Okay before you play this game, you actually have to do some troublesome set-up. I managed to find this video with like barely any views explaining what you gotta do. But basically, here's how to make the game playable:
1. Find and download the latest patch, v1.005. The Steam version actually never updated to the last patch, it's still on v1.004. There's a new gamemode and some new weapons.
2. Edit the Config file in the game's folder to change the resolution. You can also disable some visual effects like motion blur (god I hate motion blur).
3. Set the mouse DPI super low in the settings. This is counter-inituitive, but it makes you move way faster and makes the controls actually feel really good and satisfying. Also gives you less carpal tunnel.
Okay, as for the game itself, it kinda rules. I'd actually rate it way higher if it had some better UX and wasn't so goddamn janky. Here's some rough thoughts:
First of all, I really dig the aesthetic. It's like this Central Asian and Arabic steampunk world with Sci-fi Lovecraftian elements where people fly this contraptions hitting each other with hammers. It's a story about honor and vengeance and warring tribes but also there's flying worms and ancient machines and it's all just so weird and unique, I absolutely love it. The music's also just so good but I really wish there were more than like ten tracks.
The main attraction is of course the gameplay. And like, goddamn, it's so weird and unique and cool, I can't help but respect it. It's all dependent on the inherent joy of moving your mouse to swing a hammer and using momentum to just utterly smash the hell out of a dude. And it definitely delivers on that end. But what I wasn't expecting was even more gameplay options beyond that. You can equip blades and become more of a controlled assassin rather than a mindless flailing abomination like you might think from a game like this. You can throw daggers and equip shields and combine weapons to alter your swing physics based on weight difference. You can even shoot guns! The developer obviously put a lot of thought into different playstyles and really wanted to test out how much depth you can squeeze out of physics-based combat. I've never really seen anything quite like it.
Ok, so for complaints. There's the troublesome set-up obviously. There's also the crazy amount of visual effects that make it kinda hard to understand what's actually happening on screen. I can't tell you the amount of times I died and was like "literally what even killed me?" Also the game in general is like weirdly difficult at times. Sometimes enemies will just fly in out of nowhere and you have like a half a second to react before you get just utterly smashed in the face with a mace. There's a few times where the game asks you to be more precise with your hits, which I feel like is really testing the player's patience with the physics-based nature of the combat, but I kinda respect it I guess. I think a lot of people will be confused by the complicated story, but personally I don't really mind if a game just straight up doesn't care if you can't follow along. I find it charming, in a weird way, idk.
But yeah, if you're willing to do the set-up, you should definitely give this game a shot, there's honestly nothing else quite like it.
1. Find and download the latest patch, v1.005. The Steam version actually never updated to the last patch, it's still on v1.004. There's a new gamemode and some new weapons.
2. Edit the Config file in the game's folder to change the resolution. You can also disable some visual effects like motion blur (god I hate motion blur).
3. Set the mouse DPI super low in the settings. This is counter-inituitive, but it makes you move way faster and makes the controls actually feel really good and satisfying. Also gives you less carpal tunnel.
Okay, as for the game itself, it kinda rules. I'd actually rate it way higher if it had some better UX and wasn't so goddamn janky. Here's some rough thoughts:
First of all, I really dig the aesthetic. It's like this Central Asian and Arabic steampunk world with Sci-fi Lovecraftian elements where people fly this contraptions hitting each other with hammers. It's a story about honor and vengeance and warring tribes but also there's flying worms and ancient machines and it's all just so weird and unique, I absolutely love it. The music's also just so good but I really wish there were more than like ten tracks.
The main attraction is of course the gameplay. And like, goddamn, it's so weird and unique and cool, I can't help but respect it. It's all dependent on the inherent joy of moving your mouse to swing a hammer and using momentum to just utterly smash the hell out of a dude. And it definitely delivers on that end. But what I wasn't expecting was even more gameplay options beyond that. You can equip blades and become more of a controlled assassin rather than a mindless flailing abomination like you might think from a game like this. You can throw daggers and equip shields and combine weapons to alter your swing physics based on weight difference. You can even shoot guns! The developer obviously put a lot of thought into different playstyles and really wanted to test out how much depth you can squeeze out of physics-based combat. I've never really seen anything quite like it.
Ok, so for complaints. There's the troublesome set-up obviously. There's also the crazy amount of visual effects that make it kinda hard to understand what's actually happening on screen. I can't tell you the amount of times I died and was like "literally what even killed me?" Also the game in general is like weirdly difficult at times. Sometimes enemies will just fly in out of nowhere and you have like a half a second to react before you get just utterly smashed in the face with a mace. There's a few times where the game asks you to be more precise with your hits, which I feel like is really testing the player's patience with the physics-based nature of the combat, but I kinda respect it I guess. I think a lot of people will be confused by the complicated story, but personally I don't really mind if a game just straight up doesn't care if you can't follow along. I find it charming, in a weird way, idk.
But yeah, if you're willing to do the set-up, you should definitely give this game a shot, there's honestly nothing else quite like it.