Jared Smoot

Worth a shot, pleasantly surprised. Obtained this game through XBOX Gold for free. It sat in my library and was deleted after not touching it for months. Redownloaded over a year later as I was bored, started playing, and haven't put it down since. Playing on a Series X with a 120HZ OLED TV, the graphics are at first disappointing, UNTIL you understand the style of the animation; it's sort of cartoony and after you accept that its much more tolerable. Environments are diverse and very unique and a pleasure to explore again with new abilities. I have never gotten bored exploring. Puzzles are fun and rewarding especially when you finally figure out how to reach that ledge which is teasing you with a pick up. Progression is basic but in a good way. Gaining new abilities and upgrades and getting visual feedback is rewarding. No complaints here. Combat learning curve is steep, until you figure out you will not survive without dodging. You can not spam the attack button in this game you will die very quickly with the most basic enemies. Increasing health was my first decision, until i realized the shorter the fight, the less opportunities I have to get hit. Once i realized this I started upgrading Havoc magic to maximize my perfect timed dodge counter attack damage. Once you figure this out fighting gets a lot easier. Checkpoints are few and far between. At first it was frustrating and made exploring difficult and annoying. With a mindset shift, I have come to appreciate their sparseness; I feel it adds to the intended anxiety enduing environment and punishing combat developers were trying to achieve; mission successful in my mind. Overall I have had a lot of fun playing so far (4 of 7 sins). Once you understand the combat rhythm of the game, it gets a lot more fun and easy. Some deaths are unavoidable and one mistake can drain your entire life bar, but you learn how to avoid it for next time. I would advise giving this game a shot, as long as you have the time and patience to die a lot.