Recent reviews by NonServiam

Wow even if this wasn't a free game I would strongly recommend this game if you are at all into old school tb roguelikes and CRPGS. It's more a CRPG than roguelike, as not all of the world is procgen and death is pretty forgiving. Although there is a permadeath mode if you want more true roguelike experience.

This is a highly polished and complete game and the fact that it's FREE is amazing. You have no excuse and nothing stopping you from plaything this game. It has a great atmospheric aesthetic with a fantastic original OST to compliment it. A true old school experience with more modern execution that makes it more accessible than trying to get into Ultima in 2024. You can choose to have the old school UI, or use the modern one. Personally I prefer the modern one since it frees up the screen to appreciate the gorgeous pixel graphics. Especially if you are playing on a small screen such as the steam deck.

Which brings me to my next point of praise. THIS GAME IS DECK VERIFIED AND HAS FULL CONTROLLER SUPPORT. However it is worth pointing out since it doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere on the steam page that you have to run the latest beta build of the game to get it to recognize controller support. If you are playing on steam deck definitely do this before launching the game. It plays like a dream on deck and button mapping is very intuitive.

Give this game a shot! Especially if you have a steam deck. It plays like a dream on deck!

If you like Cult of the Lamb you'll like this.

People review bombing this game day 1 of EA as if its a full release game.

Even for early access it's great. I do think $40 is a bit high of a price to ask for Early Access day 1, but the game shows a lot of potential. Worth supporting if you have any interest in the game at all.

Some things that could definitely be improved on are key binding for gamepads and optimization, which are easy fixes. Perhaps some adjustments to enemy AI and the way they respond to attacks. But the fundamentals of the game show great potential.


Looking forward to seeing how the game evolved during EA.

TEARS UP

The best "action rogue like" I've played. Really fun and a TON of content for a $10 game in early access. 10/10 recommend.

I really wanted to love this game. At first glance and for the first couple hours it seems great, but once you've made it through the first couple cycles the glaring flaws start to show. The devs made some serious design flaws when making this game that really hold it back. For example having to do the combat training sequence every new cycle if you go through the area, which you don't even get to until your third cycle anyway. Why would you have to do a tutorial every new cycle? Being cut off from previous areas with no apparent reason why. The skill tree is 50% useless skills/perks you will never use. And the bosses are extremely ez. I'm on cycle 5 and I've died once. Game is very easy especially if you've played a lot of Metroidvanias.

The worst thing about this game though is the exploration. That's one of the best qualities of a gear Metroidvania. In Ultros, all areas look more or less the same with the same color scheme and aesthetic making it really annoying to trying to remember if you've been somewhere or not. You pretty much just have to memorize the layouts or go off landmarks.

Hate to give this a thumbs down because it could have been a good game, but due to some severe design flaws I can't recommend it.

If you can grind passed the early game and break through to the mid/late campaign where your battle bros are geared up and battles seem fair, it's a great game. Early game is BRUTAL though with unfair RNG and the constant struggle of maintaining gold, resources, and the number of bros you have makes every battle high risk often times without enough reward. It's very challenging to get ahead in this game...but if you can persevere it's very rewarding. It will probably take you more than one attempt even on beginner difficulty. Strongly recommend watching some guides.

Simple but fun and addicting castle defense game. Well worth the price of admission for EA. Unlike a lot of strategy and defense games, this one is immediately fun right from the start.

I've been gaming for as long as I can remember and grew up playing games like SotN and Hollow Knight was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Total masterpiece from start to finish.

This game is amazing. It does have some optimization and performance issues on PC but I played through the entire campaign with no crashes. Only some serious drops in framerate in a couple rooms.

Extremely satisfying gunplay. Enemies are fun to fight and the bullet hell aspects are pure eye candy. I just wish there was more actual bosses.

9/10 recommend.