Curse of the Deadwood

The satisfying thockthockthock of bullets hitting wood! As of summer 2023, Deadwood runs solid on my Steam Deck, so the performance issues people had at launch have been improved for sure. Controls are great, gameplay is the good kind of hectic that becomes meditative when you get into the zen of it. I finished in about 10-12 hours, and I admit I had to turn the difficulty down because it does bring a challenge, especially tackling the bosses solo (the subtle auto-aim helps). It has absolutely gorgeous art, great storytelling, music you can jam to - I kept finding myself dashing or shooting in time to it. I also love the enemy sound effects, the crystal plinks and xylophone noises some enemies make when you hit them. It's all very musical and whimsical and pretty, as you cut a path of absolute carnage through a bajillion wooden baddies. My favorite weapon? The SawMauler. As opposed to twin-stick shooters with procedural levels or abstract art style, this game feels carefully crafted all over from its levels to the cutscenes. There's so much depth and attention to detail. It's a surprise, maybe even a tragedy that it isn't better known.

This game is outright frustrating. I backed the Kickstarter and wanted it to be good, but at the end of the day there are far too many aggravating design decisions and unaddressed bugs. Uninstalling at the final boss fight because whoever designed it doesn't understand the rest of the game, or fun.

The game is very poorly made full of bugs and very bad balance. Not all settings are saved, achievements are broken and unlocked before you've even found any of them. The game has a bad and sometimes corrupt auto save. You can't go through the levels again if you miss something, you have to start the whole game over again, but only for achievements. The game often lags and I had to reduce the settings to a minimum, given that heavy games don't cause this problem. Also, starting a new level or territory does not restore your health and ammo and takes away some of the experience you need for upgrade points. The balance is very bad now with the bosses and weapons. You don't know where the invisible wall is in the game, but the enemy is not hindered by it, and it can even pass through walls, and you can be stopped by grass. The weapons are very inaccurate and even miss very easily, even the slow strike of the stone monster you ride. The game is too big and too empty. There's not even a map and only enemies, a few things with information that are completely useless except for the achievement, a hidden point for upgrades and ammo. But terribly little. The levels are almost the same. Th…

Don't

This game becomes quickly addictive! I played just by myself but it looks definitely fun to play with another player! The musics and the environments of this game are beautiful and the story is really well written. It's a bit hard and I would love to have even more kinds of creatures to beat but overall I got a lot of fun :) Compare to some other comments I didn't get any lag playing this game. Would recommend playing it!

Very cool game. Visually stunning. Has an arcade feel to it with just enough depth to keep it interesting. 2 big thumbs up!