Death's Gambit: Afterlife

This is a decent game, but I felt the balance was off. I got stuck a couple of times and the game does not make any effort to guide you to your main objective. This resulted in me roaming around the entire big map multiple times, and as a result of this my character ended up being over-levelled. Because, while the first half of the game felt easy and had the right amount of challenge, the second half got easier to a point where I started killing bosses on my first attempt before even learning their attack patterns. I literally killed the final boss on my first try - and that is NOT a feeling you want to have playing a "hardcore" game like this- which it's supposed to be. Yes there is a New Game + that possibly remedies this problem, but come on, this game ain't so epic to warrant replays. I'm not going to play New Game + to experience the game the "right" way. I beat the final boss, the credits rolled, so that's it - I'm uninstalling. Also, the game takes its story way too seriously, and for a 2D pixel art metroidvania, I really don't care for it. I kept skipping it all because the writing is so mixed anyway - half of it tries to be funny, half of it serious. I did not fancy the story one bit. That being said it's not a bad game at all - the combat is decent, the levels and art look good. And chances are you'll probably have a better experience with the game. I just felt the complete lack of hand-holding was counter-intuitive to the experience because the game got too easy for my liking - especially with the bosses because my character was over-levelled. Eventually for me, this was one of those games that wasn't bad at all, but the whole time I was playing it, it made me question if I was wasting my time and if I could be playing something else better.

This was an interesting soulslike / metroidvania. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, but it was on sale and I'm a glutton for these types of games. From a time perspective, I've achieved 2 of the 4 endings; I've seen C & D. Endings A and B are a little tougher to complete, and I think C is considered the standard ending. It only took me a little over 10 hours to beat the game. So, from that perspective, it's relatively short and only worth picking up on sale. Now, from a content perspective, I have a whole lot more that I could do in this game. There is NG+ with a variety of difficulty increases (normal game is 0 and NG+ goes up to 10). There are heroic level bosses that increase the challenge of some of the original fights both in level and new move sets. There are dlc/patch bosses that aren't part of the 'main' game. So, there is still definitely a lot of content to keep me busy if I decide to keep playing. The music and story are both really good. I like the weapon variety and there are a ton of talents to select for different builds. For how I play games, I very much doubt that I get too far into the weeds on this one like I have with other similar games. But, I will leave it as a solid recommendation. The right kind of fan could probably get 50+ hours out of this one.

1) go to an area with a robot dog believing its easy 2) accidentally go too close 3) boss hits you with massive explosion 4) wake up at the wierd statue with a guy roasting you for dying 9.5/10 would do it again

Easy game. Has 3 of the most dogshyte boss gimmicks in all of gaming, but great story so yeah.

TLDR - Game is mid. It's not as good as Hollow Knight, Salt and Sanctuary, Ender Lilies, or Dead Cells. But it's not bad. Nothing really unique either, kind of generic as far as soulsgames go nowadays. It just doesn't really nail anything it does. The good: Music is ok. Pretty nice at some areas. Oddly funny humor here and there. A decent amount of weapons/builds to try. Death has a somewhat interesting concept. The not so good: Very early you will notice what kind of skills you'll receive, no surprise and nothing spectacular. The map pointer that shows where you are is not always correct which can be very frustrating. The hitboxes can be a bit weird, not often, but when it happens you certainly notice. Enemies get stuck in places, making them easy targets. Animations/movements are mixed between fluid and sometimes stiff. Voice acting is a hit and miss. Some are good, others are not. No real oomph in sound effects, especially weapons. I paid 10 euros. Fair price on a sale. I'm not sure I'll bother finishing it. 6/10

It's a good game with some awful, frustrating mechanics. The way your characters launches forward when attacking, making close combat so annoying. The whole feather mechanic, oops you died, you have to go pick up your feather or buy them back with your stat points. The way the map keeps blinking, annoying. Nevertheless, the graphics, music and exploration are great. I'll reluctantly keep playing it. Nevermind, 2.5 hours is all I could play this game for. Luckily I bought it on discount, but still a waste of money.

It's not a full thumbs up, not a full thumbs down. It's a 6.5/10 below average 2D Metroidvania Soulslike. If you like this kind of game you'll enjoy your playthrough, but there's just so many problems.... The graphics aren't one of them. Enemies and animations look pretty good. The combat system is decent. Hitting enemies gives soul energy which you can use for special attacks or maneuvers. Bosses are mostly well done - they have a variety of attack patterns and ways to avoid their attacks. In probably the only instance I've seen, actually moving into the boss's hitbox can help avoid attacks since many of their attacks hit from the edges of their weapons, and you can avoid some things by being too close. Combat has issues though. Attacking is sometimes clunky but always very, very slow for most weapons when attacking from the ground. You can get animation locked on a lot of things unable to dodge or block in time. There is a parry mechanic but it's awful - the timing is as always suspect but it also pales in comparison to blocking, as you can also "perfect block" if you block as an attack hits which also staggers the attacker (even bosses!) and allows you to counter similar to parrying. So blocking is just better. The "heroic" versions of bosses get really obnoxious with many becoming bullet hell dodgeathons with projectiles flying everywhere and additional foes shooting from the sides. It's a super derivative game that honestly has zero creativity or innovation whatsoever. You have every single thing you expect to find in a metroidvania - double jump, air dash, yadda yadda. Basically every single feature and facet is copied from other better games, including some of the very ugly features that they should NOT be emulating - such as having to follow a guide or else you get the wrong ending or your vendor NPCs in your home base area will randomly and PERMANENTLY die. Accidentally attacked that NPC? Well now you can't craft ANYTHING for the rest of the game! Stop putting this into games. No one likes it. It's bad design. Just stop. The level design isn't too great either. Metroidvania level design quality really boils down to how functional are the levels BEFORE you get double jump, and the longer the game goes without the double jump the better. Somewhere between Symphony of the Night (~40% through) and Super Metroid (~75% of the way through) is best - it should feel like the world has unlocked and backtracking should have newer faster routes unlocked with your ability to move higher. Sadly this game gives you the double jump extremely early, and the levels are mostly assuming you have it, with most shortcuts being of the "get to the other side of the gate and open it or pull a lever" variety. What the game does do well is the exploration. You're quite free to explore in many different directions as you see fit and stumble upon extra bosses and optional areas often. The game interface is very janky. The inventory is particularly a mess, with all your items getting thrown together in one giant pool leaving you having to slog through page after page of items with no ability to sort them. There is a filtering for categories but you have to enable that EVERY time and you're going to this screen often. Many items don't stack either, leaving you having to constantly clean things up by scrapping extra items - for EXTREMELY minimal rewards. The map is another serious issue. The inventory is tab 1 of your menu screen and the map is nonsensically tab 4, and you have to constantly cycle back and forth between them. Usually you want the map, but often you'll need the inventory, and it is utterly obnoxious swapping. There should have been a button to open the map, and a different button for the rest of the menus. Map also has extremely limited functionality. The fundamental issue is the game is not bad, but you have probably played numerous other games exactly like this that have done every single system better than what is on display here. If you're satisfied with just another 2D Soulslike, then have at it. Just don't expect to be blown away.

after playing every metroidvania, this is now one of my favorites. <3

Good game!

good

Cant delete Save Spots trash!

It'sa goood