Recent reviews by Morphic

TLDR: The game is pretty good and the small Developer team plans on adding more content. It can be tough but there are difficulty options that make the game easy or much harder.

The game has some English translations issues, but you should still be able to understand all important elements.(With a couple of exceptions) This is a great Turn based Tactics game, recent updates have added difficulty options. Easy makes the game mostly a cakewalk, Brutal offers a significant challenge(by letting enemies gain passives/traits, unit permadeath, no restarts, etc.)

There are some flaws: it feels like the Evernight Clan only has 1 way to play, some Bosses either hard counter certain setups or have very punishing gimmicks, some Relics are too niche... but overall the positives outweigh those negatives.

This is not a Factorio type of game. Riftbreaker is more like a Tower Defense with a Hero. Mr. Riggs (you) can be upgraded and customized with weapons to easily handle enemy waves all by itself. However, gaining and protecting your resource nodes/outposts can be challenging and require using defenses. There are all sorts of towers, from mine layers to attack drones to mini-nuke artillery and plasma shield generators.

Overall, if you are looking a for a Factorio type game you will be disappointed. If you are looking for a more active Tower Defense or simple base building game... then you might have a lot of fun with Riftbreaker.

Overall: Hades is a great game, easily a 9/10. There's some flaws and the gameplay loop isn't for everyone. The game is a Roguelite, so expect to die a lot. However, there are persistent upgrades you can unlock and improve to make things easier. There's even a "God Mode" option that makes you tougher and very difficult to kill. For the more hardcore player, once you beat the game you unlock options to increase and customize the difficulty. It isn't just artificial "more enemies that are faster and spongier". You can give Bosses more phases or unique attacks, impose time limits, or make you sacrifice upgrades.

Story: People familiar with Supergiant will be expecting a story rich game, which Hades is. However, Hades presents the story in bits and pieces. There's a lot to uncover and it's contextual, so Bosses and Characters will comment on your deaths, wins, items, set ups, etc. The downside is that you often need to complete many runs in order to progress the overarching story or complete certain quests.

Gameplay: As you see in the trailer, the game is top down and "hack 'n slash" combat. You can Dash any time you are not stunned or rooted, your Dash gives you i-frames. So you can easily start wailing away on an enemy then Dash out of your combo to safety. There are 6 weapons to choose from, which all have unique attacks and upgrades. Each weapon has 5 "Aspects" that change the inherent bonuses of the weapon. For example, the Bow has an Aspect that makes its arrows homing, while another makes you shoot multiple in a shotgun spread. A major component is the various God "Boons" which alter your attacks and abilities. Zeus will make your basic attacks do chain lightning, Artemis lets you do Critical hits. Dionysus makes you inflict Poison, etc. There are tons of various Builds you can make trying to find what works best for you. They are randomized during a Run though, so you might go an entire Run without ever seeing Zeus. However, there are trinkets you can equip that guarantee a specific God drop.

Simple but effective Units - There are only 6 to choose from but they are good at what they do, so you don't need more.

Simple Resource Management - This is akin to Rise of Nations. You simply build a Sawmill next to some Trees to get Wood.

Lots of Zombies - There may not be Billions, you do have the clear the map of ~4k starting zombies and deal with regular hordes.

Survival Mode aka "Skirmish" - There are ~10 different Tilesets you can choose that randomly generate a layout.

Leaderboards - If you care for comparing and competing Score against friends/other players.

Multiple Difficulties - Ranging from Easy to Nightmare. Basically the higher the difficulty, the more zombies and less time you have

Weekly Challenges - Seemingly randomly generated to add spice for experienced Players.

Map Editor/Modding - This is closer towards the Map Editor from WarCraft than fullblown modding.


Campaign is lackluster - The major "selling point" back in Early Access was the Campaign... and it's a massive letdown.

Genre Identity Crisis - The game tries to be an RTS/Tower Defense hybrid while having Roguelike Ironman and seems to fall short

Leaderboards - There's been Cheaters since Early Access, the Devs have tried to curb it but generally the top ~10 are Cheaters.

