Guild of Darksteel

Guild of Darksteel is a dark fantasy side-scrolling adventure developed by Igor Sandman and published by Digerati. At its core, the game tells the story of an immortal warrior who finds himself in Ravenrock, a city plagued by fear, hidden conspiracies, and forces that have lingered beneath its foundations for generations. Rather than presenting itself as a traditional hack-and-slash experience, the game leans heavily into storytelling, offering a journey that explores the burden of immortality and the search for purpose in a world that seems determined to move on without its protagonist. The setting is one of the game's greatest strengths. Ravenrock is portrayed as a bleak but fascinating place filled with mercenaries, townsfolk, guards, and guild members who each contribute small pieces to the larger narrative. Conversations play a significant role throughout the adventure, helping establish the city's history and the growing threat hidden within it. The game's writing embraces a slower pace, allowing players to absorb the atmosphere and become invested in the people inhabiting this decaying world. There is a distinct sense of melancholy throughout the experience, making the prot…

Worth your time on a deep discount. Mechanically, there's no real exploration of the map and no platforming: the game is a series of one-on-one battles with enemies. Occasionally, an enemy may be bypassed by simply going around it (there are no instances when this requires platforming skill) -- do this every time you can, there are no secrets to be found in such dead ends. The few times the path branches mean more boring backtracking and may cost you achievements -- tragically so, because the replay value of the game is nonexistent. Battles are easy if you found the healing ability but will grind down imperfect players if you didn't (you can always backtrack, but it's not even called "healing", good luck). If you've seen one monster of a type, you've seen them all. The game goes into "battle mode" when you touch an enemy, so there's no way for enemy attacks to interact and no danger of getting swarmed. Pixel art is pretty, with no weebshit. Characters are well-proportioned and beautifully animated. Despite how ridiculously overhyped the writing is on the store page, it's not actually terrible and only goes full ♥♥♥♥♥♥ once, in a scene that does not impact the story. The "living…

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A fairly neat experience. The lore and setting carry a fair bit of the game for me, but the combat is a nice balance of timing and skill that works well enough.

Short and good. Combat is very rythmic, with a powercurve that aligns very well with enemy difficulty as the game progresses. The music's rather nice, but it can get repetitive. The story is nothing special, but it's told and revealed well. 7,3/10

5/10. Hack and slash with emphasis on parry + attack timing and combos. Stylish, with an interesting story and soundtrack. But the actual sword play is rather monotonous. Every battle is basically the same, and though you gain EXP to upgrade the combos they never seem to get stronger. Plus, the combos are pretty much as easy to trigger intentionally as by button mashing. Nonetheless that would be forgivable given the strength of the presentation and story, if it weren't for the fact that save points are rare, forcing you to replay large sections of the game repeatedly, turning what was somewhat repetitive into a pure chore. And that's when I stop playing a game.