The Slormancer

This is what Hero Siege should have been instead of chasing the Diablo skinwalking slop, over monetization and the crappy kind of slog grinding that amounted to nothing. Everything Hero Siege does wrong, this game does right and more. The only sin this game has is not having multiplayer, but it's easily enjoyable solo. I have no complaints.

it's no contest that this is the best ARPG I've played in the last decade. I recommend it to anyone who likes Diablo-likes, you will not be disappointed!

Everyone says that this game entertains them more than POE or Diablo. After playing this game for around 50 hours, I mean, I like the concept, but it's just so repetitive and frustrating. You're not grinding to get better like you are in any other ARPG. Here, you're grinding just to finish quests and complete the game. In this game, it's much harder to craft an item with a good gray base from a materials and gold perspective. Items are added nonsensically since you can farm the same strategy to level up from 30 to 40, which is when you finish the campaign, to 100 without any problem. They also added some purple items called "nether items," which are obviously better than the unique or legendary items you drop with their legendary effects, but guess what? I finished the game without getting one. So, basically, if you want the best items in a single-player ARPG, you have to farm for more than 100 hours for materials and spend way more hours just to have a higher chance of getting that purple item. Afterwards, I finished the game and beat the last boss in a 20-second fight with the same items I started with. So yeah, I don't really recommend this game unless you're really bored with playing Path of Exile or Diablo.

Technically nothing much wrong with this game except for a bad UI design and screen some times freezing. It's got a solid foundation and good gameplay loop. My two biggest gripes with it that prevent me from recommending are the lack of content and the grind. There are five or six levels to play, a horde mode, and a timed trial, each offering different kinds of rewards, but you will play them so many times for the sake of progression that it gets tedious and boring. The grind is insane, and while I have some patience for it, the kind of grind this game demands is insane. I've put 70 hours into and I haven't even beaten the final boss, not even come close to it.
For the amount of joy I get from playing it, compared to the time the game demands, I just don't think it's worth it.

I really want to recommend this game, but as is in its current iteration, its just not possible. It hits in some areas, but misses MASSIVELY everywhere else.

Pain points in my experience:

- Aside from just a tiny few, all skills in the game are utter and complete garbage, both mechanically and numerically.
- Endgame damage output is completely absurd, period, and the design is often just to force players into using immunity gimmicks and cheese to even have a chance survive. One-shots doesn't even begin to describe it. Its more like 1/10 shots.
- Certain event mechanics are just utterly asinine and game ruining. (e.g. everything shadow)
- Content pieces take a long time to complete (30 mins minimum for forge), with no option to save/leave/resume or similar
- Losing basically all rewards/loot and content progress on death. Bad as-is, but given the issues above, happens all the time in the end-game and feels extra shitty pissing away 10+ mins over and over.

starts off very fun but the grind gets unbearably boring and slow after 15 hours. as someone else said there's a lot of interesting systems but they're all shallow and the pacing is mismatched. I just don't feel like the game respects my time. hopefully this is addressed in future patches as there's a lot of potential

So far its great, one bit of feedback is in the forge, make a option that whenever possible automatically bring up the next wave with the selection to speed up the whole process, so for example, as soon as enough of the first wave is eliminated, it automatically brings up the options for next wave without having to click a button, just a small QOL that would make a big difference.

Really fun ARPG with tons of character build options and very good loot system. Highly recommend this game.

It's really well made, but it's too simple, too little, too same-y even for the standards of this genre.

At first the number of systems and progressions might give the impression of complexity, but it's all extremely shallow.

I feel like Chronicon and Grim Dawn are far better choices for single player ARPGs.

Eh, it's fine, but it's not good. You hit the repetitive grind a bit too quickly and being bored this quickly isn't a good look.

On the surface with the skills (which gain XP whilst equipped), the weapons (also gain XP while equipped), and the ancestral tree, it looks like it has lots of depth, but because you can only equip a primary, secondary, and utility skill that depth is kind of puddle deep. Sure some items will give other skills, but you likely won't be equipping them for much use early on (if at all).

