4 hours is a fair shake at any game, particularly for a rogue-lite that has you play the same stages on repeat until you have a deeply ingrained understanding of what to expect. Alas...

I don't understand the overwhelmingly positive reviews, this game just does not click with me. It's not particularly difficult, there's just a lot of egregious unfairness in the mechanics in combat and enemy design. It's not just unfairness, but the lacking consistency in mechanics that repeatedly disfavor the player who is already against all odds and enemies. Surely there's a less subtle difference between hard content and sadism.

The controls are not buttery smooth, they're clunky and grimy. You slide all over the place and feel like you're running through knee high jello. Animations sometimes stick to the direction you were facing, and sometimes move with you, which is inconsistent hell in a fast paced action game. Weapons flash with all kinds of different colors, they all have different reach, range, and speed which feel intentionally timed to either take one too many or one too few swings between potentially being hit by an enemy attack. The damage bonuses almost don't seem to matter at all, you're either scaling your weapons or you're falling behind the scaling HP of the enemies. Ranged weapons have an awkward reload mechanic that's inconsistent between them. Some you pick up your ammo, some regenerate on their own, some require melee kills, some don't use ammo at all and are only technically ranged. There's so much action and reaction in this game that you want to have, but simply isn't there or is obfuscated by jank controls. There's a built-in sense of urgency to move fast, but also to not get hit, but also enemies don't allow you to feel safe since they shoot through walls or fly through walls to explode, or just teleport on top of you.

Your jump and dash/roll are both barely there and anemic at best with talismans giving the option to jump mid-air multiple times, but not with any meaningful height or distance, nor do you really use it mechanically since the initial jump is so weak. It's more like you have an extra fart in mid air that stops you from falling momentarily. Not that it's enough to change direction or reach a slightly higher ledge, just enough to make you wonder why even bother having it as a modifier. Aside from basic enemies, you're the slowest thing on the screen at any given time, and getting hit means dropping your stage progression. Not to mention about 1/3rd of your HP. There's a stun for falling too high, in a platformer, which has a lot of vertical progression, even if it's nonsense. The blending of realism and jank make this feel arbitrary and add to that sadistic sheen. Fall in front of an enemy hard enough to get stunned and they'll hit you before you can react.

I can consistently reach and beat the first boss, but the hilarity of the bonus reward being "don't get hit" is pretty grinding. It's do-able, but either you're frame perfect after fighting him dozens of times, or find some weapon combination that makes him trivial to cheese. I haven't reached a second boss, and considering the mechanics of the first one, I'm not sure I want to. Where all the rest of the map has verticality and platforming, the boss has a flat stage with lightning walls. He's about a quarter of the screen, does an instant aoe that damages you in melee, and your anemic jump makes timing his ground slam obnoxious. While of course the boss can jump from one side of the screen to the other clipping you in the process if you happen to be in mid-air without a chance to really dodge.

Anyway, I've watched a handful of content creators play the game to varying levels of success over the years, this usually looks like the kind of thing I'd be down with. Mark of the Ninja was similar and I totally vibed with that. I figured after many years in EA I would finally give this a shot on sale, and while i'm not going to return it, I have no plans to properly finish it. Maybe I'll start slapping on some mods and ignore the achievements. Maybe I'll change the review in 20 hours to self denigrate my whining as git gud noob status for a game that's actually a hidden gem. Surely 100k reviews couldn't be wrong could they?

Wouldn't recommend unless I wanted to hurt someone.

4 hours is a fair shake at any game, particularly for a rogue-lite that has you play the same stages on repeat until you have a deeply ingrained understanding of what to expect. Alas... I don't understand the overwhelmingly positive reviews, this game just does not click with me. It's not particularly difficult, there's just a lot of egregious unfairness in the mechanics in combat and enemy design. It's not just unfairness, but the lacking consistency in mechanics that repeatedly disfavor the player who is already against all odds and enemies. Surely there's a less subtle difference between hard content and sadism. The controls are not buttery smooth, they're clunky and grimy. You slide all over the place and feel like you're running through knee high jello. Animations sometimes stick to the direction you were facing, and sometimes move with you, which is inconsistent hell in a fast paced action game. Weapons flash with all kinds of different colors, they all have different reach, range, and speed which feel intentionally timed to either take one too many or one too few swings between potentially being hit by an enemy attack. The damage bonuses almost don't seem to matter at all, you're either scaling your weapons or you're falling behind the scaling HP of the enemies. Ranged weapons have an awkward reload mechanic that's inconsistent between them. Some you pick up your ammo, some regenerate on their own, some require melee kills, some don't use ammo at all and are only technically ranged. There's so much action and reaction in this game that you want to have, but simply isn't there or is obfuscated by jank controls. There's a built-in sense of urgency to move fast, but also to not get hit, but also enemies don't allow you to feel safe since they shoot through walls or fly through walls to explode, or just teleport on top of you. Your jump and dash/roll are both barely there and anemic at best with talismans giving the option to jump mid-air multiple times, but not with any meaningful height or distance, nor do you really use it mechanically since the initial jump is so weak. It's more like you have an extra fart in mid air that stops you from falling momentarily. Not that it's enough to change direction or reach a slightly higher ledge, just enough to make you wonder why even bother having it as a modifier. Aside from basic enemies, you're the slowest thing on the screen at any given time, and getting hit means dropping your stage progression. Not to mention about 1/3rd of your HP. There's a stun for falling too high, in a platformer, which has a lot of vertical progression, even if it's nonsense. The blending of realism and jank make this feel arbitrary and add to that sadistic sheen. Fall in front of an enemy hard enough to get stunned and they'll hit you before you can react. I can consistently reach and beat the first boss, but the hilarity of the bonus reward being "don't get hit" is pretty grinding. It's do-able, but either you're frame perfect after fighting him dozens of times, or find some weapon combination that makes him trivial to cheese. I haven't reached a second boss, and considering the mechanics of the first one, I'm not sure I want to. Where all the rest of the map has verticality and platforming, the boss has a flat stage with lightning walls. He's about a quarter of the screen, does an instant aoe that damages you in melee, and your anemic jump makes timing his ground slam obnoxious. While of course the boss can jump from one side of the screen to the other clipping you in the process if you happen to be in mid-air without a chance to really dodge. Anyway, I've watched a handful of content creators play the game to varying levels of success over the years, this usually looks like the kind of thing I'd be down with. Mark of the Ninja was similar and I totally vibed with that. I figured after many years in EA I would finally give this a shot on sale, and while i'm not going to return it, I have no plans to properly finish it. Maybe I'll start slapping on some mods and ignore the achievements. Maybe I'll change the review in 20 hours to self denigrate my whining as git gud noob status for a game that's actually a hidden gem. Surely 100k reviews couldn't be wrong could they? Wouldn't recommend unless I wanted to hurt someone.