Recent reviews by onlyKentrop

** Reviewed between the 1.0.4 and 1.0.14 updates **

Let me start off by saying the recommendation is borderline. There's a lot that I could say in both the positive and the negatives for Kristala, and the positives just about outweigh the negatives.

First of all, a big BIG positive in any game is difficulty scaling. No one wants to pay hard earned money (I realise the irony of it being a PR copy I got when I say this) for a game that they consistently hit brick walls in, even if it is a Souls-like, which are notoriously hard games. Being able to choose difficulty on the fly is a great feature, as well as the idea of a dynamically scaling "easy mode" to move with you as you play the game.

Thematically, great. The different factions at war, the antagonists, and their forces are explained reasonably well, and the lore drops through items are fed at a reasonable rate (look for the green beams!)

Combat is both a positive and a negative. I love the idea of stealth and roof attacks to thin out crowds, but there's a large reliance on it sometimes, as areas can feel a bit too crowded.
Combat also feels a bit weak at times, attacks don't really have the THUMP that they need, and lacking a jumping heavy attack should be a crime, especially with how slow the Greatsword can feel at times. I went through the game start to finish with the sword and shield, and despite quick tries with the claws and the greatsword, didn't really feel the need to change off of them.

Magic was very meh. I used the blood magic through the entire game, and despite there being 3 trees, I never actually found out how to unlock them, despite doing all the the crystal side missions. Before (I think) 1.0.7, minions had no lifetime, and you could eventually get a massive crowd of them and just walk through areas. After 1.0.7, minions have about a 5 minute lifespan. Enough to do something, but not enough to get an army going.

One thing I was very disappointed in was the ending. The only idea that I had about the boss being the last one was when it was killed and the achievement popped. No build up, just a boss fight, and no real fanfare afterwards, just the logo and credits.

Another optional thing that would help... a trail of glitter sparkles that could be used by a player to figure out where they're supposed to go, think pushing in the right stick on Elden Ring, that trail. There were a few times on streams where I was running in circles for easily an hour in total trying to find the one way up, either missing traversal poles, or the light scratch marks on a snowy surface.

So some improvements needed, but overall not a bad time investment.

A really nicely paced shooter, even on the higher difficulties it's not too bad.
Really unique in the art style, there's not too many games wanting to take the old Disney style, and turn it into a film noir, and have the floppy stylisation on top of that.

There's also a big nod to the old boomer shooters, in the 2.5D style too, you'll notice nothing has a side profile, everything is either front or back.

Only thing I would say is that the minigame is a disappointment (as most of them are, they're kind of tacked on and not thought about too much), as well as a few interface bugs, if you go too fast, then you can reliably double draw the interface and lock out the controls. Autosave means you don't lose too much time, but be weary of that.

Ending was satisfying, but if you've missed anything in the game, then you need to trudge back through the entire thing, there's no post-game mission select to hoover up missing bits.

Overall not a disappointment, and well worth it.

I love it. Dumb as a pile of bricks, and absolutely unashamed of how absurd it is.
Caught some strays with deep voices in my ears, and had the developers in my stream calling me out for being a brat... so I climbed their damn ladder!

Completely recommended, even if it wasn't free!

Game is unfortunately dead. Last update on Discord was in 2022 about concurrent players being too low and needing to implement peer to peer connections and nothing since. Shame, since it really looked interesting.

While I did receive a copy of this for free to review on stream, I've not actually been able to get into a game beyond a few minutes, as the 4 different matches I've had, the other person left very quickly.

The mechanics are very much in the normal tactical FPS space, cover leaning is rather nice, although according to the other person in the game, actually seems to register as being fully behind cover (as of the 10/Feb, when the game happened), so may actually just be as straight up "You can't hit me", instead of giving a small advantage.

Sniper rifles in this are as powerful as you expect from this type of game, being a one hit kill on any area of the body, and compensated for with being very slow for follow up fire.

Graphics are as on-point as you would expect for an Unreal Engine game in late 2021/early 2022, although there's a lot of reused art and textures around the map, but not right next to each other as to be distracting.

All of that said, there's nothing in the game that makes it stand out from any other "Cops vs bad guys" shooter, especially not when paired against the likes of the now-aged CS:GO, which has the advantage of being free, and has a very active player base. Warcos, on the other hand, has very few (if any) players, and initially had the pricing on a psuedo-AAA game, but has since come down to the more "usual" indie pricing of about £9.

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