The campaign is too short and the "tasks" in the campaign are either: run the end; close breaches (which is causally just killing 3-20 enemies), or kill a boss (which have uninspired mechanics).

The visuals are oddly bland. Things muddy together... grey graves, amongst grey walls, on grey floors. Wood tables, in a wood room, with wood floor. It's boring to look at.

Another design complaint is that by default the "slorm" (or XP) orbs that you automatically gather are almost identical to some of the enemy's projectiles, so you have to turn them off, but they're just useless visual clutter anyway so I'm not sure why they're there at all.

Items in your inventory are just a collection of pixels (duh), but it's hard to visually see what's a belt, what's a helmet, what's a cape, what's a chest piece and there doesn't appear to be a way to highlight or filter for slot so you're left slowly hovering over everything and reading their slot name (if there is, the game fails to explain it, just like it fails to explain other things here and there).

Lastly, the game will sometimes deem it necessary to pop up a tutorial that dims the screen and you have to either hit the close button or a key (by default X) to close it, but the game doesn't pause when the tutorial pops up, so that's fun... and if a tutorial pops up in your inventory you can still click through and accidentally click things behind it.

All-in-all it's a fair attempt that falls short. Pick it up on sale, if at all.

Maybe if it gets future updates it'll be better, but as this is how it's arrived at 1.0 I doubt it.

Really fun progression and 1.0 is balanced with a good light-grind to the endgame. Would recommend this to friends and wish there was a co-op mode.

The game was fun until you hit the grind wall about 5 hours in... I finished all acts up to the last boss room by level 37 (I quit by level 44) and the game tells you to go complete some generic tasks like "craft a level X item", "get to level 50", and such. There are 6-8 tasks and each require you to grind. There are also 3 tiers of tasks and I did not complete the first tier before quitting because I wasn't sure if the next two would be required before finishing.

That honestly put such a sour taste in my mouth. I was already feeling quite "meh" about the game once I found a super OP build (void arrows with instant charge + projectiles is stupidly OP), but I wanted to finish the campaign at least. The game does unlock two new "expeditions", which are procedural dungeons or wave based encounters. I did the wave-based one since I could only choose one or the other due to another grind: Elder Slorm...

You need this special resource to even do these missions, which you can only get via the free entry level one. The problem is you absolutely NEED to do the wave-based level many times in order to accumulate enough of that exclusive resource to upgrade items to finish the task and it's the most expensive arena to participate in (about 10x more expensive than the other one).

There was a line late in the game where the writer pokes fun at themselves by saying something along the lines of "I don't really know how to justify this story element, so I'm making something stupid up." It's the only fourth-wall break I could see and it should've been a red flag. You can tell the creator lost a lot of steam by then, thus why there's almost no content after that moment.

This game is worse than Diablo 4 in its simplicity, build variety, and grind requirement and that game is already really boring. I'm mad that the dev is forcing me to grind an already grindy game because they ran out of f#$%s to give.

I wholeheartedly do not recommend this game. It's too easy, yet requires enormous amounts of time before you can even get to a point where it becomes challenging and then it only doles out the challenge in extremely small amounts.

This game is actually better than any ARPG I've played last years. Where POE2 looks for opportunity to punish you for every mistake, this game encourages you for experiments and rewards for it. Wanna fully respec your character? You can do it in the middle of the fight, just press a button and respec - no real money currencies, no additional farm, just do and continue, have fun. Wanna change class? Just go to town and do it, you won't need to replay whole game again or transfer gear through limited stash tabs. Found new legendary weapon and want to play with it? You know how to respec, do it and try new build right away, no time wasting bs. This game wants you to have fun, not punish you and waste as much of your time as possible like D4 or POE2.
Absolutely recommended for everyone loving ARPGs.

