Source Of Madness - PC Gameplay (No commentary)
0Source of Madness is a side-scrolling dark action roguelite set in the Loam Lands, a twisted Lovecraftian inspired world powered by procedural generation and AI machine learning. Take on the role of a new Acolyte as they embark on a nightmarish odyssey.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1315610/Source_of_Madness/
My early access review:
+I've never felt dread like this in a 2D game, you'll be surprised with disturbing things falling from the ceiling, crawling from the corners of the screen or trying to reach you from bellow.
+creatures are randomly generated so it becomes unpredictable how a lot of enemies will move / attack, you gotta adapt to them on the fly.
+gameplay and combat feels very unique for a 2D game, you play as a mage and you're fragile, so you gotta be careful with your approaches. expect situations where you'll need to cheese or kite enemies (which is fun in this game), but close combat is viable too if you upgrade and make good use of your dash skill, there are also some close combat spells at your disposal anyways.
+THE HORROR, this game is full of grotesque things, screams, otherworldly atmosphere and a beautiful but haunting soundtrack.
+good sense of progression for a roguelike (specially in early access), I did a few runs and each one of them gave me resources to unlock useful skills.
+the game has a "floaty physics" feel to it. at first I thought this could be a problem, specially during combat but actually it feels very good and distinctive to play.
+good spell diversity and builds to play around with.
I don't know what else to say, performance is great too even with a lot of stuff going on at the screen. No negative aspects so far imo, if this is an early access title, I can't wait to see what the devs end up implementing in the future, maybe a different character or two aside from the spellcaster could add a lot to the longevity and diversity of gameplay, and even tho I really like the AI generated enemies (seriously, this feature is amazing and resonates greatly with Lovecraft themes), I think that a few standalone / non randomly generated enemies here and there wouldn't hurt, just to give some identity to some encounters, thinking about something like the Black Knights in Dark Souls for example. anyways I'm really glad to have contributed in a way or another for this EA, this is a great title already with a lot of potential too, cheers to the devs, fine work!