Sundered: Eldritch Edition

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☐ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☑ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☑ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

They mean it when they describe this game as chaotic. On early game, that can feel frustrating. After you get some upgrades and corrupt some abilities though? You feel like a god killing all those enemies like it's nothing. I think whether you'll like the game or not heavily depends on how patient you are to get through the frustrating start.
To me, Sundered is a good game that features some genuinely insane design choices. The unlimited enemy horde rooms are definitely one of those. These choices are not bad, and definitely make for a very unique experience with the game... But a lot of it can get overstimulating and "too much" at times. When I wasn't extremely confused about what is on my screen though? I was having the time of my life with this game. The combat, and the corrupted abilities especially, feel really smooth and satisfying to use, and going through endgame felt great as hell. The game is not balanced, but damn if it doesn't own up to it and feel great to play the endgame as an extremely OP powerhouse of a character. It's definitely a good payback after the weak early game. Also, the bosses feel so satisfying to beat. The overall game feel is good as fuck. Also the sound design, music and the language? Cool af, I rarely want to listen to these "companion"/"temptator" kinds of voices but this was an exception, this guy cool as fuck and actually those abilities were worth it.
That being said, this same amount of chaos and freedom of the game and the unbalanced aspect of it all do have their downsides. The hordes can feel overwhelming very often, and usually when I was in such sections, at least before late game, I closed the game pretty fast, whether I succeeded or died, just because of the sheer overstimulation of it all. Eventually I learnt to ignore the hordes if they proved to be overwhelming and just do my own thing while they followed. I recommend you do the same, especially on early game. I also think the skill tree is too much of a headache, and requires too much grinding.I think there should have been less upgrades that do more and, potentially, cost more.
Other than that, not a good or bad thing but the game means it when it says it's equal parts roguelike and metroidvania. To me that was a fun balance, but i'm sure not everyone will appreciate that.
Overall I think if you don't mind the tidious early game or the skill tree being kind of a mess this is a pretty fun game to try out. It sure has its flaws but ultimately makes for a really fun time with some extremely cool bosses and the best ability set I've experienced in a metroidvania.

TL;DR: It's mid. I'm not disappointed I played it and/or spent money on it, but wait for it to go on sale, and don't expect Hollow Knight or Nine Sols. The story is forgetable, combat is mash-tastic, but the skill tree/perks and boss fights make for a decent experience.

Full review: Overall, I'd say this is mid. It's art style is good, the skill tree is fun, and the perks you get are random, so you have to adjust your playstyle for what you have... until you have most or all of them, and you use one of a few combos that synergize together.

The horizontal movement is very fluid and fun, but vertical is just... sigh. Platforms are usually just at the top of your jump so you default to upslashing all the time to make sure you make the jump. Movement gets better as you gain more abilities, but vertical movement is annoying pretty much everywhere there's not a bunch of walls to wall jump from.

Combat if fun at first because of the fluidity of movement, but after a while it gets stale. I hate horde mechanics and that's what this relies on. The first times you make it through a horde, it's great. They are tough especially early on, but eventually they don't pose a threat and you want to explore, then a horde shows up... then another horde shows up... then another horde shows up... then another horde shows up. Some hordes are literally never-ending. It mostly boils down to mash attack and periodically hit dodge or your "finisher."

The Boss fights are really good though; they are actually unique, epic fights with a good sense of satisfaction when you complete them.

The story is meh. I played through it twice and it's just not gripping in the way Nine Sols or Hollow Knight are. You're in the desert for some reason, get pulled into some other dimension or other. If there's a reason you're in the desert, I didn't retain it after watching the start of the game twice, but I could almost novelize the Hollow Knight or Nine Sols story and lore. Evil thing says they'll help you escape. You collect elder crystals along the way and you can choose to "embrace" (evil) or "resist" (good). As with most binary choice endings, they end up pretty meh. They are significant playwise though as embracing enhances your core abilities, where resisting leaves your core abilities alone, but gives you other benefits instead.

It's not a bad game, but it's a "wait for a sale" and only if you've already played the much better metroidvanias like Hollow Knight and Nine Sols kind of a game.

Sundered is a smooth, but short, metroidvania wrapped in a Lovecraftian sci-fi shell. The combat feels incredible, the skill tree offers another layer of character progression, and the world is well designed with sequence breaks and secrets to discover.

I enjoyed it enough to do two playthroughs, one for each ending. The two endings require you to pursue different unlocks for your character, drastically altering the way you play the game. The “Embrace” path of corrupting your abilities gives you access to a much improved movement kit. The “Resist” path offers an upgraded skill tree and additional combat prowess. I vastly preferred the Resist path based on combat feel alone. My Embrace character felt underpowered in comparison, but navigating the world felt incredible with the improved navigational abilities.

There’s a wide array of difficulty options, from choosing a difficulty at the main menu to equipping perks that offer greater risk for greater reward to grinding for shards to increase your player power. I thoroughly enjoyed mastering the game on hard, grinding to max out my character, and then facing the empowered bosses.

Highly recommended to fans of Metroidvanias. It hits all the right spots and is the perfect length.

Just 100% the game, loved everything about it. Did wish the story telling could be a little bit more clear, but definitely one of my favorites.

8/10. Very fun albeit short game. I love the lovcraftian elements! I wasn't sure how well the medtroivania rouge like combo would work but they do it very well. Takes about 12 hours to beat, but there are 3 endings so its worth a replay or 2. definitely recommend if you have a rouge-like addiction like me! :D

Such a good game and some of the coolest and most epic boss fights I've seen. Hallow Knights + Super Smash Bros + skill tree = 10/10