Cosmic: A Journey Among Shadows

I don't like bashing an indie game, i really don't... But sometimes they're so fundamentally flawed that you just can't otherwise. First of on a technical level this game is a mess, it's so incredibly buggy that it's hard to believe this game had an early access period. I'm not talking harmless bugs either, these are some gamebreaking ones. From crucial platforms not spawning in their models/collision, forcing a restart to fix it, to one of the key movement upgrades just outright not working 9/10 times. These didn't happen once, they happened often, it's so infuriating to deal with these issues to the point that i was very glad i unlocked the final achievement because then i could stop playing. Even if these issues would be fixed the game still wouldn't be worth playing due to some very flawed game design. As a metroidvania it's important that there's meaningfull collectibles to find and there are, 3 of them... across the entire map... Those being health upgrades that are actually helpfull. The only other collectible is a sort of wisp that comes out of bushes and tries to run away from you, these are the games' currency that you use to... heal? Yup every time you wanna heal, 10 of…

Cosmic: A Journey Among Shadows" is a metroidvania platformer with a unique light-based mechanic. The game offers challenging but fair gameplay, which might appeal to fans of the genre. The visuals stood out to me the most – the minimalist art style, combined with smooth animations and well-executed effects, creates an interesting mix. If you enjoy exploration and light-based puzzles, you’ll have a good time playing it.

[b] Introduction: [/b] This game caught my attention with its unique atmosphere and intriguing mechanics. From the very first moments, it’s clear that a lot of effort went into crafting both the world and gameplay experience. While it does have some rough edges, it offers an engaging challenge and a visually stunning world. [b] Graphics: [/b] Let’s start with the simplest part—the game is beautifully designed with attention to fine details. Despite clear inspiration from other games, the presented world feels unique, mysterious, and original. The land is divided into several distinct areas, though they could have been more stylistically diverse. The most memorable area for me was the one with the Jellyfish. However, while the artistic design is stunning, the overall visuals lack a bit of "depth" or a sense of space. Backgrounds mostly appear as single, static images. They could have been broken into 2–3 layers to create a parallax effect, which is only minimally utilized. I believe this would significantly enhance the overall perception. [b] Sounds: [/b] The soundtrack and FX are well-chosen, with a few exceptions. The soundtrack often uses synths, adding a mysterious and dark a…

I enjoyed this game for the most part, bit frustrating at times but a relatively short and fun metroidvania nonetheless challenging platforming, some puzzles, clever combat idea and i like the visual style. However, it needs some polishing, i've reached the end and still feel like some others have said; the platforming and combat is tedious and clunky. The very last "boss" is by far the most tedious and frustrating part, I spent sooo long trying to do it, easily over 10% of total playtime. Many attempts I reached the end and had just not damaged it enough, despite damaging it every chance I could, get teleported back and the boss wouldn't spawn until I killed myself. Eventually, a couple attempts after posting this review (Edited), the boss moved much much slower and I was able to spam it, don't know if I did something different or if this was a bug.

Alright, I think I've given this enough chances, it's time for a verdict. The verdict is that the game suffers from too much unity stutter and can't be recommended. I also additionally can't recommend this on the steam deck due to the fact that everything becomes too small on the steam deck's screen. To the developer: This might help with the unity stutter issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvaniainfo/comments/1iedklq/to_developers_the_final_solution_to_unity_stutter/

I want to like this game. Artwork is beautiful, but the game is broken and some of the mechanics add no value and are just there to frustrate you. Others have commented on the darkflies which is used for abilities. They are few and far between. then when you die, you have to chase them down as punishment. Some fly out of reach. Then when you chase them down, and quit out of frustration cause you spent more time chasing down your darkflies then actually playing, you realize you forgot to save, so you lose all your darkflies. Well fine, I use darkflies to heal, but then die anyways so I just restart without saving and all of the sudden the game remembers how many darkflies you quit with. Well which is it? Sometimes this doesn't even happen and your darkflies just disappear when you load the game (has happened twice so far). Sometimes when you need darkflies the game bugs out and nothing drops darkflies, and you have to restart the game to fix this. The proportion of darkflies to effort killing enemies are way off when you do get darkfly drops. Oh but it's not easy to move from one section to the other. You can just easily run through, so you use your teleport, which costs 30 darkfli…