God, what a mess. This joyless, soul sucking game is abysmal to play. None of the gun types are fun to use (though headshot kills in this game do feel nice from time to time), none of the enemies are fun to fight, the area is not very fun to explore (mostly because of the enemies and gun play not being good), I never found any of the special attacks all that particularly useful or helpful, and on top of it, this game is still pretty buggy.

The game's story I guess exists? I never really found any great through line to follow. Basically, I really found nothing that redeemable about Redfall. Minor things maybe, like stake killing a vampire for the first time is kinda satisfying.

But God, what a huge disappointment. This concept and this developer should equal a really incredible experience, but this is the exact opposite.

Do not play this game. It is bad.

Kind of a disappointment with this game the more I think about it. I like a lot of the concepts and the world itself but once you get deeper into the story and mechanics, it all goes downhill.

The story and characters all on the surface are interesting and intriguing but the story itself is really difficult to follow.

The combat is easily the worst part of this game as well. It's standard melee and long range combat but It never feels good. Every enemy is a damage sponge. The gun has very limited ammunition. There are options to upgrade your weapons and other power ups (the game features a set of items you can use in combat. Some are great and useful, others are not) but in doing so, and upgrading everything I owned to its full potential, you just never feel like it's doing much to change things. Some of these increase the amount you can carry, so that is helpful but they never feel like they last that much longer or do that much more damage.

The combat controls also just feel clunky and cumbersome. Despite having a slide and jump and a nice range of motion, the game never strings it together in a fluid way that feels satisfying, often having enemies that can block or make movement difficult. Some enemies are difficult to slide underneath and knock down, others have a wider range of motion in the air and can knock you down. The biggest culprit to this issue is the hit detection is terrible in this game.

There are many bugs in this game but the hit detection is one of the more egregious and consistent issues I ran across. Often times I'd be seeing my character jumping well over an enemy, only to get hit by an attack that was visibly off the mark. It does work in your favor at times as well, so you can use this to your advantage as well, but because every enemy is a sponge, it doesn't really feel like a massive assistance.

On top of that, I had a handful of random crashes, some times when audio didn't load, another time where I loaded up on a save area, only to be met with a black screen (could still see my character luckily). It's fairly inconsistent.

There are some big annoyances this game has on top of this, the one worth mentioning over the rest is that the game will kick you out of some areas if you've died too many times in a row on an area. You'll randomly have this happen just because. It's so damn annoying.

This game sadly I don't think is worth your time. Maybe if you gel with the combat more you'll enjoy this but there are games just like this that are much better, much more stable and deserve your attention.

I don't want to be completely negative about this game though so I will add The vibes and art style are nice, the level design is pretty good, some of the world building and story beats are also interesting. It's just not enough to make up for the deep flaws that exist in this game.

A wildly creative Pokemon clone with some great ideas but the overall gameplay I never found very rewarding and at times, found to be pretty frustrating.

Some platform-y world discovery that is also not very rewarding and at times, fairly frustrating.

Overall, I found Cassette Beasts a game I really hoped to like more. I think it has some great foundational pieces that, with a sequel and additional development of some of the platforming aspects, combat, and quality of life additions, could be a legit alternative to Pokemon. If you're a big fan of games like that and have been frustrated with clones that just don't work, this could be a surprise, albeit one that still has some issues.

This is 100% a vibes game that either will work for you or won't. For me, everything just worked. The world is incredibly interesting, the characters you meet along the way are all interesting, the music is great, the feel and look are all top notch.

The gameplay is pretty nonexistent. You will find yourself walking, biking, recording audio, taking pictures, and filling out a scrapbook so again, feelings will carry you through this or this stuff will probably not work for you.

The game is a little buggy, traveling around on your bike can sometimes lead to some weird hiccups with hit detection and the camera but the game does feature an unstuck option if you do get stuck (I only had to do it once so it's not frequently bugging out but it's nice to have as an option) along with the ability for your bike to be transporter to you wherever you find yourself which is super helpful.

Again, this game is a vibe check that either will work for you or doesn't, for me it worked to near perfection with only a few rough parts to deter me a bit