Sophonce

Nothing but good things to say so far. Sophonce takes the Hero Shooter approach and definitely brings it, making each checkpoint seem like an accomplishment. Magnificent graphics, solid controls and simple, yet challenging, game-play has got me hooked; can't wait to see where it all goes.. Updates have been small, but frequent, and are definitely noticeable in-game. I think we have a winner here, we all just need to be patient and let this develop. This one was worth the wait.

Very surprised by this game. Was a bit wary with the low price, number of reviews, and never having heard of the game/dev. But I decided to give it a chance and am really impressed, especially considering it was made by a single developer. The game play is very polished and I experienced no bugs. The game was a bit difficult at first but becomes more reasonable as you become accustomed to the controls and environment. I also was able to complete the whole game (prologue and 1st chapter) in vr using uevr. Everything worked great with a few small tweaks except zoom did not seem to work (at no fault to the dev as it was not designed for vr). Overall, very impressed and excited to see the upcoming chapters as well as anything else from this dev...

I really enjoyed this, if you're a fan of shooters then this game is a must! The story is interesting and the combat is awesome with tons of options and cool mechanics.
Only one chapter out ATM but for 5$ it's well worth it, Can't wait for the rest!

Pros: -The concept and general idea of the game is nice, it feels like just the right amount of sci-fi
-The graphics look polished and fit with the theme of the game, everything feels like it belongs in the same universe.
-Combat feels challenging,although sometimes too challenging, enemies seem diverse.
-From what i could tell so far, the story seems deep and and enjoyable.
-performance is good with little to no stutters
Cons: -the game feels like Vsync is always active, there is a major input lag, feels like at least 400-500ms, and it feels like mouse acceleration is always enabled, even if there is no option for that. (yes, i have checked my OS settings) That makes gameplay dissatisfying a lot of the time, in addition to the enemies aimbotting you or getting stuck under/in objects or the floor, these issues made me stop playing the game for now until the next major update, cause i don't want these issues to ruin my experience.
-this one is more of a personal preference, but i prefer iron sights/scopes over the weird zooming in this game when ADS.
-there is no real explanation on how some of the guns work, for most it is pretty self-explanatory, but nothing on the elements and any special effects they may or may not have.
-semi-automatic guns feel capped considering RPM, especially the revolver, and hit feedback is almost nonexistent.
TL;DR: it is noticeable the game is in early access, but it has a whole lot of potential, and especially at this price point there is no reason not to try it and see where it goes with future updates.

Early access release shows real promise. I think the story line is appealing and I like how the controls are taught slowly as you progress through the game. The fight battles are fun and when things get out of hand...I just slow down time. One of the downsides for me personally is that many of the screens are darker (which supports the scifi horror vibe) so I can only really play game at night...during day, I gotta squint. Definitely worth the $3.99 buy though for sure!

Just completed chapter 1 (The current EA content) on "Hard", and Sophonce is a very pleasant surprise at just $4, though I do have some issues with it. To start with, the weapon feedback is phenomenal against humanoid enemies (Less so the bots). There is limb dismemberment, elemental effects, and the guns just look and feel satisfying to shoot against them. Oh, and there is a story, with branching dialogue choices, but it's too early to judge how well any of it is done.
But my biggest complaint about this game is it's encounter design. Those satisfying feeling firearms I described earlier? IMO they are entirely let down by this game's biggest flaw, which is pacing and encounter design. The game uses an old school health system, which I am not against by default, but every single encounter in chapter 1 was in a room of varying sizes, with minimal cover, no verticality (Everything is a flat, total corridor shooter with no reason to look up aside from shooting drones), and 2 to 3 spawn rooms that are blocked off by a forcefield. This alone isn't an issue, but nearly every enemy in this game is hitscan rather than projectile based. So there dozens of situations where you are literally forced to take damage unless you spam the personal shield powerup, or take cover behind the biggest object in the room you can find until the AI are done walking at you one after the other. The slow motion power helps negate this somewhat, if only because it gives you extra time to hit them while they are hitting you with perfect accuracy. In particular, this is why I gave up playing on the hardest difficulty, there was an encounter with armed men in some fog that they could see straight through and laser me before I could even see their silhouette.
I wouldn't be so hard on the encounter design if I didn't think the rest of the game's presentation deserved far better. The weapon feedback is delightful, very reminiscent of classics like F.E.A.R. And aesthetically, the game looks pretty slick. But these strong visual aesthetics are weighed down by weak map design and AI behavior that sees every enemy simply charge your current position. Give me rooms where I have to push through a heavily fortified position, maybe they have catwalks the player can get to and use to their advantage. Just something besides a box with 2-4 shielded enemy funnels.
Beyond that, I would suggest just giving us access to all of the powers as we find them rather than a two power carry system. As the slow mo, shield. and gust power are all way more useful than the threat scan and dash (AI is just gonna rush me anyways, no point in needing their exact location And the dash just gets me shot and wastes mana unless they're firing rockets, even though it feels good...) Maybe put them on a power wheel or a modifier key + 1-0 for selection?
Anyways, while I have my gripes with Sophonce, I'm very excited to see where it goes, and the gunplay is worth the $4 admission alone. But don't play it on Royal Protector or whatever the max difficulty is at the time of writing. It's more of a test of encounter memory than of reaction time and skill ATM.

Sophonce surprised me in the best way possible. For an Early Access title, it runs incredibly smooth, which already sets it apart from a lot of other EA games that feel more like tech demos. The story grabbed me right away—it’s mysterious, layered, and the fact that my decisions actually matter gives it real replay value.
The combat feels great too. The weapons have weight, the abilities add variety, and pulling off telekinetic mayhem never gets old. Reflex mode (slow-mo) makes every encounter feel cinematic, and it’s hard not to spam it just to feel like a sci-fi action hero.
What I really appreciate is that Sophonce feels ambitious but not half-baked. You can tell there’s a long road ahead in development, but what’s here already feels polished and fun. If this is only Chapter 1, I can’t wait to see how wild things get later.
Also, shoutout to the dev—one person making something this smooth and engaging is pretty insane. If he keeps this up, we might have the next cult-classic sci-fi FPS on our hands.
Final thought: Sophonce is like if F.E.A.R. and Mass Effect had a baby that was raised by Half-Life and given superpowers. And honestly? That’s the kind of weird family tree I want to keep playing in.
Check out my First Impression video here: