Malebolgia

[h1] I smell trouble. [/h1]

I literally remember years ago opening this game wanting to play it with a controller because it feels like a controller game but it just wanted to spin me right 'round baby so I closed it and didn't think about it until recently when I stared at it and I was like... I wonder... But I opened it up and the camera just spun and spun and spun until I hurled so I did the sensible thing and stopped trying to play merry-go-round hard mode. Fine. Keyboard and mouse it is. Ugh. Anyway, this is supposed to be a Souls-like and I guess it is? I personally see the idea of it but not so much the implementation. This game felt mechanically slow and deliberate but most bosses are cheese-able either because you can just run in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ circle til they do an attack and you have a window of opportunity or you can use the environment to get them stuck and just wail on them til kingdom come. If that makes a Souls game then I sit corrected but from what I've seen of those games, they seem to have a few different ways to play them like precision based methodology or ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with build strategies to try and mitigate the super punishing harshness bosses can yeet onto you. In this game, maybe you…

Graphics are terrible and mechanics feel outdated and clunky. difficulty is poorly balanced and the game quickly gets boring. more of a disappointment than a fun experience. definitely not worth the time unless you love nostalgia for bad old games.

This was an utterly delightful experience. I came in expecting to make a lot of concessions for a 10 year old, early career passion project and found myself not needing to at all. Its short and simple mind, but pretty well polished. Very rudimentary blocking, no souls dodge, but a large focus on backing up and side strafing, really classic survival melee combat. The bosses are numerous and they really stand out between eachother. But, what really gripped me is a really effective atmosphere. While you may get lost finding an objective for a short but, the direction on the moment to moment story beats and the bosses they lead to consistently hit. And nothing overstays its welcome (which it would be hard to anyways considering the length. And the length is the only part that makes this a tentative recommendation, because at full price its a little steep for what could be 3.5 to 4 hours for anyone that DOESN'T get lost and picks up on the bosses pretty quickly. But its a no brainer on sale, if you like classic horror with just a touch of modern souls. I'm certainly glad I didn't treat this one as a skip when I decided to buy this devs whole gameography. If it really only gets better…

The PC controls make [b][i]Malebolgia[/i][/b] effectively unplayable, despite its very appealing visual style. The start-up utility does not support mice, while the in-game prompts do not show the bound keys, but do show the controller buttons.

The concept is not bad, I understand what the creator means and tried to do, but the game plays and feels like a demo from itch, and I'm not talking visuals here. As someone who plays tons of indie, this should not be offered as is. Good intentions with a bad execution.