Recent reviews by ViNull

So for reference, I played a bit solo then setup a dedicated server for three of us to play though the game. At the time I write this we are on the last biome, but I find I have to drag myself back to playing the game just to finish it.

Game starts out interesting, but after you take down a few boss fights you find yourself doing the same things over and over again - by design. Find new biome, get new materials, make new equipment. The new equipment is just better stats over the old equipment, but the mobs and bosses of each biome are stat checks to make sure you upgraded.

The "soul like" combat... isn't. You can roll, and time a parry, but stamina ultimately decides a battle and recovery fixed, shield up or down doesn't matter. Rolling is pointless as it wastes stamina when you can just step back to dodge. Some weapons have alternate attacks but take way to long to use and eat up too much stamina. Right click to block/parry, left click to attack ends up being all there is to combat.

I would recommend someone this game with caveats since it's in early access, but the biggest reason I'm not is the developer is not very interested in feedback or options for others. The developer believes hours sailing with nothing to do just to move a few ore around the map is "fun" and stated it will stay that way. (Note this is on top of the hours sailing just to explore the very large map to find resources - at least there is something in exploring even if it is the same content over and over and you just need the RNG to spawn the right materials).

If you do pick this game up, check out the mod scene - there is already a very helpful community there making fixes to the developer's siloed view of "fun".

PS. the "no ore teleportation" (a pinned thread as I type this) thing is really ridiculous as all inventory is stored on your character client side. Just have a local game with you character standing at a chest. Log out of main game with ore in your pockets, log into local game and store the ore in the chest, move your character in the main game though any portals, then go get the ore from what we've been calling "cloud storage". As cumbersome as it sounds it's way, way faster than when the developer thinks is a challenging and fun experience.

A very well polished, enjoyable game that blends the right amount of retro charm with modern game desgin knowledge.

The gameplay is challenging but the death to retry loop is quick and you don't feel like you've lost progress because of mistake. The difficulty level has enough variance that easy mode is friendly enough that even novices to the genre will find fun while very hard is... very hard.

Controls are tight (with a nice option to select Xbox or PS4 style icons), framerate is solid, music is enjoyable, and the artstyle invokes NES 8-bit era while also adding some modern charm to the enemies and boss fight.

Well worth your time!

The less you know about the game the better the experience.

If you've looked over the store page, watched the videos, and are wondering if this will be one of those odd indie games that deliever a great experience for a few hours of play the answer is YES. There is an interensting story, some moments of good humor and some moments that make you ponder things a bit deeper.

Bottom line, if the game has you at all curious, get it.

I first played Mute Crimson on Xbox Live Indie Games. The graphics and gameplay have great improvements, but the game was great even in that first version. This is an excellet platformer in the style of NES era games such as Ninja Gaiden while adding some more modern gameplay design elements.

I have stayed in contact with the developer after talking with them in the XBLIG days (so I cannot claim I'm not biased). I do not however play these kinds of platformers regularly - just not my thing. Mute Crimson has been an exception however, and I've also been fasinated with the quality of level design present in the game.

If you are more interested in my thoughts on the level design, check out the video below. As for my review - I think it's a great game in both mechanics and charm that will appeal to more than just the hard core platformer fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjtw1Fe944

I've put more time into this game than Mass Effect 3 (which I competed twice)