Recent reviews by Unkindled Dreg

Loved the demo, awesome atmosphere, setting and music. My only nitpick was the mediocre writing of dialogues, even though it might be real actors, it felt like AI voices, the voices of character just didn't match the setting.
I love Returnal, eagerly waiting Saros and now this is on the list as well.

Loved the gameplay, atmosphere, theme, art direction. Eagerly awaiting the release.

Loved the theme and gamplay, initially I assumed its going to be Dave the Diver in Lovecraft world, but it plays completely different, the only similarity is diving. Eagerly awaiting the release.

An extremely enjoyable, beautifully rendered metroidvania with some sick smooth combat and movement, set in a cyberpunk Neo Chinese themed world with quirky NPC and unintentionally funny translation to English.
In some parts it did outstay its welcome and drag on a bit, especially towards the later half of the game with some extremely meaningless exploration that barely gives you a reward or tell the story of this world in anyway, they were just barebone platforming challenges, which gets tedious after the 10th time doing the same thing in a different location.
Boss fights are fun, whilst some can be challenging they are on the easier side (for me and I don't claim to be a pro in 2D games in anyway).
The protagonist HAAK, is alright, for me he was an unlikable dork and smartass who thinks too highly of himself and the game is sort of trying to make it into his 'journey to find his place in this world,' it barely landed. But with all that said, I'd still recommend the game, especially on sale.

A friend passed this demo to me, saying this will be right up alley, and he wasn't wrong, I assumed it to be a cheap knock of popular metroid-soulslike-vania, however, it its turns out that its not a metroidvania at all, rather more like the original Prince of Persia with its rotoscoped animation, and the way the bosses come at you reminded me of Moonstone and in some strange way it brough back memories of the Legend of Kage.

The game launches in couple of days, I wish Poor Locke took a bit more time to polish it a little bit more, and make boss fight a bit more involved, I faced all 3 demo boss and they were quite easy, especially with Milton's lighting, the NPC enemies were way more fun and challenging.

Tried playing multiplayer, but none of the modes connected. Anyway, its a demo, so I'll keep the comment short, looking forward to the full release, wishing PoorLocke good luck, an indie title in all the sense of the word.

TLDR: It's a thought experiment wearing the skin of a game, I'd still recommend The Dark Queen, simply because it made me think about something I wouldn't otherwise.

What makes a game? We all have our own answer. For me, its a spectrum, of systems & mechanisms designed to solve a problem the devs have placed before us, with a goal to strive towards. Does The Dark Queen of Mortholme fit that definition? I’d say yes, and yet I also find myself agreeing with many of the 'not recommended comments.'

When compared to other titles in a somewhat similar price range, there is barely any content, it all happens in 1 room with a janky animation and it can become quite frustrating, especially after a few cycles, due to the heavily scripted nature of the battle between the Hero and the Queen and not to mention its very short gameplay length, you can literally finish it within Steam refund window, and yet, here I’m recommending it, not because of it’s gameplay mechanisms, but because of what it does with the said gameplay mechanism to convey its premise and poses a quiet thought experiment (at least for me). It asks, 'What does it mean to inhabit a role with no escape of the constraints, and be unaware of it?' The Queen is a programmed constant, whilst the Hero is afforded endless retries, optimisation, and growth, and that imbalance to me is the thought expriement.

Does it suddenly make me feel sorry for every boss I’ve ever fought, F@!* No!!
But that tickle to my thought after the finale, was enough for me to pause (even if only briefly) from all the stimulations around me, to keep the controller down, to ponder am I the Hero, endlessly improving? Or the Queen, bound to repeat? Who knows.

I played it for about 4hrs during the free to play period (until 26 Jan). I was a bit sceptical about the isometric view, but I ended up enjoying it far more than I expected. This isn’t a full review, just initial impressions, as I only made it as far as Sacrament.

World building is something I love in games, and I am hooked to Sacra and the rest for sure, cant wait to dig in and find out about the Cerim race (our player character, they sound like the Dúnedain). Even though NRftW inspired by soulsborne, the game has its own character, its not just another dark fantasy, there are the usual tropes but you still find the world very intriguing. Its awesome to see Moon studio doing their own take on the genre. Love the aesthetic choice for the game, the hand painted texture, stylized character with chimp/Popeye arms, it stays with you, much like Disco Elysium or Darkest Dungeon's art did. Well, you come to expect a certain quality from the makers of Ori ;)

The gameplay & combat: Well its a souls like and good one at that, combat is deterministic, weighty & feels rewarding, punishing careless plays, soulsborne players will feel right at home, the only thing I am still unsure about is parrying (but this could be my skill issue).
Coming to the isometric view, well, sometimes the camera culling/occlusion can occasionally obscure paths and, more often than not, contribute to a death or two, especially in dimly lit areas or some times because of the game’s visual style (which I love, but at times you assume something is a ledge when it isn’t), that said, it’s something you adapt to fairly quickly, and eventually I stopped thinking about it altogether. So the crafting, mining, fishing & chopping with its timing based mini game is secondary to me, I don't hate it, but it doesn't pull me in either, but I guess for recipes and crafting new stuff I probably need to (reluctantly) do it.

Once I play the full release, I’ll come back and update this. For now, I had a great time with it and I’m genuinely excited for launch, this has easily become one of my most anticipated games.

Had been waiting for this one, loved the demo. Pure fun. Thank you SEGA.

Tried the demo and it’s a standout. Most Metroidvania games miss the mark or feel like budget Hollow Knight clones, but this one nails atmosphere, style, and tone. Enjoyed the combat and exploration of in the derelict spaceship station with very interesting denizens.

Looking forward to the full game.

Morbid Metal Demo impressions:
Combat and character navigation was easily the highlight, loved and enjoyed controlling both Flaux and Ekko. The character designs are genuinely excellent too, with a lot of style and presence.

That said, the demo was a bit too short for me to really grab onto anything meaningful, and what was there felt repetitive. It was basically room after room of combat with very little variation. The demo environment is nice but nothing memorable, quite linear, both visually and in gameplay flow. However, with that said, taking a peek at the Steam page preview, I feel the game will have a lot more eventually, to be fair they did mention that its still in WIP at the start of the demo.

Eagerly looking forward to more updates.