I was sceptical about the pixel art, but damn the game is so much fun after a few moments I wasnt even paying attention to the visuals

Rank up everything. Kill and get loot. Simple and addictive.

This game's a grind for the sake of being a grind, the entire game is filler. I was hoping the 1.0 launch would improve the gameplay loop a bit but unfortunately it's just too stale for me. The campaign is pointless pee pee poo poo humor that doesn't contain any meaningful story, the actual gameplay boils down to 3 buttons (primary skill, secondary skill, specialist skill) and 4 "ancestral" keys you'll rarely use because the effects are mid. Every map is "open breach, kill enemies (sometimes WAVES of enemies!), repeat until the next map where you do the exact same thing again. The "bosses" are basically just rare mobs from any other ARPG that have maybe one unique mechanic and then modifiers like extra regeneration or moving fast, very boring and very little to adapt to. Build diversity isn't non-existent, but it's very limited considering you're only ever going to be using 3 keys at a time.

If you want to beat the game (kill the final boss) you have to grind for DOZENS of hours to get to the point of being able to fight it. Not because you need strong gear or you need to max out your skills or anything like that, but because the game is 100% filler and the dev put arbitrary restrictions on the final boss that require you to grind for the sake of grinding. I've played about 25 hours or so since the 1.0 release and I have great gear, I'm nearly max level, can do the highest torment level and I'm STILL probably another 25 hours off from fighting the final boss just because I have to grind through all the warlord junk at the end (more clear breach, go next, clear breach go next gameplay.) This game had a lot of potential and I really liked it back when the mage academy was the end of the campaign and I had hoped that as the game got closer to completion it would gain more substance and less filler but somehow the exact opposite happened.

This game does some things well, the various slorm reapers have cool effects and the leveling/evolution/primordial system is pretty interesting. Gear crafting is deterministic and if you're willing to grind you can craft a nearly perfect piece of gear with zero chance of messing it up and there's a pure stat system that encourages you to try to find good gear off the ground as well if that's your thing. Each of the characters feel pretty good and unique, the few skills they have are fun to use with short skill trees to alter how they work.

Overall, Slormancer would be a great diving in point if you're new to ARPGs and want something simple to start with. It's also a pretty good game to play while you watch a movie, youtube, or whatever because it's very easy and takes relatively little focus. If you've played Grim Dawn, Path of Exile 1 or 2, Last Epoch, Torchlight Infinite or Chronicon, those are all infinitely deeper games with more content than you'll find here.

Addictive!
Been looking for an arpg to hook me for a while now and somehow this one does it for me. As some other comments mention there can be trouble launching the game sometimes (launches in a small window despite full screen settings, then some buttons can't be interacted with, weird stuff) but since a quick restart fixes it most times it's not too much of a pain and definitely not a reason to skip this one. It's silly and fun

Wowie, didn't expect this game to be so good. Very nice visually, fast paced, and quite a lot of different skill trees.

Wish it was co-op atleast

I have been playing this game on and off since 0.3 or so. I am not part of any communities nor do I read any forums or reddits. This is my personal take on the game without any outside influence, social pressure, or otherwise.
This game is absolutely great. I just couldn't put this game down for a couple of weeks since the beta. I genuinely did not want to play any other game than this. It's so gorgeous, and it's addicting. It's also packed full of content and activites you can do after you progress through the story portion.
The endgame is really quite addicting, with multiple activities that feed into themselves, with their own progression systems. Like you do Expeditions to progress their level, get resources to do the Slorm Temple and upgrade some meta-upgrades, or do the Forge to get powerful runes or upgrade the ones you use. The way the game incentivizes doing different activities and balancing their respective resources is really quite satisfying and addicting.

Now, I _was_ going to leave a glowing review after the full release and call it a day, but after unlocking the last endgame, Warlords, I just can't.
I honestly believe that the Warlords content is under-cooked. You unlock Warlords after you reach level 75, and before that, I absolutely recommend everything this game has to offer. However.