Imbalance - While there are a few Tactics/Strats that are viable; there are things that simply suck compared to other options. (E.g. a Mill gives you 30 Energy, Costs 300 Gold with a 6 Gold Upkeep. The Upgraded version gives 60, Costs 800 with a 40 Upkeep)

Punishing Gameplay - You cannot Save/Reload. If you make a mistake and a zombie gets through to your houses; Game Over.


The game is good enough that you do get your money's worth from it. It can be quite fun watching your ~30 Soldiers try holding off an incoming horde of ~900 Zombies that just tore down your Wood Walls. You have things like the Shock Tower that emits a Lightning Nova effect frying zombies to crisps and Rocket launching Thanatos creating satisfying explosions. However the Campaign basically being a glorified sequenced Skirmish Mode, various small imbalances and a lack of major diversity ... and the game gets pretty bland after a while. I do recommend the game because it is fairly solid; I have to warn you to really watch Streams and seriously think if you want an RTS game that tries to be a Tower Defense Rogue-lite.

Path of Exile is your typical ARPG fare of running around slaying mobile loot containers. The twist comes from the massive Skill Tree, which allows great customization for Min/Maxers, and variety of Ability combinations. You can do all sorts of things ranging from spawning Skeletons that explode into bursts of lightning bolts to shooting an Ice Blade that bounces to nearby enemies and creates bouncing balls of lava upon impact.

IMO, the major drawback with Path of Exile lies in its massive Skill Tree. At first you feel each point is meaningful but once you get experienced, you realize you are only going for specific "Keystone" nodes and getting just enough Stat nodes for requirements. You can do a lot and pretty much anything will be "good enough" to get you to End-Game. However, IMO, a lot of the skill tree is just fluff. That doesn't mean it isn't fun creating all sorts of builds though!

GemCraft is one of those Tower Defense games that people either love or hate. It favors the "Quality over Quantity" approach and, initially, players are regulated to using the Towers(Gems) the Level provides until they can permanently unlock them. At first I was hooked for the first ~20 hours, however then it started to feel repetitive and now I play in bursts. One of the better Tower Defense games in my opinion.

Pros:

• You have 9 different Towers(Gems) to use.
  
• There are many different Areas/Levels that allow you to try different things.
  
• Many Difficulty options that allow you to make the game Harder; and get more rewards for doing so.
  
• A Skill System that you can freely respect. Skills include Gem effectiveness to Spells that can Freeze enemies or boost towers.
  
• A "Loot" System that allows you to gain "Talisman Fragments" that offer various Passive bonuses.
  
• Great atmosphere, in my opinion.

Cons:

• Despite having 9 Gems, you usually are only going to use ~4 of them.
  
• The "Talisman Fragments" make a difference but overall don't feel impactful until much later in the game.
  
• Generally 1 Tactic/Strategy is "the best" for all levels.
  
• The game is basically a Min/Maxer's vacation. To beat the higher difficulties/Endurance mode you essentially need to juggle upgrading your main Kill Tower/Trap and "Manafarm" to ensure you gain enough currency to stay ahead of your enemies.
  
• Still using Flash engine. This only becomes an issue when there are 100+ enemies/effects going on and the game starts crawling. This wouldn't be a big issue, except End-Game play incentivizes you to have 900+ enemies on screen at once.

The game was great fun when it first started and the Devs decided to listen to everyone. After a couple of years their greed got in the way, they partnered with Ubisoft to get on Consoles;before the PC version was beyond Alpha. Then they decided to patch the Consoles before furthering the PC ... soon after they decided to go VR and make seperate versions specifically for VR. Finally they started to listen to only the most hardcore top tier competitive players ... which turned the game into some cheap mobile game but hey, buy more cosmetics and maybe get "AirMech Prime" for a single player experience campaign. Y'know, if they decide to actually follow through with it of course.

TLDR: Before Ubisoft and multiplatform the Devs actually had an idea of what they were doing, what they wanted to do and constantly asked for Feedback. After Ubi, they must of realized they could milk players and span multiple platforms to get more suckers to fall for their promises. The Devs know how to sweet talk but their track record thus far hasn't been that great.

