COMPLETIONACHIEVEMENT COUNTER USED

: 85%

PLAYTIME+1HR FOOTAGE CAPTURE EXCLUDED

: 10 HRS

ACHIEVEMENTS:
17/20

+12

             

I believe it's become incredibly easy to recognize a lazy Indie game nowadays, what with the abundance of Isaac-inspired clones put up for sale every Monday and Thursday on the Steam webstore. This time is no exception to that. In fact, the realization the game will never truly get better probably dawns on you as soon as you first boot it up, greeted by a main menu written in Times New Roman and some weird type of mouse acceleration.

A framecap is enabled by default for some reason, because of course it would be. Analytic data collection is also enabled by default, out of which you need to opt manually through a web browser that Alt-tabs you out of the game.

A minimap is provided as soon as you spawn - symmetric grey squares representing rooms, and pink squares representing enemies, created in what seems to be MS Paint. And the crosshair... well, you do your best to look past the minor design flaws and get on with the actual gameplay.

The character moves with all the grace and elegance the 5 frames that animate it can muster. The animations feel stiff and end abruptly, the spritework is devoid of any character or personality. The movement speed of the character doesn't quite match with what's going on on-screen, helping the game feel as if it was made by an amateur.

It is often hard to discern between terrain with collision and mere background objects, as well as the size of said objects' hitbox. Enemies and their corpses, as well as levers to open exits also often blend with eachother, making enemy and projectile visibility terrible.

Your one and only attack for the remainder of the game is ranged - odd, considering most enemies are melee-based and the map is full of random obstacles blocking your shots. The next two characters you unlock further down the line also strictly revolve around ranged combat; why would your dungeon crawler not offer any alternative engagement options bar one slow ranged attack?

Speaking of slow, reloading takes about a second - pretty long for a single-shot weapon! The character has to stand still in order to fire, which makes matters worse. Shoot, stop, reload, repeat - that is your core gameplay loop in a nutshell.

Enemies can take up to 17(!) shots to kill with no damage ups, which is ridiculous. Holding the mouse button down plays a different animation, but does nothing. You later find out that in order for it to do something, your character needs to be upgraded, and even then the attack is slow and buggy.

The only other ability you possess is a dodgeroll, which moves you at the same pace jogging normally would, except it ends with your character kneeling down for a second, so there is practically no reason to use it.

Enemies can be picked off from afar, even from off-screen, as the minimap tells you where they are exactly in real time. The game features some sort of detection mechanic, but enemies unaware of your presence will not notice you even when their friends actively drop dead around them. When they do, they home-in on you wherever you may be, regardless of distance or line of sight.

Most enemies use melee attacks, and those who fire at you do so too quickly or inaccurately to dodge reliably. Enemies blindly charge right at you and need to recover after they attack, allowing them to be kited easily without the need to resort to using your Special.

The Actives you unlock initially also have long windups and recoveries, be it a bear trap or whatever have you. By the time you're finished executing them you wonder why you didn't just point-and-click at the enemy as the game intended.

On the contrary, the only two useful Actives - a 3-second invincibility and a health potion - can be used instantly, which seems to me like bad item balance.

The game world feels bland and generic. The levels are thematically identical to those of almost every other Roguelite. A forest, a dungeon, a library, a lab. These levels feature so many different props to help set the theme - crates, barrels, pots, graves - but none that can be interacted with, that contain items, or that can be otherwise exploited for the player's gain. Is there anything more immersion-breaking than shooting a vase or a crate with an arrow, only for the thing to stay intact?

The first forest stages barely feature any enemies in them. You could probably count the amount of things you can fight on one hand, and even those are docile and don't necessarily require killing. The next indoor stages then feature quintuple that, which is what I suppose could be considered a "difficulty spike". As a result, the dull, grey caverns stretch on and on for what feels like eternity, having you fight the same 5-6 enemy variants throughout.

Bosses and minibosses don't appear at the end of each area like in other Roguelites, they have their own intermediate stages inside the main zone. They're ridiculously easy to beat. Only the last two bosses feel as if any thought was put into designing them, but even those can be stunlocked and killed with relative ease.

Mana Spark clearly takes inspiration from the better Roguelites on the market; Isaac's Sorrow and Judgement Nail from Binding of Isaac, Eggplant from Spelunky, Short Therm Memory from Nuclear Throne... but the game does not take inspiration from them in any real, meaningful way.

For example, the edges of the forest map are hidden below a tree overlay that becomes transparent once the player goes under. The devs could've easily added hidden paths or secret rooms that would've benefited players curious enough to find them.

As it stands, there is no exploration to be had, and there's nothing you can do beside killing enemies and finding the lever(s) to open the door to the next stage. You'd be lucky to find currency with which you can purchase items, let alone the items themselves.

Not everything about this game is bad. Noticeable hitstop when your shots connect, for example, adds to the feeling arrows are powerful and actually do damage. Killing enemies becomes pretty satisfying as a result.

Some enemies wield shields, which you need to aim over or under in order to beat. This provides challenge and makes foes feel competent. The Passive item pool is great - every item is good in its own respect, barely any exceptions or fillers. Some Roguelites could take note in that regard.

Otherwise, the game is unremarkable in every possible respect. It's quite buggy too - I've had the sound effects randomly turn off for me, the minimap mouse cursor get stuck on-screen for the Warrior sometimes, clicking fire rapidly enough making the game think you want to charge up an attack instead.

There is practically no reason to buy this, other than to add another Rogeulite to your collection. There are far better alternatives on the store, namely Enter the Gungeon which this game desperately tries to imitate. Steer clear of this.