The following probably only applies to 1.0, as I honestly don't see Warlords staying the way they are. So the following rambling/harsh criticism might not even apply some time after this review is posted. Hopefully.

The problem with the Warlords content is that it lacks any sort of synergetic qualities that the other activities have.
When you do the Slorm Temple, even if you don't get an Ultimatum that you're going to use, you still gain resources that you can invest into upgrading some meta-stuff or upgrading the Ultimatum that you do use. The Ultimatum you get every 10 floors is nice, but it's not all you get.

When you do the Forge, even if you don't get a rune you're going to use, you still gain resources that you can invest into upgrading the runes that you do.
Both of these activities require Elder Slorm that you get from doing Expeditions. All this gameplay loop between the activities is quite nice.

But the Warlords - doing them doesn't do anything for you. They do not give you anything, and they also do not require any resources to do, or have any limitations, other than, you just have to do them in some order to unlock the next tier. They are, however, required to do to face the final boss of the game.

What they do do, however, is every time you complete a Warlord node, you get Nether Charge - a little multiplier that then is applied for a chance to get a Nether Equipment after beating a Warlord boss. The amount of charges you get is multiplied by your level of respective Expedition level. But as it stands, doing Warlords themselves don't progress your Expedition levels, which is baffling, to be honest.
Because in order to very marginally increase your Nether Charges gain, you have to do Expeditions themselves, but Warlords doesn't require the resources you get from Expeditions to do them, so it doesn't incentivize you doing them - outside of getting a small bonus. It just feels like completely lacking any synergy like the other activities.
To top it off, once you get a Nether Equipment, your Nether Charges are reset to 0, and you have to start accumulating them form scratch. See, if you didn't get the Nether Equipment you can use, or can replace the one you do have, none of the time you spent doing Warlords mattered.

Again, look at the Slorm Temple. When you get an Ultimatum that is useless for your build, you don't feel bad, because you get a bunch of Pure Slorm that you can use.
When you do the Forge and you get a rune that is useless for your build, you don't feel bad, because you get resources that bring you closer to upgrading your Affinity, or toward upgrading another rune that you do use.
None of that feels like a wasted time investment even if you don't directly benefit from the main rewards of those activities. They all give you _something_ useful for investing time into them.

You do Warlords - you beat a Warlord boss -- and either nothing, a most of the time a useless legendary, or maybe a piece of Nether Equipment that may or may not be useful -- and a Reset! If my calculations are correct, the maximum amount of chance to get a Nether Equipment would be 3% for normal Warlords, and 15% for Primordial Warlords (I don't currently know what those are). That's at 200/200 Nether Charges. That is a lot of charges.
The way they are this rare is not a problem. If they're that powerful to justify their rarity and time investment, sure, but as long as Warlords would do _something_ else as well, it feels just so stale and unmotivating.

Currently, I am sitting at 50/200 Nether Charges. That is a 1.5% drop chance for Nether Equipment from a normal Warlord boss. Am I looking forward to do the next set of Warlord nodes? No. Because at 1.5% -- whatever -- and the legendary that I will get will probably go towards completing my legendary collection, and most likely not something that is actually going to be used.
And nothing else. My Expedition levels won't increase that would upgrade the Warlords Nether Charge gain, and I won't get any other resources to invest in. I will just beat a Warlord and would have to do the next set of Warlord nodes. That's it. Again, whether my math prediction is correct or not, is quite irrelevant, because there is nothing else that Warlords offers for your time - doing them doesn't feed into itself - like the other endgame activities do. That is my main problem. It's just not satisfying to do - Nether Equipment or not.

Before unlocking Warlords, I wasn't planning on stopping playing this game until I completed it. Now, I am kind of looking forward to playing a game I bought two weeks ago before the beta got me completely hooked on this game -- all because the Warlords content isn't motivating me to complete it.

