Forum Overview :: Mischief Maker's Maker's Mark :: Why don't I actually write a review?

[quote name="Mischief Maker"]It's a fairly short metroidvania with a moderately deep combo system and an involved RPG stat interface with a level cap. It's built around multiple playthroughs trying different builds emphasizing different play styles. It's a very rough product with many hiccups, but as a complete experience I'd say it's one of the best games I've played in a long time. The premise is that an apocalyptic war between angels and demons is going on with humanity trapped in the middle. You play a motely crew of renegades searching for a macguffin to save humanity. At the start of the game you get shipwrecked and end up in this setting's Jerusalem; a city in a magic bubble under an arctic sea where the angels and demons are searching for <I>something...</I> It's a game that fleshes out its story in pieces as it goes along ala. cave story. Let's get the negatives out of the way first: The game is still incomplete. Only 2 out of the 4 characters have been implemented so far (but there are dozens of builds for each), lots of helper NPCs are still listed as "coming soon" and a few secret rooms start empty and stay empty an entire playthrough. There are <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euCm93oGSOc">promising preview videos</A> of the upcoming characters, but the game hasn't updated in months ever since one of the developer's father died. It's running on the gamemaker engine with all the weaknesses that come with that. One particular forehead-slapper is they declined to give the game a logo splash for the 30 seconds or so gamemaker takes to boot, so if you're not sure you double-clicked fast enough you could open multiple instances by accident. The wall-jumping and ledge-surmounting mechanics are very... touchy and the game is crawling with timed jump puzzles. There are events in the game where towns can be abandoned or massacred (along with their local merchants) if you don't fight the bosses in the correct order and there's really no warning it's coming outside of a walkthrough. The default keyboard controls are TERRIBLE and need to be rebound ASAP. This game uses a system where you buy or upgrade equipment using a variety of random drops and you may have to spend some serious time grinding if the RNG isn't feeling generous. There are some great boss battles in this game, but the final boss is not one of them. On to the positives: You get DMC-style ratings after each boss fight and as long as you rate B or better you get permanent stat boosts. Part of this involves speed-killing the boss so you get this great synergy of stat-managing for maximizing the damage output of your choice, and player-skill for effectively dealing out that pain in a long unbroken chain without getting hit. Equipment consists of dozens of pieces of upgradeable equipment, each built for different styles of builds. I played my low-difficulty run with a neutral barehanded luck build, intentionally thinking this was the most inefficient build to compensate for enemies' low HP only to find an armband toward the end of the game that turned my build into an absolute BEAST. A fun skill tree that enhances all kinds of playstyles. Just on the Wyatt Defensive tree you can be a high-HP and armor damage sponge, you can create an impenetrable force field when blocking, you can be a perfect-timing dodge and parry build, and so on. If you decide you fucked up your build, there's a hypnotist character who will refund all your stat and skill points. The story starts dark and stays dark through the end. It completely refrains from finger-waggling morality lessons. The music is really good for an indie effort. A solid metroidvania exploration experience the first playthrough. Give <A HREf="http://www.indiedb.com/games/valdis-story-abyssal-city/downloads/valdis-story-abyssal-city-demo">the demo</A> a try![/quote]