Recent reviews by Drowning witch

15 hours later and I've finished creating half of my party. that's 3 out of 6 characters. I read the official English manual a few times, read the alternate Amiga manual in English as it is more detailed, and also Google translated large chucks of the German manual, which is the most complete. I've also read two GOG forum threads on spells. There were 2 threads needed to just list all the spells and describe them each with a single sentence as the forum post size limit was reached.

Will report back in 2020 once I get to play a bit, and my kids will let your kids know about the ending.

Would get a doctorate in pen&paper RPG's again. 12/10 IGN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ElcMDLfEYE&feature=youtu.be
It's ok. Nothing special. The sense of speed is there, performance is good overall, but there's a noticeable framedrop/hitch when you hit a wall or drive through grass. Not always, but when it does happen it's quite jarring due to the sheer speed of the game. You can see it happen near the end of the video. Looks like a physics calculation performance issue. I saw others mention the same thing.

It's pretty challenging and has decent variety. There's a career mode with progression, upgrades, unlockable characters and a betting system that allows you to predict your place in the upcoming race.
For example, if you say you will finish first, but end up second, you don't unlock the next level, Or at least that's how I understood it in my brief testing. controls feel a bit clunky at first, so there is definitely a learning curve.

Multiplayer is a ghost town on release day, so can't comment on that. Couldn't find a single game. There is split screen so if you are into local MP, might be a blast.

Recommended for die hard fans of the genre at the current price, for everyone else, best wait for a sale.

Refunded, as the game doesn't run at stable 60 fps on the following PC even with all settings at lowest@1080p:

i5 4670k 4.6ghz
gtx 970 1.5ghz/8ghz
16gb ddr3 2400mhz
Samsung 840 pro 256gb SSD
win10 64

Don't bother with the game unless you can handle FPS drops below 60fps, don't mind 30fps lock, or have an i7 5xxx/6xxx and a gtx1060 or better GPU for stable 60fps@1080p. as for 1440p, not even a gtx1080 can max it out at stable 60fps.

It's also worth noting that the devs have entered the Soon™ mode when it comes to patching the game.

Updated with a video so you can see for yourself how it behaves in a cpu limited area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZv7mkmaYI&feature=youtu.be


On the other hand, if you don't mind sub 60 fps, the game feels much smoother once you fully shift into GPU limited territory, for example, at max settings. The downside is, if you game at 60 fps all the time, you might feel nausea until your brain adapts to lower framerate.

https://youtu.be/hmGc5rKBpbE

#sharklivesmatter

(review copy provided by the developer)

That aside, this is a quality indy title. Of the top of my head, when thinking indies, I would compare it to "Defy Gravity extended" and "And Yet It Moves". The basic game mechanics are simple, but used in complex ways in order to challenge players. This results in the game being very addictive when it comes to repeating the tougher sections, pushing you on for the trademark "just one more try".

How would I describe the gameplay? Imagine Guitar Hero, but instead of a simple straight line progression, you are actually in charge of not just the complex button presses, but you also direct your character and have to use the limited abilities at the right places in order to beat the level time to progress. The levels range from 7-25 seconds in length in a perfect run, but obviously, to get to that point, you will go through a "dark souls" process of slowly advancing forward through repetition.

The controls are very tight, and it would be a game breaker if they weren't smooth. You need good reflexes and a decent amount of muscle memory. Some levels later on you really needed to get the muscle memory going, as there's not enough time to visualize every move in your mind during one run. You will have to press 5-6 key combos without even thinking about it, and then you pile that up as you advance, alternating between muscle memory patterns and quick thinking. So while it is essentially a puzzle game, it will require a wider spectrum of mental acuity than slower paced puzzlers do. There is an easy mode though, which I did not test.

The game has 6 chapters, each with around 5 levels, and in between, you are treated to a comic book styled story. The story comics didn't really do anything for me. They were a bit unclear on what is actually happening and why I should care about it in between the actual gameplay as there is no text. Not sure if that was intended so people would observe them a bit longer to get some sort of narrative out of it, but I simply looked at them for a few seconds and then moved on to the actual gameplay as I saw nothing in them but bits and pieces of a family through the years. Definitely the weakest portion of the game for me, but cannot blame it too much. It's the pitfall of indie genre budgeting when it comes to smoother integration of various art forms within a game.

I do have to give a special mention to the fantastic music and sound effects. It reminded me of Barrington Pheloung's Broken Sword themes. That inspirative, transcendental, uplifting tune that just makes you appreciate life as you sit in a sofa in a comfy first world setting. And the best part is, besides the movement keys, every other button you press has a certain sound effect which perfectly gels with the soundtrack, essentially changing it as you keep perfecting your run until you clear a level.

Finished the game today after roughly 9 hours of gameplay. After you clear a chapter, gold times appear for those looking for extra challenge. I didn't even take a look at the gold times as I do realize they would require perfection. A few levels I finished with a 100th of a second left even in the regular times, let alone gold.

If there ever was a better use for the phrase "I don't want to live on this planet anymore", I've yet to discover it.

And it applies both to the scary fact that someone actually made this and the fact that out of nearly 6k reviews, the overall score is "very positive".

5.9 hour long QTE fest down linear corridors, laced with a script that can be described as Uwe Boll's version of Gladiator.

Chiseled chin, six pack wielding, white maned ubermensches rejoice. The derps will have textures like these in 2020.