Recent reviews by dmpdesign

Community feedback: just cancel this game.

I was going to write a long review but meh, the game already wasted 10 hours or so of my time, fair warning, its boring, repetitive and basic. Just a hunting simulator of basic earth animals like wolves and bears. Big deal. What trash.

Pretty boring, can't for the life of me figure out what all the good reviews are about, this game deserves a 6-7/10 tops. I played long enough to finish the first 'biome' and start a second one which linked back to the original sanctuary, a couple hours is what it took, one death and I was playing on normal? I thought the game was supposed to be hard, it does get annoying maybe with all the laser enemies shooting from way off screen all the time but I wouldn't say at any time it was hard.
Pros:
•Multiplayer metroidvania could be fun I would think, though sharing the screen might be very disorienting for the helper players that don't control the movement of the camera/transitions of the rooms. I was racing through the game so I have no idea how it would even work multiplayer.

• easy enough to learn, very little keeping you from just picking it up and playing it.

Cons:
• My god its repetitive and boring, and I only played a few hours. You run around and get a ton of 'perks' here and there that aren't all that helpful, once in a while you locate an ability that gives you double jump, stuff like that but you can just tell the world is randomized, and quite honestly, it feels hollow because of it. There are areas that are just room after room after room of nothingness, just platforms and enemies to the point you just start skipping everything.

• You eventually learn the map will more or less show you where the important stuff is as you build it, the bigger square doorways indicate where rooms with something potentially worth while reside while the rooms connected by the small squares are useless and can just be speed run through. A background icon for the room generally shows up in any room that's related to progression.

• Uninspired ambience, I really don't understand why people don't put good tunes in their games anymore. I may be the unpopular opinion here but I much prefer good tracks like Super Metroid, Castlevania to this ambient stuff you cant remember.

• The enemy design is pretty terrible, especially the hunters who just appear randomly in the room and shoot in your direction from afar. The games 'difficulty' stems from your brain melting at the 500th time you've had to clear a room of the same enemies after a few hours of gameplay.

Overall id say play the game if you get it for $5 on sale, otherwise its meh.

I have been playing this game through its beta development and did receive a free copy of the Steam beta so that I can test out the live updates/achievements. With that said, i have logged probably in excess of 100 hours on this game and am still looking forward to the next patches and content additions.

Summary: Pixel Descent is a gauntlet like twin stick (or keyboard mouse if you prefer) that fantastically incorporates rogue-lite elements to provide a challenging and enjoyable experience time and time again. If you're a fan of gauntlet or anything similar, this is a must have.
The game combines the complexity of gauntlet style maps with skill based aiming and learning of your chosen classes weaknesses and strengths to overcome the 11 levels that make up the core of the game. Along the way you will gain experience to level up your character and gold to buy permanent enhancements for the next run. Each playthrough is different as the levels are comprised of maps randomly selected from a list of premade maps with randomized seeds of enemy/key placement.


Pros:
• Simplistic yet challenging gameplay that is continuously rewarding the player with incremental advancements in character power, unlockables and mods to the gameplay to keep the game interesting over many hours.
• A very cool cast of enemy sprites so every map is a unique experience figuring out the enemy speed, hit points and abilities. They look cool! Great art!
• Well thought out hand crafted maps with procedural elements so a visit to the same map isnt always the same experience. At the time of writing there are 20+ unique maps and more being added.
• Impressive soundtrack, every level has a new track and they are very well composed.
• Hours of fun and rewarding gameplay - a good dev who is working with playtesters and community to hone in the game to perfection.

Cons:
• Leaves me wanting more, with 100 hours I am running out of stuff to unlock and do thats new, thankfully there is a roadmap of features to be added to the game with the final release targetted at feb 2024. Looking forward to the new stuff!

I am looking forward to testing out and playing through the game on coop as well, 4 player couch coop feature to be implemented soon!

An excellent combination of open world exploration and character development. They take the elements I love about jrpgs and strip out all the dialog heavy junk I don't like.
Pros:
• Very very good soundtrack, reminds me a lot of Octopath traveller. Every area has a unique and excellent track you will find yourself humming along with in no time.
• Lots of room for character diversity and progress. The job system lets you swap classes as you unlock them and gain powers to combine with other class types giving you a ton of options. Add in weapons/armor/accessories that compliment different classes and you can build anything from a glass cannon caster, a magic wielding monk, a slippery and agile tank and more.
• The exploration is phenomenal, up and down and in and out, anything you can see you can reach, if you are keen enough to find the path. New areas hide in plain site, climb, climb, climb to hidden treasure and all new dungeons and castles.
• The quality of life stuff the dev has added and is still adding to the game is great. I hear he is working on randomizer mods and much more. Nice job!