One other small nitpick, that is probably not fair to point out in a review, but I have mentioned this in a one single community post I made a few days ago. The absolutely horrible background ringing of the Judge of Light aura needs to go. It is so impossibly annoying. Once you hear and notice it through the more quieter parts of the game and the OST, it is a constant ringing that is absolutely aggravating. I closed the game to write this review as I intended, and maybe play something else because Warlords isn't giving me any constant interesting progression, and I no longer hear the ringing. Ah, pure bliss.
Maybe this is what made me agitated enough to write so harshly about Warlords.

Very pretty, very well done, cool twist on the environments, but nothing really to work towards, and ultimately unsatisfying - doesn't really make me look forward to doing.

Other than the current state of Warlords, I absolutely, 100% recommend this game. Very, very much worth the wait and the price. Completely got my money's worth for the great and fun times I had with it so far.

Depressing and hopeless story that makes you want to crawl into a deep hole and cry? Nope.
Whimsical and ironical story that cleverly pokes fun at the above? Yep.

Sluggish, dawdling combat – just as one might expect from a pixel ARPG? Nope.
Deliciously snappy and fluid combat – even in a pixel ARPG? Yep.

'Professional game development' from a AAA company? Nope.
Surprisingly professional game development from a handful of devs? Yep.

A massive, impressive, yet ultimately heartless world to explore? Nope.
Several well-designed and delightful environments that eventually start to feel repetitive? Yep.

A couple dozen meta builds, few of which are actually enjoyable to play? Nope.
Dozens and dozens of viable builds, most of which are enjoyable to play? Yep.

A fixed camera zoom that gives you a picturesque view of your character and also makes it impossible to actually play the bloody game? Nope.
A reasonably good camera distance (after changing it in options) that allows you to, you know, see the enemies you're attacking? Yep.

Loot? Yep.
Lots of loot? Yep.
Lots of loot you'll never use? Yep.
Lots of loot you'll never use that can be filtered into materials which you'll later use to improve the actually good loot? Yep.
Occasional loot that inspires a whole new way of building your character? Yep.
A simple, intuitive way of modifying loot to make it perfect? Nope.
An initially daunting but ultimately logical way of modifying loot to make it perfect? Yep.

An obsessively grindy end game, which leaves you feeling that with the hours you've put in you could have cured cancer instead? Nope.
An obsessively grindy end game, which leaves you feeling that with the hours you've put in you could have cured cancer instead, but then you wouldn't have found that sick legendary, and is cancer really THAT bad? Yep.

Lightning Imbue Round:
Best Reaper? Meticulous Primordial Sword of Resonating Thunder.
Best hip thrust while casting an AOE spell? The Mage. Obviously.
Bitchinest Ancestral Legacy moniker? Oppressive Cold Halo of Radiance.
Bugs? A few, but no ant hives.
Ant hives? Bees, man. Bees have hives.
Baby's mama? First Torchlight.
Baby's grandmama? Secret of Mana.
Worth the price of admission? Emphatically Yep.

I’ve played this game long ago and kept coming back over the years through all its updates. The team behind it truly deserves all the praise, they’ve come a long way, and I’m genuinely happy to see them get this far.

The game offers a lot of enjoyable content and delivers great fun for its value. Well worth it.

Kudos my dudes! Enjoy the release!

I love Slormancer. It's a fun casual ARPG with surprisingly deep mechanics. I waited for the full release before I wanted to give a review because the game changed alot during it's early access period.
You play as a young hero who has to step up when the champion "Bryan McRipped" gets killed and the evil Slormancer "Ohm Agad" takes over the town. You have to rescue the villagers that were captured and defeat his evil undead army.

