Project Colonies: MARS 2120

I recommend this, but with a caveat. Prepare for disappointment, play at your own risk.
C- (Dropped two entire letter grades for the foundry boss and for the final boss.)
PROS-
• The abilities are really, really neat. You get the feeling of feeling more and more incrementally powerful as the game progresses.
• Enemies aren't total pushovers, the enemy AI isn't too over tuned.
• Exploration is absolutely rewarded the way it should be in game like this.
• The fast travel/tram system is done really well. Even the cutscenes for activating them really draw you in/make you feel like a part of the world you're exploring.
• There are definite jank and inconsistent parts during almost all of the boss encounters, but they were really cool concepts, and would have been really interesting and fun if they worked properly. (See below.) I definitely give the design team an A for effort.
CONS -
• Movement feels solid, except when it matters most. There is a lot of janky crash detection during boss encounters, and there were a lot of "stop auto grabbing the ledge!" moments during pivotal parts.
• The bosses are extremely inconsistent: they are either absolute pushovers or "WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA"-level abominations. There are a ton of "what do you want from me, game?" moments as well.
• The foundry boss was exhausting. Not because it was a seat-of-the-pants encounter, but because it took more than 15 minutes. There's little to no chance to hit the actual boss. It's just poorly designed.
• Speaking of bosses, the final boss is...what even is that? It starts with several "what do you want from me game?" moments, then it devolves into pick-a-path, then enemy spam? And the final phases...there wasn't any shown indication I was even doing anything to it until things exploded. (And you're going to be mad at that last bit, for sure.) You don't even realize you're in the last encounter until you get the final cut scene and credits. It's a testament to the inconsistent design all around.

A great game!
Harder than I expected, but that is good thing.
I just started, but the variety of game play is great fun.
Don't miss the story! It's pretty darn good.

While there are some parts that are a little rough around the edges, I have enjoyed what I've played so far.
This is a pretty fun metroid-like that reminds me of the graphic style of Dread with the mostly 3D on a 2.5D track (aka 2D but turns around the enviroment at times)
The core ability system and how it affects the character are pretty neat in that you get different transversal option as well as a different gun style.
Edit: After playing more, my general thoughts haven't changed. However I have had some lag on my oled steam deck when I run into weather effects or too many enemies at once.
If the lag gets addressed this game would be memorably good. (not perfect perhaps)

Okay. Let us be real here devs. I know the approach of "Show, Don't tell." is taken to the limit here, and the use of audio logs were supposed to tell the Lore of the game. But that approach is weirdly used in this game.
Yes, the game is good. For a Brazillian Indie Developer, in Brazil current conditions and using a tool like Unreal 4/5? It's pretty amazing what you guys did and I can commend you for that. But there was some decisions made that would affect the sales and the reach of the game.
First: The Story, or lack of them off... It's weird being thrown into Mars and all of the sudden a rock slide comes and could kill you if you aren't quick enough. I know that is a plot for making why the character is trapped into that facility, but for people that are disabled, that could lead you to a refund easily. That's okay If you are wanting to reach a more niche market, but make that first slide, slower to build up tension, and make the player expect more of these events later.
Second: Why are the character having those powers? She can hack into their system and learn the powers? What are the implications of them? Why they are able to do it anyway? A little of disclosure would give us more notion why should we pick them up rather than. Now you can do this, you can use to do this.
Third: Some of the enemies are stun locked by the projectiles. Or killed too easily with the melee attacks, providing little to no challenge and being just an annoyance we need to dispatch to get XP. Make the enemies less of a bullet sponge, or make them more dynamic, as their feedback is awful. Like the flying ones, there were made to troll, right?
Forth: I understand that the design of the game is supposed to make use of the 2.5D perspective, but god is infuriating how sometimes you can't reach an enemy because your shot isn't aligned with the vectorial positioning of the monster, vide Ice Caverns West. I know it's A NITPICKY point, but interesting nonetheless.
Five: Whoever had the idea of putting power-ups hidden behind breakable walls, is well-intentioned, as almost is a formula of Metroidvania to hide items and upgrades behind breakable walls. But in this game I think that could be more nicer to have items, audiologs or something more than just Puzzle, item.
This game is nice, you can sense the love by the team, but is kinda Janky. But I will keep playing it. 7.5/10.

This is an interesting title. It's a metroidvania like many we've seen before, but this time closer to Metroid than Castlevania in themes, You play as a super soldier and fight alone in a desolate colony in Mars, gain powers, fight enemies and bosses, find new places to explore, the classic ordeal, and that's great, sometimes we just need something familiar to have fun.
I think it is a nice title to play on Steam Deck or other mini pcs in general.
POSITIVES
-Powers and weapons have combat and exploration uses
-Visuals work well with the setting
-Music is good enough
-Gameplay conects well exploratrion, combat and use of powers
-Melee combat is well developed
-Very decent size and level design
-I never had a crash, not even once, and for a game using Unreal that's saying something
NEGATIVES
-Visuals are very simple in general.
-The story is confusing and you never have enough info to understand what is happening
-Enemy variety is quite limited
-The character model never loaded the face correctly outside of certain cutscenes
-Hitboxes and hurtboxes have issues
-Some fun powers are only acquired way too late in the game.
-No New Game+ or Art Gallery
CONCLUSION
This is an indie title with enough gamplay to satisfy your a bit of your thirst for metroidvanias, but it is not super polished or have the highst production values, but it's cheap enough and with nice gameplay.

Metroidvania + graphics + giant bosses = A modern/indie Super Metroid. Dash and blast monsters in cinematic action. Controls could use some optimization. Find upgrades and skills to take on mars.
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Just finished the game. The end kind of snuck up on me. I thought I'd have another chance to go around looking for upgrades before that. The plot is mostly delivered by audio logs, which give you snippets explaining what went horribly wrong in the complex. It's great for atmosphere, but I didn't really feel a sense of anything building up to the final boss. I just kind of stumbled upon him while exploring, and then the game was over.
Obviously it's not a metroid game in a literal sense, but it has those vibes. I feel like the boss fight to exploration ratio is different, which is to say there's a high density of boss fights. They're pretty well done for the most part. Some of them have a puzzley component to them, where there's a trick you have to figure out.
Checkpoints are pretty plentiful and placed well, which is good because there's a few puzzley bits that require some fast reaction that's tricky to pull off.