Exile's End

[h1] The Metroidvania Review[/h1] [url=https://metroidvaniareview.com/2019/11/25/exiles-end/] Scored Summary[/url] | | [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/30503887/] Subscribe to our Curator [/url] [b]How Metroidvania is it?[/b] High Fit – In spite of the store page’s pleas to the contrary, [i]Exile’s End[/i] fits the Metroidvania Mold extremely well, and is probably the best genre to categorize it as. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/MetroidvaniaReview/discussions/1/1744480966999144417/] Want to hear a different opinion, or want to share your own review? Check out our Forum here.[/url] [h1]Full Review[/h1] I’ve noticed that for some people, presentation is everything. If a game has good graphics, a story that is written to be exciting or entertaining, and great music, that’s all they need. [i]Exile’s End[/i] really attempts to push the boundaries of how far presentation can carry a game. Beauty of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but if you’re nostalgic for the era that [i]Exile’s End[/i] is trying to emulate, you’ll probably find the game to be quite beautiful. At the very least, the cut scenes are basically perfect in this regard…

OMG. Who made this and thought it was a good idea? There is so much wrong with this game I am just gonna list it: 1) Auto saves every room. Which on paper is nice to have but in reality it saves your health too. Which means all damage is permanent with no way of healing outside of health kits and there are no health kits. Like literally. There is one you find at the beginning of the game and then nothing for hours. And if you didn't know that's how it works then you took a lot of fall damage early on and have to complete the game 1 hit from death. 2) Fall damage. The game starts you with your suit damaged so you take fall damage from miniscule drops. Which means you have to crawl forward in the beggining holding down on every ledge for a few seconds until the fking camera decides to actually pan down. 3) Throw rocks. This is your only weapon for first hour. And you better pick them up before you leave the screen because you know, it autosaves you without any otherwise. 4) The worst bossfight in human history. Which is when I gave up. You have max 5 stones at that point and have to fight a beast that charges at you in what isn't even a combat arena but just a normal corridor…

First: this IS a metroidvania. It has some bad design decisions as that but it's clearly one. Second: many reviews went on and on about the fall damage in the first level. Just to be clear: we are talking about the first five minutes of the game and a few jumping sequences, none of them really hard. Don't be afraid of them. The game itself has a nice 90's vibe, and while mid-game you will feel that they run out of graphics assets (or rather the budget to create them) it's a nice little game for that few hours while it lasts. If you can get it cheap. go for it.

This short metroidvania (and it [i]is[/i] a metroidvania) is bare of flashy gimmicks and multi-stage boss battles, but its simple elegance is its strength. I can't recall the last time I played a game with such responsive, no-slip, frustration-free controls. The atmospheric score, the simple yet attractive graphics -- they wove a world of adventure that wasn't harshly insistent, that invited me to diffuse my stress into a sprawling, but never confusing, map. The story could have been richer. The ending(s) could have been more extravagant. But in light of the warm feeling of [i]Zen[/i] that I felt the entire time I traversed [i]Exile[/i]'s scanlined warrens, I can complain of very little.

Looks and feels like an Amiga game just like it says on the box. Unfortunately, it does not include any modern Quality of Life improvements. I enjoyed it but the roughness isn't for everyone. Pros: - You respawn on the screen where you died. Cons: - Zero signposting. Use a map to avoid a lot of headaches. - Graphical glitches. Sometimes the screen glitches (not intentionally) and the UI becomes unusable. - Map has zero annotations. - Map can't be filled to 100%. - Secret walls sometimes don't have visual cues. - Not enough health drops. - Grenades are hard to aim and it is a hassle to blow up secret walls until you get better weapons later in the game.

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