Slormancer follows the typical ARPG gameplay structure but makes it casual friendly. You have three different classes, Knight, Huntress and Mage, each one having their own skills they can learn. You only can equip two skills at the same time which makes combat overall easier but you can always swap out skills as you need. Skills level up as you use them and every time they get stronger. You also unlock various skill perks that you can level. These perks are unique for each skill, you can imagine them like skill trees but specifically for each skill. Leveling up ypour skill perks requires slorm which you get from killing enemies. You generally get always enough to level up some of the skill upgrades. However, most of these perks increase the mana cost of skills, so think carefully before you overspend.
But as I said before, the game is casual friendly and this shows in how skills work. You can simply refund spent slorm on skills, which allows you to try out different combinations until you are satisfied. The same system also applies to other aspects of th egame.
Every time your character levels up you get an attribute point that you can spend in one of many stats. These attributes improve your character stats in multiple ways but you always can switch the spent points around however you like.
Additionally you will also unlock an ancestral legacy skill tree. This is a sperate skill tree that unlocks new skills, both passive and active, that you can use on every character class. The ancestral skill tree requires special nodes that you get from playing through the campaign and like anything else in the game, you can just move these around as you like.
To bring your build together you also can unlock various "Slorm Reapers". These are the center piece of the game, the weapons. In Slormancer, every weapon is unique. They have fixed stats and they level up together with your character. Additionally you can find a ton of other randomized equipment during your playthrough. Sometimes you might even find a legendary equipment with a unique effect.

All these mechanics will bring your build together but because of the casual nature of the game you can always pivot your build for something else. This makes it less frustrating when you find a cool item that does not work with your current build. It also means you don't have to create a completely new character when you want to try out a new build. This makes this game more beginner friendly for people that struggle with finding a working build in ARPGs.

The game has a lengthy campaign that slowly introduces new mechanics and enemies to the game. You will also unlock several endgame modes like battlefield, the Slormtemple or the Great Forge. These can be used to farm for more resources and items to perfect your build. There is a bit of variety here to try out.

And of course no ARPG would be complete without crafting. If the dropped loot is not to your taste, you can reforge its stats to your liking. Like everything else, this was designed to be casual friendly. You can lock stats you want to keep and reroll everything else, you can reroll the numbers on the stats and the game even tells you what the max range of each stat is while doing so. This makes micromanaging easier. There is still some RNg involved here but as long as you have the resources you can retry as often as you like.

In terms of graphics I gotta say, the game does not really shine. It's pixel graphics but not very good. It's not bad bt htere are games with much better graphics out there. The soundtrack however is very good in my opinion.

Overall that is a very fun game, although with a very slow start because of the campaign. Don't give up after the first few levels, the game drip feeds you it#s mechanics and once the full game unfolds you will notice how much fun it is.

This is the Disgaea of the ARPG genre. You gain levels. Your skills gain levels. Your weapons gain levels. Your items gain levels. Wait, your weapons evolve? Uh, your levels gain levels? What, your critical hits can crit? Yup, and that's only a fraction of what the game is about and how it is smart and fun !

The story mode is quite short and humorous and only serve as an introduction to the Slormancer. It begins quite slow but give it two or three hours and then you won't be able to turn your computer off.

There are an insane amount of possibilities inside the game, you can make any build you want and change very easily every time you are bored or find yourself lacking in power. You can reallocate every points spend, currency used in a few clicks and change from A to Z your playstyle. You can tweak every item you find, modifying stats, increasing its powers at your will to match your goals. And speaking of builds, each characters can go any any direction you want, each new weapon you get can basically completely change the way you will be playing! Knight with mana regen and elemental damage? Viable! Archer close combat with evasion? Viable ! Mage with heavy armor and thorns damage? Viable ! The possibilities are endless and the game, thanks to its weapon system, gives you general directions to follow, that is really smart! In most ARPG, you lock yourself into a stereotypical route and then you build around it. Here, it's the stuff you unlock which guide you in numerous surprising ways. I often found myself going down a way, only to find a new weapon, being amazed and changing my build and playstyle completely !

