This is a game I'd love to have recommended if any of the parts of it that make it a game worked well enough to substantiate a purchase. Unfortunately the game never really gets there.
The main hook of the game is in the "Destinies" portion of the fairly generic title. You're not pursuing a single path in the fairly short campaign, you're given multiple choices at various junctures. There are 5 chapters all of which take about 5-10 minutes to go through depending on how much exploration you do. There are short Arkham-style arena combat sections in these chapters and some minor stealth segments. There are a few branching paths as you go through these chapters but ultimately the chapter begins at a point and ends in the same point every time. Depending on the choice you might get a different location where the chapter takes place but this is how the entire game is structured. At the end of a whole playthrough of all the chapters, depending on your choices you unlock a different ending. Each ending is also grouped into 4 types and getting an ending in one type unlocks a "Truth". Your resources and skill unlocks carry over each run and the enemies also get tougher. The story is also told to you through narration by the main lead which somewhat excuses the minimalist character animations. The art and the music in the game is fantastic. The music sets up a nice atmosphere in each area without being too overwhelming.
Sounds interesting right?
The problem is EVERYTHING around this mechanic is dull as bricks. The combat is terrible and is Arkham-style combat boiled down to its simplest core. You literally button mash your way through with no thought. There are also plenty of issues since it's not clear who you're soft locked on to so sometimes you attack a completely different enemy than the one you intended. The enemy variety is so bad you'll see every enemy in the game in 2 runs. Since the levels always stay the same, getting maybe 2-3 endings will probably have you see every single location in the game and the exploration gives you meager rewards for the combat through gems which you really don't need. "Exploration" is locked behind different colored doors which you can only unlock if you craft the corresponding sword which acts as the key but I crafted every sword in 4 runs and explored every door in 6. Each sword also has a power that uses "energy" but these are awkward to use and I found them completely unnecessary and trying to use them actually killed me. Using them would also RANDOMLY deplete my stamina meter that you use to dash. There's some reused art work as the story unfolds through illustrations in a book and the comic panels that give you context for the narration sometimes didn't match up at all to what was being told to you. There were also lots of stupid bugs and the load times were insufferable especially the first time you load into the game. The cutscene skipping button would only work sometimes and having to listen to the exact same dialog multiple times made me sigh.
The final blow for me was the STORY in such a story heavy game being pretty bad. Events are randomly brought up that happened in the past that you're never really told about, some of the endings are extremely forced into going a certain way and there's really no way to watch that happen and not go "BUT WHY???", there's places where the same narration is told to you twice and the final ending is pretty bad. The writing isn't awful and there are lots of charming moments but it's not done well enough. 7 endings later I had absolutely no incentive or reason to put myself through 17 more just to get the achievement.
This was ambitious and it shows. I recommend you not get it for anything more than maybe $5 to check out the largely unsuccessful but unique story mechanic. The game should have been structured like a roguelike with randomly generated levels and less transferable resources across runs and maybe longer levels with more enemy variety.
The main hook of the game is in the "Destinies" portion of the fairly generic title. You're not pursuing a single path in the fairly short campaign, you're given multiple choices at various junctures. There are 5 chapters all of which take about 5-10 minutes to go through depending on how much exploration you do. There are short Arkham-style arena combat sections in these chapters and some minor stealth segments. There are a few branching paths as you go through these chapters but ultimately the chapter begins at a point and ends in the same point every time. Depending on the choice you might get a different location where the chapter takes place but this is how the entire game is structured. At the end of a whole playthrough of all the chapters, depending on your choices you unlock a different ending. Each ending is also grouped into 4 types and getting an ending in one type unlocks a "Truth". Your resources and skill unlocks carry over each run and the enemies also get tougher. The story is also told to you through narration by the main lead which somewhat excuses the minimalist character animations. The art and the music in the game is fantastic. The music sets up a nice atmosphere in each area without being too overwhelming.
Sounds interesting right?
The problem is EVERYTHING around this mechanic is dull as bricks. The combat is terrible and is Arkham-style combat boiled down to its simplest core. You literally button mash your way through with no thought. There are also plenty of issues since it's not clear who you're soft locked on to so sometimes you attack a completely different enemy than the one you intended. The enemy variety is so bad you'll see every enemy in the game in 2 runs. Since the levels always stay the same, getting maybe 2-3 endings will probably have you see every single location in the game and the exploration gives you meager rewards for the combat through gems which you really don't need. "Exploration" is locked behind different colored doors which you can only unlock if you craft the corresponding sword which acts as the key but I crafted every sword in 4 runs and explored every door in 6. Each sword also has a power that uses "energy" but these are awkward to use and I found them completely unnecessary and trying to use them actually killed me. Using them would also RANDOMLY deplete my stamina meter that you use to dash. There's some reused art work as the story unfolds through illustrations in a book and the comic panels that give you context for the narration sometimes didn't match up at all to what was being told to you. There were also lots of stupid bugs and the load times were insufferable especially the first time you load into the game. The cutscene skipping button would only work sometimes and having to listen to the exact same dialog multiple times made me sigh.
The final blow for me was the STORY in such a story heavy game being pretty bad. Events are randomly brought up that happened in the past that you're never really told about, some of the endings are extremely forced into going a certain way and there's really no way to watch that happen and not go "BUT WHY???", there's places where the same narration is told to you twice and the final ending is pretty bad. The writing isn't awful and there are lots of charming moments but it's not done well enough. 7 endings later I had absolutely no incentive or reason to put myself through 17 more just to get the achievement.
This was ambitious and it shows. I recommend you not get it for anything more than maybe $5 to check out the largely unsuccessful but unique story mechanic. The game should have been structured like a roguelike with randomly generated levels and less transferable resources across runs and maybe longer levels with more enemy variety.