Cons:
Hmmm haven't found one yet at 7 hours in to my run.

Important Note: I can only recommend this game if you're playing coop, I think it would be pretty boring single player.
A note to the developer, please for the love of God, take out the constant ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ from Kira when you kill innocent people, it makes absolutely no sense to even have that kind of crap in this game when its just so fun to go around murdering everyone. Let the player decide if they want to be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and don't frustrate them with this constant nonsense of her damn face on the screen.

With that said, Id give the game a 7/10-its worth a play through, but not a replay or anything post game. There is waaaaaaay too much reuse of the same areas and a lot of wasted time travelling back and forth. It took me about 20 hours to finish the main game but I would say 4-5 hours of that is useless running around until I figured out how to taxi.
The bounty system seems lame, everything is worth 1000 credits regardless of the difficulty.

Pros:
Good music
Good graphics and environment
Good weapon choices and upgrades

Cons:
Lackluster story
Too much reuse of the same areas and backtracking
Annoying Kira...really annoying almost to the point I want to not recommend the game.
Ending was really lame.

Sorry, I wanted to like it but after just 30 or so minutes the game has some blaring issues:
1. Im not a fan of babysitting the player but overall the game has very few useful tooltips and the UI is just awful. Its basic 101 SRPG to put things in like attack range indicators and tooltips on what abilities do. Each character has an ability that unless you just go and use it you have no idea what it will do, and the name isn't obvious either.
2. I finished 2 missions and the AI is just bloody horrible. None of the enemies move unless you are within 3 squares of them, they are like statues...no strategy at all. Kill off the close ones, have your healer just heal all of your characters to full and move forward for the next batch.
3. Healers have infinite heal power..and you gain experience from casting heals, so you can literally just level up your healer forever and go unlimited rounds until they are leveled up. The game doesnt seem to punish you for how many turns it takes you to finish a fight.
4. The overall game feel is so clunky, quality of life features common to this genre for ages are missing from this game. It feels half finished at best..by an amateur.

I hope the dev takes time to add in playability and control upgrades based on public feedback...I think they could have a solid game if they correct alot of the weak gameplay aspects.

A finely crafted game of mathematical strategy. The map is quite intricate, as all of JCBailey's games are (he has quite a few on itch.io). Offers an interesting challenge, navigating the island while picking up equipment and items to allow you to delve further. A pretty cool take on metroidvania style gameplay, you can only get so far without picking up a new item or skill, then more areas naturally open up based on your ability to defeat the enemies standing in your way.

It definitely is fun enough to warrant a few playthroughs and I could see this becoming something worth speed running. Game offers a few not so subtle hints from King's Field, a legacy of games I know JCBailey uses as inspiration when authoring his titles. Pick this one up for the really low price and help the dev out, he is likely to produce lots of great games as he develops his skill!

Fantastic entry to the 2d action RPG genre and a blast from the past! Tobor has outdone himself with this game so far, tons of content, power ups, weapons, skills...you name it and a fully handcrafted world with tons of secret pathways and delicious metroidvania progression. Lots of hours of gameplay here and lots of things to unlock and uncover.

Dev streams a lot of the ongoing work to the game and he has made leaps in the last few months leading up to EA. This game is a must for anyone who loves barbarians, 2d action rpg platforming or just good chip tune jams! Its hard to believe one guy has written the game, done all the graphics and the music. Its obviously a work of love for the dev.

Go out and buy this, kick some ass and enjoy the retro feel!

An excellent game for multiplier night! With great couch or online coop, excellent soundtrack and steady upgrade progression the game does not lack for 10+ hours of solid entertainment on your first campaign experience. There are several campaigns and customizable options to give it replay value, as well as several class choices that are unique to play.

Its a throwback in design to a better age of dungeon crawling. If you enjoy Gauntlet (the original ones not the garbage they put out today) then this game will be right up your alley.

I recommend it, its a good price for the quality of polish and content you get.