Awww, it ends right in the middle of the rising action.
I need more games in this genre, now.

After really enjoying the impact of the Black Axe in Amid Evil, I needed a more fleshed out First Person Melee action romp to enjoy, and this is exactly that. It even has comparable visual tone to boot. I was worried the aesthetic might end up too boring judging by the cover, but I really ended up digging the environments, and Jurmun Soldier designs especially.
The completionist tumor that has a hold of me compelled me to play this on its titular difficulty while attempting, and succeeding at, the Level-0 challenge run. It was overall quite good, though the bosses and tower priests were utter bastards to deal with as a result.

One standout feature I wish more games would implement is the option to actually choose which part of the OST is playing as your backing track, overwriting what would play normally if you'd rather here something different.

Besides its abrupt ending, the only issues I spied were enemies occasionally getting stuck on geometry and breaking aggro, or particle effects bugging out and persisting past when they should have expired if they went off while I died.

Regarding combat; there were so many great moments were I'd be able to fling enemies off ledges with heavy attacks, have to whip around while an attack animation was beginning in order to catch assassins who had just teleported in behind me, and engage in carefully considered footwork and positioning to deal with more dangerous encounters. Light attack, Heavy attack, dash, parry or block, kick, that's it. The lack of I-frames necessitate high situational and spatial awareness, along with good timing, in order to successfully engage with groups of enemies. Otherwise you just end up rather mindlessly whacking them off one by one by abusing their poor LOS and rudimentary pathfinding. Casual players who aren't interested in challenge runs or achievement hunting will likely be disappointed.

This thing goes on sale for a few bucks and is more than worth it. As in, it's currently on sale for $3 and I'd very much like it if these devs could receive a cash injection via volume sales and flood of requests for a sequel that I'm confident they very much want to make.

Reviewed on Apr 02, 2024


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