The game is basically as if you bought an ARPG like Diablo or PoE but it launches you into the endgame after 10 hours, but the endgame is massive because the game is constructed arount it ! And if you enjoy killing monsters and looting stuff and trying to make your dream builds work, you might be playing this game for a few hundred of hours, no less.

These last years we saw a tremendous amount of games following the tendency launched by Vampire Survivors, simple games where you destroy hordes of monsters without needing to use more than two brain cells. Some of those games are great, but most are incredibly boring after a few hours because of the lack of thinking process while playing. ARPG have always been more stimulating because you have the same pleasure shredding loads of monsters but it also feels more rewarding thanks to the character building process. You aren't just mindlessly clicking on whatever upgrade the game launches at you, you are making impactful decisions and steering your game into the direction you chose. And that is what makes gaming really enjoyable to me. Having a goal, and getting there.

Anyway, I digressed ! Excellent game if you like ARPG, character building, leveling up and endgame grinding hence my comparison this Disgaea at the beginning :)) You can feel the passion that has been fueling the development team for the genre here. Btw, it's a studio of two people, congratulations to them, it was worth it, true indie achievement ! (three if you count the compositer which made an excellent work with the music, I often find myself humming the melodies currently)

Such a fun game and very addictive game play. I highly recommend it.

This is more of a message to the devs, the gameplay is fun, the systems are good and fresh, the weapons are the most interesting i have seen in any game, but for the love of god REWORK ALL OF YOUR SKILL TREE POSITIONS, like for real, the skills are interesting (passives and all) but their position is so bad, you want to apply more bleeds, here you go, you want to apply more bleeds and spread them, no, you have to choose, you have this good damage bonuses on a skill, wait, the skill can't actually proc them so you need to proc them by other means, like items, wich you may or may not be lucky with, it feels awful, just rework skills to be self sufficient and only improved by items and other factors and don't gatekeep fun synergies, if they change that a decent game can become a true work of art

One of the best ARPG Diablo-likes I've played there is no multiplayer but the single player gives a great Solo Self Found experience. I always feel like I have a path towards improving my character without needing to rely on RNG completely but the RNG is still there. Finding a cool legendary or new interesting weapon lets you experiment with different builds with no cost to respeccing so you can fiddle and tinker as much as you want. If you're a fan of the genre I really recommend giving this game a try there is a lot to do and a varied endgame with clear goals to progress towards every step of the way.

Great ARPG with a lot to grind for, looking forward to play more in 1.0

1.0 on Experimental.
Played close to 80 hours on experimental.
I do not enjoy the game the same way anymore that I did in the Beta. I cannot recommend it anymore.

Edit: It seems to me that some stats on the experimental branch may be ever so slightly buggy, which is understandable since it is experimental. At the time that I first wrote my review I did not know this. My build works again and I have no issue recommending this game. It is rather simple and you can scale infinitely, which triggers those happy chemicals.

The game is by no means perfect, but it has kept me entertained for far longer than any other ARPGs like Diablo or Last Epoch.

This is the review you’ve been looking for.

YES buy the game and get to slormin’ thank me later for the all the hours you’re about to pour into this slimy gem 💎

this is a great fun game from a dev studio who seem to love their game

If you want a game of imba graphics and awesome effects THIS ISNT IT

but you want an arpg from the realm of history that is fun to play has a level of complexity to suit your style - not the style the developers want, but one you can tailor to your own game play this is it

Support small studios , spend a few $$ and have some great fun in this indi arpg.

TL;DR

Im a POE 2015, LE alpha, player and love these ARPG when they are in raw form, and this game ticks the boxes.


