Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Feb 19, 2023

  GOOD GAME .........XD
• gamedeal user

  Apr 25, 2019

  So far it's enjoyable and a nice little game. Seems plenty to explore and I'm learning the map / unlocks that allow you to back-track through the levels. Found a few secrets and some hidden RNG stuff that wasn't there on the first few runs (like a [spoiler]Raven that transformed into a death beast and ganked me[/spoiler]) and even a pet cat which randomly joined me in the starting hub. There's certainly a roguelike feel to it in that you can unlock starting gear / weapons, and farm soul for permanent skills and the levels are nicely designed (so far). If anything, it's a bit easy - get the right weapon, you can dominate the early bosses easily. Better review once I've got a proper feel for it. p.s. Please remove the Chinese Steam forum review ability until they learn how not to just mass review bomb at the drop of a hat. Or explain how initial reviews work for sales. Put it this way: of the (current) negative reviews, one (1) is in English. This doesn't speak well of their community understanding of 'what reviews are for'. i.e. Minor control issues on XBOX controllers might get a hot-fix within hours, doesn't require a mass negative wall of spam.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2019

  A lot of the negative reviews are from a controller support bug, however the developers are aware of this issue and are working to fix it. I don't think the current review score is reflective of the game's quality at all. I've really enjoyed my time with Dark Devotion so far. It is clear a lot of love and care went into making this game. It has a great atmosphere, the combat feels weighty, the exploration feels expansive, and from what I can tell there is a lot of variety in weapons and items. Whoever made the art for this game must have been working overtime. I have a few gripes with this game, however: • No rebindable keys. • The presentation and UI can get a bit confusing at times. Overall this is a very impressive game from a brand new game studio. The developers are very active and friendly over on their Discord, and I think they are aware of what they need to do to improve the experience. I think the asking price is more than fair for the amount of content I've seen.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2019

  A 2D metroidvania with a beautiful art style and creative bosses. The game plays similar to Unworthy. My only complaint is the button layout. Why can't it be changed? It's 2019. How is changing a button layout still an issue with games?
• gamedeal user

  May 17, 2019

  If I were to summarize Dark Devotion in one word, that word would be [b]slow[/b]. The movement is slow, the progression is slow, the exploration is slow, the combat is slow (except for bosses). It is a surprising take on the Souls formula: where most Souls-likes and Souls-spawn try to make their games faster, this one makes the user play even more considerately and cautiously. This is being achieved through the implementaion of a few curious mechanics. [b]1. Roguelike elements[/b] Unlike in most Souls-likes and Souls-spawn you lose your equipment upon death Dead Cells-style. Is it painful? Yes. Is it gutting? No. Becasue as you travel around you amass a pool of weapons you can start with. Those weapons are generally poor, but wait till you start beating the bosses. Each of them drops a particularly powerful weapon which goes straight to your pool and allows you to use it upon resurrection. Hence: the player is greatly incentivized to challenge the bosses in order to upgrade his\her arsenal. Plus, in the dungeons, you can find particularly good weapons that cannot be added to the pool but can help on this particular run. All stat upgrades and abilities remain in your posession permanently once you get them. So, progression is not thrown back to zero each time you die. [b]2. Health [/b] Health system in this game is surprisingly simple and helps drive the Souls-like difficulty home. By default upon resurrection you have two health points plus two armor points. Each hit takes down one armor, and then, when the armor is gone, one hitpoint. Then it's back to the hub with you. But, once again, as you walk through the dungeons, you will find protection and trinkets that will increase your health and armor. All of this means that there's no numerical damage on the enemy side, you will always take one damage. That makes things easier in the way of assessing how deep up the creek you are and at the same time harder, because there are oh-so-few precious health and armor points. [b]3. Buffs&debuffs [/b] Dark Devotion features a very complex system of blessings, curses and afflictions that give you powers or inconveniences of varying proportions (all the way up to immediate revival upon death or losing a hitpoint every 30 seconds). All of these feel very appropriate to the setting and have a chance to trigger in specific situations (say, having fallen from great height a few times makes you lose hitpoints upon falling or if you flee a room with enemies still pursuing you, you will get an "afraid" debuff because of it). The setting is nothing to write home about. The whole "devotion" and "faith" thing is presented only in gameplay, there's no deep philosophy behind it all, unfortunately. Although and idea of one huge temple open for exploration is engaging, it doesn't feel any different from most Souls-spawn projects. It's fine. And slow. And that's not a bad thing. PS Halfway through update: 1. It is apparent that the more you play, the easier the game gets (more stuff in the starting equipment pool, better loot from harder enemies, you develop your go-to tactics). 2. Boss design really shines: at least half of the bosses have some sort of a gimmick-mechanic, that requires some specific tactic for you to beat. Not to mention the fact that phases of the same boss differ drastically from one another. PPS Final update: Having finished the game, I feel this snowballing I mentioned in the PS even more. The last three non-final bosses fell in a blink of an eye. The final one was no slouch, though: a great number of moves and a phlegmatic temper. Sadly, the story got no better. Sometimes I felt frustration: the last area tends to swarm you with enemies or combines them in ways you are not too well-equipped for in this game's combat. You just have to run away to separate them, land a hit or two, repeat until done. Reminds me of Dark Souls 2. [spoiler] [nostalgia intensifies] [no, it doesn't] [screw Dark Souls 2] [screw Dark Souls 2 DLCs particularly] [except for Crown of the Sunken King - its level design is awesome] [/spoiler] As a rule, if devteams don't die of hunger after such pretty good but rough debuts, they blossom in their second projects. Let's hope we see one for Hibernian Workshop. I suggest you try Dark Devotion at least for the sake of that.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 26, 2019

