About as blatant a ripoff of another game as you can get. Certainly competently made as it runs well, but creatively bankrupt and cash grabby with its microtransactions

I guess if you wanna play Fall Guys on Steam and you don't own it you could play this

You'll probably go loopy after listening to the inane single song soundtrack that seemingly loops every 20 seconds whether you are in game, at the menu or at a loading screen....

Let's get this out of the way first

I like this game. Really I do.

But

I cannot finish this game without completely restarting due to a bad game breaking bug. That hasn't happened to me in a game in decades and it feels reaaaaaal bad.

So this game really does not like backtracking and yet there are collectibles it actively wants you to search for (which one would presumably wish to backtrack for). But the game makes heavy use of one-way jumps, drops etc that heavily discourage doing so. It's very very linear otherwise.

I made the bad mistake (apparently!) of finding a way to revisit an area because I realized I missed a collectible. To my chagrin after making what I knew to be a one-way jump inside the area and retrieving the collectible, I discovered the elevator I previously used to exit this part of the stage didn't return. There was no call button or switch or anything either....

Also it autosaves and has a single save slot. You likely see the problem

So even the "Enhanced Edition" apparently isn't bug free. Though I saw no other bugs during my playthrough, so going by older reviews they must have caught a lot of them in this edition.

They did apparently add level select which is nice. But it doesn't unlock until you clear the game once.... So that's not a help either

As for the game itself

The combat is serviceable, though hit detection is a little suspect in both directions. But it's good enough for a short indie game that you are here to see the sights (which is what this game does very well). It roughly plays like a vastly simplified modern God of War in the style of the PS2 GoW games or an isometric Prince of Persia. Light and heavy attacks, multiple weapons, upgrade tree. Can do wall-runs and flips in combat, etc etc, stuff action gamers have likely seen at least somewhere before.

Music, atmosphere and art are absolutely top notch and among the very best I've seen in recent years. It does a stellar job of alternating between ambient sounds and transitioning into music to the point that unless you are paying close attention you might notice when one stops and the other begins. The game also does a decent job showcasing various sights and vistas the artists clearly spent tons of time on.

It's definitely worth picking this game up on sale (as long you are willing to tolerate some bugginess) if you're interested in some great Indian environs and myth. The story is a simple abduction tale/hero's journey that isn't particularly captivating, but it's effectively told, and I feel this game really nailed the flavor and sensibilities of playing an old tale.

but y'know buyer beware of the bugs

You know how people reductively say "it's like Dark Souls" to describe a game?

Well this isn't like Dark Souls, it's so Dark Souls it almost feels like From should pursue them for copyright infringement.

Just about every aesthetic, storytelling device, character archetype, leveling system, game design and trope is a straight lift from Souls with a slightly different veneer to make it jussssst different enough.

that being said if playing Souls as a 2d side scroller pixel action game appeals to you, this seems to have that nailed down

As somebody who loves PUBG and would love a PUBG 2 , I was curious to check this out.

Unfortunately, it doesn't understand what makes PUBG great. By including so many stats, weapon rarities it's impossible for any player to gauge how strong an opposing player at any given time. Furthermore, you can't tell what classes or abilities they might have because the character models are customizable.

All of which makes fights easy feel way too easy or totally cheap. Either one is a lousy experience.

Somewhat embarrassed I played this.

It got p2w very quickly and there's basically no gameplay, which I suppose is true to the nature of autobattlers. There are however a byzantine number of menus and currencies. So many I just hit my limit and never wanted to touch the game again.

The story, the little of it I saw, however really made me miss FFT of yore. Oddly this crappy cash grab game understands the tone of FFT more than FFT's sequels did.

It's too bad this game will likely never come out, because I would have liked to experienced more of Original Sin II's characters.

The combat in the demo was more or less what you remember from Original Sin II, but fused into an XCOM like structure. You run tactical missions from a centralized base, often with a timed aspect so that you can't do everything. Seemed like there might have been permadeath. The story happens from a first person perspective when you return to base. Maybe had some sort of Persona-esque character/time management sim

They didn't have the balancing or flow nailed down when I played it.

DnD: DA has some major technical problems at this point (launch 6/22nd) that make it hard to evaluate the underlying game

Everything in the game feels super slidey and floaty. Characters will slowly slide uphill when standing. You move a little too far with each step that makes the run animation like a little like skating. You can miss a jump by seemingly several feet only to have the game count it as a ledge grab and likewise you can be several feet from an environmental hazard and still be hit by it.

enemies will sometimes vanish when dead, yet your targeting lock will still focus on them and hits will continue to record. Other times when they die they Metal Gear fulton straight vertically off the screen like they had 200% Smash brothers damage.

Catti-Brie's attack range is greater than enemy aggro range, so I was able to kill some bosses without them ever moving. Oddly the game seems to be possibly aware of this as it penalizes you by reducing the damage they receive when you do this.

Hit detection seems to possibly be server side, so there's often odd lag from when your animation shows a hit and the enemy npc reacts.

The actual underlying game itself seems ok, not amazing but good ole cheesy AA schlock with a occasional smart wrinkles (Like you are only able to access your new drops back at camp).

but in this state the game is a pure schadenfreude laugher.