Until I Have You

Honestly, it kind of hurts to do this because this is a game from Wormwood Studios, a company I actually really like. However, they are a company that normally specializes in adventure games, and while I admire their attempt to branch out, their first attempt at an action platformer isn't great. Presentation is definitely strong, as it is in their adventure games. The pixel art and animation are very well done, particularly in the cutscenes and when you're in your apartment between missions. Wormwood's artists are masters at visually conveying a dark and desolate tone, and their style lends itself to cyberpunk as well as it did post-apocalypse in Primordia or eldritch circus in Strangeland. However, not as much effort was put into the visuals of the gameplay. The player sprite looks good and is animated well, but the stages look like what they are: recombined arrangements of the same stock assets. The enemy sprites are also static from what I've seen so far, including the boss sprites. It just feels like their heart wasn't really in it which extends to the gameplay itself. The gameplay of this game feels like a challenge mode of a different game. It's a series of bite-sized stages where you have to get to the end as quickly as possible while trying to either kill every enemy or not kill anyone. Completing specific objectives like that will increase your completion percentage per stage which will give you upgrade currency. You can shoot from range or hit things with a bat. The problem is that everything feels imprecise. Hit detection on you weapons is odd. I swear sometimes I'm overlapping an enemy and the kill still won't register. Platforming is already annoying because of your overly quick descent speed, but the awkward stage design makes it worse than it has to be. You have a time slow mechanic, but it seems to serve no specific purpose which makes it feel like it's just there to cover for the awkwardness of the implemented mechanics. Just based on what I've played so far, I don't really have any desire to continue. Playing this game just made me want to go back and play Katana ZERO instead as that's a much better execution of pretty much everything this game is going for. I will say, while I don't recommend this, I DO recommend checking out Wormwood's other games as Primordia and Strangeland are both fantastic adventure games, and they're working on a new RPG called Fallen Gods which seems to be a far better fit for their talents. Also, they're really nice people and I'm not trying to rag on them. These are just my honest feelings.