Venture to the Vile

I feel bad leaving a negative review for an indie dev on a game with not many reviews, but this is a definite no from me. Great aesthetics with an ok story brought down by poor/average movement and combat. It might be ok for a starter metroidvania but those who are familiar with them will get bored quickly and not really find anything new.

Recommended BUT... this is an actual hot mess of a game. Game glitches frequently, some mechanics aren't explained, map is ridiculous and combat is held together with duct tape. There's barely any music, the menus suck and the game decided to remove all my healing potency upgrades just because. That said, this has a lot of charm. And it sounds like I should give this a thumbs down but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun with this. If you're willing to put up with enormous amounts of jank then this is a fairly unique metroidvania that has some interesting ideas and passion behind it. I liked all the npcs, I liked the art direction, the sewers and the dungeons. Buy on deep sale if you're curious.

Very Bri'tish with its tone and artstyle—I have a knack for finding these types of games, apparently. Its differentiator as a metroidvania is shifting between foreground and background "levels" instead of merely sidescrolling. Unfortunately, the game gets to a certain point with its cludgy movements and mechanics that turning off the damage in the accessibility settings is the only enjoyable way to play it.

A charming casual metroidvania. One of those that have fantastic presentation (setting, visuals, exploration, soundtrack - that kind of stuff), and simplistic, somewhat clunky gameplay mechanics (controls, traversal, combat). The former is definitely the main selling point here, the latter is doing its job well enough so that you don't drop the game out of frustration. Feels somewhat unfinished though, as the plot is borderline non-existent. It's an interesting setting and the prologue starts with a bang, but for the rest of the game there's below the absolute minimum happening story-wise, both during the main questline and in sidequests. This is [i]somewhat[/i] alleviated by the official comics DLC which reveals characters' backstories and sheds some extra light on the main events, but the DLC is not free so you have to pay extra for story bits that should've been a part of the game itself. Comics themselves are decent though. Still, i think the game is worth buying (at least on a sale) if the setting/aesthetics interests you, and you have a certain level of tolerance for janky gameplay mechanics.

The first time I played it, the version was corrupted and I wasn't able to get to the ship or the windmill. When I saw that they had done a few updates, I went ahead and replayed it. This time I played it all the way through and completed all 3 endings. That being said, I couldn't get full completion because achievements wouldn't update when I beat the game with the prisoner's suit on, which I wore for all 3 endings. The game is pretty fun and has a nice length and replay-ability.

The game feels unique in its visuals and atmosphere i enjoyed exploring the world, the NPCs and theire quests as well as the gathering of resources for the skill tree. Things i dissliked were things like how awkward placement of enemys and wall jumps were. Even though enemys differed greatly and bosses were handled unique the combat wasnt quite there for me. Overall id rate the game a 7/10 Not quite worth full price to me.