Imagine your standard Metroidvania-esque Game. Maybe it's Super Metroid, maybe it's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Now imagine a 2D Fighting Game. Maybe it's the older Street Fighters, maybe it's one of the BlazBlue games...

Now take both of those things and mash them together; you get Valdis Story. It's this weird mix of Devil May Cry style combat inside a Metroidvania game.


- Tight and Responsive Controls that combine with a Combat System reminiscent of an Arcade Fighting Game. You can combo enemies, you can Air Juggle enemies, you can Stun-lock enemies, You can do a 15-hit ground combo, uppercut the enemy into the Air, Juggle them for another 15-hits then finish them off with a Spell for a 31-hit combo! Did I mention the better your Combo'es the more Experience and better Drop Chance you get from the enemy you kill? Oh yeah, 100+ hit combo'es are a thing.

- Clean, Straight-forward Skill Trees. Want to specialize in using Magic Attacks, yet be able to dish out a few good Melee strikes if needed? Check. Want to play defensively and Parry/Counter-attack for big damage? Sure why not?

- Plenty of Equipment/Accessory Options that enable you to tweak or augment your preferred playstyle/build. Want to be able to gain increasing Attack Damage and Attack Speed while doing combo'es? There's an Armor for that. Tired of getting hit by Spells and you just wish you could Nullify them with a press of the Block button? There's an Accessory for that. Want to make your "Buster Sword" Scale with Magic/INT and use it to set your enemies on Fire or Freeze them based on what Elemental Spell you are using? There's a Weapon Upgrade for that!

- A "Free Roam" style map that gives you that Metroidvania feel. Discovering Secrets, finding Areas you can't quite reach so you come back later, doing a few Side-Quests to get more Materials for "Buying" Gear ... Oh, and unlocking Shortcuts, discovering Optional Bosses and rescuing Crew Members that you can Summon mid-fight for a Bonus.

- A good amount of Bosses; 26 in Total if I remember right. Each Boss is actually unique and seperates itself from the others. Sure, it may start off with Standard Fare of just "Oh look he just 3-hit combo'es into a special move. Only this time he uses Ice instead of Fire!". However that is only the first couple of Bosses. After that the game really amps it up. You'll quickly fight Bosses that can Combo you for 20+ Hits if you aren't careful or Summon Minions to help while Casting Spells.

- A pretty solid Story that features multiple Characters. This isn't one of the plethora of Game Maker-esque stories. It's more akin to the Castlevania or Metroid games; not too deep but not superficial either. You'll have 2 Characters to Select from at the start, then unlock another 2 upon beating the game once. The Story stays the same but the interactions and Dialogue adjusts for whatever Character you're playing. One Character faces a nemesis, while another faces a sibling. One Character is treated like a Savior, another is treated like the Devil incarnate.


- Boss Ranks. This is a somewhat ambiguous topic. Upon defeating a Boss, you'll gain a Bonus on how well you did. Crushed that scrub in 10 seconds without losing HP? Well here's 5 Free Stat points. Get curbstomped and just barely kill that same Boss? Well here's a +50 HP Bonus.(Which is quite a bit FYI) There are some that hate this system because they feel they are being "punished" for not doing well. Personally, I like this mechanic because it encouraged me to Reload and try the Boss again and perfect my Tactics or try out new ones. Also I felt like I was "rewarded" for my Victory, even if I got a lousy C-Rank ... I got a Soul so I could Upgrade one of my Magic Spells; which is really rare.

- No Overworld Map. There were times where I was confused as to where to go and which direction I'm going in. Sure some NPCs will point you in the right direction like "Go East" aka "Go Right" but they don't exactly tell if it's Up and Right or Down and Right. Plus some "Area Transitions" seem almost identical which doesn't help.

- Respawning Enemies. I look at this as a Good Thing since I can Farm/Grind forever. However it does get annoying when you get confused as to where to go and clear out a particularly hard room ... only to inadvertantly backtrack and now have to "Re-fight" that hard room again.


I really enjoyed my time with this game. I ended up putting in quite a few hours and only did ~2 Playthroughs. It's got a great feel and is similar to Dust: An Eleysion Tale while being Unique. I haven't come across many games like Valdis and I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.