EDIT

Now i have played it some more, i thought i would add more meat to my review a few pluses and minuses,I know the devs do read and i hope they read this : )

But, all in all this is one helava game for a indi dev team, its so fun to play and the more you play the more fun it gets, its not perfect (no game or budget game is)

But, the 2 things would love to see the devs incorporate just to add some QOL in the game

1 - Would love the ability to turn off loot during fights, sometimes during boss fights or other fights where mobs after mobs after mobs come out your screen is filled with nothing but loot and you can barely make out the mobs or the position of the boss, but having it so you can toggle loot on and off, so during fight you turn loot off then when finished turn on (think in path of exile the X button)
2 - Ability to see what each stats is, or 1 line about it on the item, something like press alt with gear highlighted would give 1 line, for instance
"Magic items Quality"
This gives you higher chance for higher quality items to drop"

This way new players (like myself) don't have to go to external sites to see difference between various stats like Raw Damage / Elemental Damage /Damage to etc"

But, if these are my only complains, this shows how good the game is :)

all in all im glad i spent the sub £20 on this game, its 100% value and great fun

worthwhile RPG to pick up and play whenever you want to have some fun 10/10

For now, this game rocks, still at the early beginning, but I want to play!

Awesome, small, indie-dev team that clearly cares and put in the work. Coming from POE/POE2/Diablo/Last Epoch/etc., there's lots to love here with a low barrier for entry.

Very fun game for a short while. With 1.0 it seems it will expand on the endgame, so should get even better.

This game embodies what an ARPG should be. You get an idea for a cool build then reroll gear stats, respec skills (for free) and tweak and optimize to your heart's content. Exploding hordes of enemies feels very satisfying while you're farming more gold & materials to upgrade your dream build. And if you get bored, try a new build!

It's an amazing that scratch that ARPG itch where you can explore multiple build and break the game. There is a decent amount of content as 0.9. Looking forward to the release !

Amazing work by the devs.

It's the middleground in between a Roguelike (where you will feel OVERPOWERED when it clicks) and an ARPG (The whole game as is).

Real fun game! Lots of content and grinding to your heart's content. Multiplayer please!!!

Played since the first few months of early access, this game is great, impressive work for only 2 dev, looking forward to the release day

CANNOT PLAY THE GAME! locks the resolution to something weird and the mouse cursor is impossible to use to change any settings cant even play the game right now.

Enjoyable game play loop, tons of loot, so many different functional builds, great humor - this game has a lot going for it that is very much worth exploring. The sheer number of build defining or build complimenting weapons you can unlock, level up, AND evolve is incredible when comparing it to other games in the genre. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up and enjoy.

A really wonderful, witty and fun ARPG.
Better than a lot of other (higher-budget) options on the market!

Played mostly during the first few months of early access. Looking forward to the full release!

Indie arpg's are best arpg's. This game is no exception so drop your corpo's POE 2 and D4 games an play this gem - it's great!

Very good, can't wait for 1.0. Amazing work for such a small studio

Hi, I'm a huge fan of the game. But until it's translated into German, I won't recommend it or give it a positive review. The language translation is extremely important for properly implementing the game mechanics. I've been hoping for a German translation since the beginning.

Very enjoyable grind. Feels good on controller. Can't wait to play 1.0.

I've got almost 300 hours in the game and I still feel like there are tons of ways to play even a single character class. It's a good game that gives you a lot of control but also makes it clear when your build is starting to taper off. Regearing is absolutely doable and you have a lot of control over the loot filter.

Absolutely worth your time. Do yourself a favor and give it a go!

Great single player retro-style ARPG! It's a throwback to Titan Quest or Diablo II. Buy it, play it enjoy it no worries about seasons or FOMO Live service stuff just play it and enjoy it!

I've completed my whirlwind build and there is no content left so here are my thoughts:

Not really an ARPG at its current state(0.9.3): Scripted linear drops. Completed my build at the very end of the game. Still haven't got the relevant legendaries tho. Overall most of the content feels like its there for the sake of prolonging playtime, it felt like doing chores. Not rewarding at all.

I got the game several years ago and then took a long break. I loved it back then, and I still love it now. I sincerely hope that the devs will keep adding content to this game for years to come.