  Dark Devotion is a rogue-like RPG with heavy influence from the Souls series. Atmosphere is heavy and dark, combat is brutal and punishing, bosses are massive and domineering, and story is vague and mysterious. While I would happily refer to the Souls games as "3D Metroidvanias" I struggle to call Dark Devotion a Metroidvania due to the fact that you cannot backtrack. Every time you move forward, you are now committed to that path for the rest of that "run." This is my only major gripe with the game. You are a Templar from a powerful church in a theocratic society. You wake up in a dilapidated temple and set off on a journey to find answers. You'll explore many environments, picking up new gear and tidbits of story along the way. You'll find enemies (naturally), traps, and even diseases/curses. However, you will also find friendly NPCs, permanent stat boosts, and blessings. Even furthermore, you'll find altars, which you can spend faith at to give yourself small boosts such as consumables, healing, or even blessings. Every action has a consequence, and every consequence has major impacts on your run. When you die, you return to the Temple, keeping some of the rewards earned from your last run, such as gear blueprints and a currency that allows you to purchase permanent blessings, and then begin again. You repeat this process until you slay the final boss. So, what's my opinion? Overall, I had a great amount of fun with Dark Devotion. It's tight, fluid, and precise. Combat is simple, yet fun, and bosses are a treat. Out of the 18 total bosses in the game, only 3 legitimately felt poorly designed, which is a pretty good ratio. While the obvious comparison would probably be Salt & Sanctuary, I actually find this game to be more similar to Dead Cells, with much higher emphasis on a gloomy atmosphere. Powerups come in many forms, as do penalties, and they can truly feel like blessings and curses. A single blessing or curse can be the difference between life and death. Altars never feel like a waste of faith, and every consumable is good. Nothing in this game feels arbitrary or meaningless. It all culminates into a very fun, yet challenging experience. Well, only somewhat on the challenging. I suppose I have 2 gripes with this game, and the other is that it's very easy to break. Farming for permanent blessings and grabbing all of the runes to further permanently boost your stats makes you nearly unstoppable. Bosses will start losing a quarter of their health per hit. Dialogue is well written, NPCs are enjoyable to talk to, and there's plenty of "side quest" material. My total playthrough only took me about 14 hours, and I did only *some* exploring. If you're looking for a good 2D Souls fix, and you've already gotten games like Salt & Sanctuary and Hollow Knight, get this one next. It's certainly better than Death's Gambit. 8/10.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 29, 2019

  It's a rogue like, which many in the review section do not understand. You die, you lose everything. Sometimes you find items that are kept in the forge, sometimes you get them through quests or defeating bosses. At times you will be too weak to beat a boss so you begin to collect money to upgrade. You will die. Die a lot. But its fun doing it. Also the devs patch issues within a day when you report it on their discord which is pretty impressive several months after launch.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 1, 2019

  Did you like Salt and Sanctuary? Did you like Dark Souls? Do you like being incredibly frustrated and dying millions of times? Yeah, you should probably play this game
• gamedeal user

  Jul 5, 2019

  It's not a terrible game or anything but the labels are very inaccurate. It's not a metroidvania (no backtracking and exploration you just keep moving forward) I would hesitate to call it a soulslike even as there is no keeping equipment or ability to regain lost stuff. It's more like a rougelike platformer. Only thing it has in common with Dark Souls is extreme difficulty, but non metroidvania style exploration and lose everything when you die make it very hard for me to call this a soulslike or metroidvania. Also platforming without the ability to jump is just frustrating.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 5, 2019

  At this point im like 13 hours in and i finally beat it. Amazingly fun. Cons You cant save mid run. You must hit a teleport stone to "save mid run" (didnt bother me but it matters to some) unlocking weapons and armor still makes you feel weak for a while unlocking perma passives takes a while (didnt bother me too much as i have quite a few but the last 6 i need COST ALOT) Map can be confusing this is a TRIAL and ERROR game, Youre gonna die, your gonna call bullshit, sometimes it is bullshit Pros SO MANY WEAPONS finding a bunch of random ones from enemy drops to chests make your run a TON of fun The magic is super interesting (just wish more books ended up with the smithy) The map while confusing at least lets you know WHAT is in the room you are in once youve been to it Combat was loads of fun and learning when to block vs when to dodge depending on the boss/enemy was a ton of fun Me and my coworker are playing seperate runs and even though this game has a set map and paths, our runs are completely different. This game seriously is tons of fun and i highly recomend it if you liked Dead Cells or similar games. This game is HARD and its meant to be. You will die. Its up to you to get good and conquer this beast of a game. My score? Solid 8/10. It has some noticeable faults like the lack of a sound options but this game has me coming back for more and more. It is insanely detailed for the graphics that it has. Buy this game. In my opinion its worth it.