it gets too hard. Each time you kill enemies, collect bright blood (the currency used to buy gear) pick-up gear or collect Prisms, the yellow bar on the left-side of your screen will fill more and the map will get harder. Extracting out of the map and re-entering it will reset this bar. Side note: extracting does not degrade your equipment, only dieing dies. If you are playing with friends, everyone will need to die for the gear to degrade. If anyone manages to extract, then all the gear will be fine.

After you have enough good gear collected and stored in your vault, you can then choose to fight a crown boss.


Not Many Healing Options: Healing is a little difficult at the start. You do not start off with the ability to heal yourself with a Med Pack and must unlock it. Fortunately, this option is literally the first thing in your skill tree. If you die and lose all 4 lives, you will get your first Gold Ration and can buy this skill. Until then, you are able to heal with parrying. This is not something told to you in the game, but I chock that up to it being in early access and not all tutorials are here yet. When hit by an enemy, your health will go red. If you are hit again it will be gone until you heal yourself or extract. If you parry while you have red health, it will replenish.

Overwhelming enemies: The game-play is similar to Hyperlight Drifter. You can get easily overwhelmed by enemies, but with a combination of melee attacks, using the gun to pick off/stun enemies and your utility powers (Grenades, Turrets, Golems) its is manageable. You can also kite and use the environment to provide shelter/cover.

Better Dodge/Animation Cancel out of attacks: You cannot animation cancel similar to Dark Souls/Elden Ring. You need to be more mindful with attacking and not spam it. Black Myth Wukong behaved similar. If you take your time a bit with your weapons and pace the attacks out, dodging attacks becomes much easier.

Missing Tutorials: Not much to say about this. There are some things that the game explains, like dashing while in air. But aside from that, alot is up to you to figure out. I know this can be annoying, but I believe the game will have proper tutorials as updates are released.

Again, the game is alot of fun and I do highly recommend it. It may have its kinks now, but keep in mind, we are only a week into its release. Heart Machine has been listening to feedback and quickly implementing patches. If there other titles are anything to vouch for their work, I have no doubt this game will be even better once its out of early access.

[h1] READ BEFORE BUYING [/h1] I would like to start off by saying the game is fantastic and has great visuals. The movement is very fluid and the combat offers a nice challenge. I wouldn't let the negative reviews sway you from checking this out. I have done my best to properly address the core game play loop and offer better insight on some of the common complaints. Please see below. [h2] Core Game Loop [/h2] You start with 4 lives and the goal is to kill the 3 Crown bosses and then the final boss within the span of your 4 lives. In order to fight a Crown Boss, you need to first fight the Prism Bosses (Elite Enemies) to get keys to unlock a Crown Boss. Each time you die, you gear will degrade by 1 point. If all points are used up on the gear, it is gone. Beating the boss or losing the run (dieing enough times to fully exhaust all 4 lives) will prompt you to reset the cycle (reload the map). Before the map is reloaded, you will be graded on your performance on the previous cycle. Depending on your grade, you will be given a varying amount of Golden Rations. These items can be used to upgrade your character or the vendors located in the town. I found grabbing all the loot and killing every Prism boss typically nets you 5 Rations. [h3] Characters and Gear [/h3] You start the game with 1 Character and class unlocked. As of the time of writing this, there are 2 other un-lockable characters with 2 classes each. Their starting equipment will be based on their selected class. Each time you start a run (Enter the Over Growth) the map is populated with Prism Bosses, Blades, Guns, and Holobytes (These are basically mods that apply skills to your character and are essential to builds. Guns, Blades and Utility Items like Grenades, Turrets, .etc can either be equipped or cached (sent to your bank to be used on a later run) The holobytes can not be cached as easily. [spoiler] You can eventually unlock a store that will sell holobytes. This is pretty critical as the Holobytes bought here can be swapped out with what you have equipped, thus allowing you to bank your higher end holobyes. [/spoiler] When you enter the map, you can choose to try to kill the mini bosses and make you way to a Crown boss or you can spend time collecting gear and extracting before it gets too hard. Each time you kill enemies, collect bright blood (the currency used to buy gear) pick-up gear or collect Prisms, the yellow bar on the left-side of your screen will fill more and the map will get harder. Extracting out of the map and re-entering it will reset this bar. Side note: extracting does not degrade your equipment, only dieing dies. If you are playing with friends, everyone will need to die for the gear to degrade. If anyone manages to extract, then all the gear will be fine. After you have enough good gear collected and stored in your vault, you can then choose to fight a crown boss. [h2] Common Complaints [/h2] Not Many Healing Options: Healing is a little difficult at the start. You do not start off with the ability to heal yourself with a Med Pack and must unlock it. Fortunately, this option is literally the first thing in your skill tree. If you die and lose all 4 lives, you will get your first Gold Ration and can buy this skill. Until then, you are able to heal with parrying. This is not something told to you in the game, but I chock that up to it being in early access and not all tutorials are here yet. When hit by an enemy, your health will go red. If you are hit again it will be gone until you heal yourself or extract. If you parry while you have red health, it will replenish. Overwhelming enemies: The game-play is similar to Hyperlight Drifter. You can get easily overwhelmed by enemies, but with a combination of melee attacks, using the gun to pick off/stun enemies and your utility powers (Grenades, Turrets, Golems) its is manageable. You can also kite and use the environment to provide shelter/cover. Better Dodge/Animation Cancel out of attacks: You cannot animation cancel similar to Dark Souls/Elden Ring. You need to be more mindful with attacking and not spam it. Black Myth Wukong behaved similar. If you take your time a bit with your weapons and pace the attacks out, dodging attacks becomes much easier. Missing Tutorials: Not much to say about this. There are some things that the game explains, like dashing while in air. But aside from that, alot is up to you to figure out. I know this can be annoying, but I believe the game will have proper tutorials as updates are released. [h2] Conclusion [/h2] Again, the game is alot of fun and I do highly recommend it. It may have its kinks now, but keep in mind, we are only a week into its release. Heart Machine has been listening to feedback and quickly implementing patches. If there other titles are anything to vouch for their work, I have no doubt this game will be even better once its out of early access.