Bleak Faith: Forsaken

they should rename it to peak faith forsaken

An amazing and atmospheric hidden gem of a souls like

Overall gameplay is fun. Fighting style and the wide arrange of enemies and bosses kept me on my toes. The story and visuals are a bit janky. Music is alright. Would recommend if on sale and need to scratch a souls-like itch.

this game is janky and overly ambitious, but it's also kinda great.

3 Dudes with a VISION came together and poured all they had into this game. And it shows. YES. This game is JANKY. But the game-play was not what made this game special in my experience. Bleak Faith is a game that exudes a STRONG sense of depth, mystery, and wonder as you play through it. The world layout fold inwards on itself, and connects in a way similar to the OG dark souls. The spectacle of a eldritch concrete world of staggering scope. I don't want to say TOO much for the sake of spoilers. So i will just say this game is worth it. Easy. You will easily know within 2 hours if you will enjoy the game or not also.

If you are patient and attentive, the type to enjoy asking questions about the world around you. Then this game will reward that. I heavily recommend you avoid any guides or walk throughs. Just enjoy getting lost to see what you find! Climb gods! Dive into a flooded city! Fall into the abyss! Crazy shit man.. Just make sure to use your movable bonfire/site of grace, And pay attention to the red lamps! And avoid spamming your attacks, as this game does penalize that.
The weapons, equipment and skills are fun and diverse too. A giant battle ax that calls down a beam of light, shredding pretty much anything i hit with it. a scythe that revives the dead, or a helmet that makes your minions fuckin' blow up. Just give it a shot!

Forgivable jank due to its pure unadulterated soul and passion.

I want more.

Graphics and atmosphere look great, but there´s something on the gameplay that does not convince me, it just feels clunky. Not for me, but can be a good game for others.

I'm not going to lie...this game plays like a watching cheap paint dries...

easiest way I can put it. Trailer had me sold...but like the Big Mac picture...when you get it it doesn't look anything like advertised. The game is very slow and slow paced. It gets stale after about 30 seconds. Let me back up and talk about it for a second. The Mutated Ghoul (the enemy that waved its arm and rocks popped up from the ground) was annoying. about 1/3 of the attacks have no audio cues and the dodge function seems like a hit or miss. Same issue I have with Elden Ring where I would hit dodge and even if the attack would miss my character wouldn't dodge...this however is worse but let me stay on the Mutated Ghoul. Dodging the rocks was a hit or miss and because Audio Cues don't exist when the camera would bug out you where eating a hit that wrecked 1/3-1/2 of your life. Now Im used to creaming a boss on my first attempt (unless my dodge wouldn't work...ER) so when I die I was like 'um...what?' I was hitting nothing on him and he would spam the rock cross and there is not quick get up feature so if you got hit by that move he would spam it until you died. Sometimes I woul dodge, sometimes 1-2 seconds after dodging and taking a step or two I would take damage and get flung up into the air even if i dodged out of range. My record is 48 eaths against all of DS3 and 53 against all of BB...that includes the entire game not just the bosses...28 times in DeS Remake. I typically do challenge runs when I play a game for the first time...So dodging is second nature...same with parrying (Sekiro was relatively easy) so I was suprised I was stuck on this boss for over an hour. Now I was lvl 2 and love playing the hardest routes first (ran Catacombs in DS1 at the beginning and cleared it first). Eventually I beat him but staying on him and essentially being at no stamina the entire time because no matter where you where after 10 feet he spammed his long range attack that had a widge you really could run out of even when you saw it an new what he was about to do. It also seemed like as long as the animation was there it was still a hit box meaning when i would dodge and stand up i would get hit be knocked own and die to his next 2 spam attacks. Even sometimes I would get knocked despite nothing touching me, so i beat him out of sheer luck. Most of the enemies by the water are beyond beefy and take about a solid 5 min per enemy and get to the point where they SPAM THE LIVING HECK OUT OF YOU WITH ENEMIES. The design of the world doesn't seem straight forward and I rerun the same areas trying to figure out where to go. Currently I am in the apartment complex area with the stairs.

Now the question, why haven't I returned it for it not playing and looking like the trailer?

Answer, I will play a game that I bought even if it is awful an damn near unplayable.

Why did I get it?

Simple it is done by 3 developers.

Let me rewind a bit as I feel I came in to hot and shouldn't be to harsh. Now I believe this game was over priced but it theme looked cool and i was hoping after a year it would have some good updates. There is a few things it has going for it...the attack mechanic for perfect attacks and parries is really unique in both aspects respectively. Despite the combat being SLOWWWWWWWWWW and the dodges not responsive and the attack animation being wildly clunky I think the aesthetics work for it. The first main story boss I fought was easy though I died, none of his attacks where really telegraphed and died when he was almost died and the second attempt I creamed him with most of my health. The Sea Leviathans and the 'stab the eye out' mini-game is cool but i either run out of air or it regens its healthy before it attacks again and you can kill it. The cyborg Super Shrimps are cools and like I said the look of the game is nice. The blood being oil and the 'Bonfires' are really cool and I like the out of combat health potion refill mechanic as well.

With all of that said I give this game a 2/10, but in hopes of something halfway decent I do recommend this game and will not refund it. I am rating this game based off the price of the game, Half the price of a AA/AAA title I expect half the game, but I got 1/4 of what i expected. I would say if this game was $5 it would be 9/10, $10 would be 6.5-7/10 and so on. I cannot give this game a free pass because of the dev team size, especially after the trailer, and everything they show frames it in the realm of a masterpiece to just catfish its customers. Now many will disagree and I honestly don't care. I am being impartial considering I finished DS2 Scholar of the First Sin....for this game however, I will finish it and I may grow to enjoy it more then I do now. I am holding out hope that they continue and don't take critics like me as an insult or distasteful. I love the game idea and hope they look at what me and other say and make steady corrections for their future games. I want their next $30 title I play to be a 4/10, then 6 or 7 and so on. Perfection isn't birthed from a single game.

Developers...if you read this, maybe you will or will not, instead of focusing on better graphics, or bigger maps, or new mechanics, focus on refinement. Continue to make better games. My hope isn't in Bleak Faith: Forsaken, it is in what comes after. I am not recommending this game, I am recommending the developers future prospects. So please...don't give up. I do dislike many of the negative reviews that don't provide substance or call it garbage. I am to diverge from them and provide awhile harsh a more constructive foundation.

Blame! souls-like, I dig

I bought this game at launch and just got around to it. It could use more polish for sure ... but everything else about it has been mind blowingly good. The world and music is just an amazing experience to behold. Top 10 for me.

I like the aesthetic and the vibes but thats about it because I'm just not having enough fun to continue playing this game. I managed to beat the first boss (Konrad) only dying two or three times, so I was familiar enough with the systems and how things work, but after the quality of many recent souls-like games Bleak Faith just wasn't working for me.

Insanely good game for a 3 people dev team. The animations are a bit janky at first, but once you get used to it, it feels great.
The eery atmosphere of the huge interconnected world is captivating.
I am on my 2nd playthrough right now. There alot of different possible/ viable playstyles like 1h, 2x1h, 1h+shield, 2h, mage, bowman or a hybrid of these. Every armor piece has sockets to specilize your build further and can be changed multiple times without farming.
Exploring gets rewarded - you will find more than mushrooms.
It is a diamond in a rough.

This is a uniquely impressive indie soulslike. It offers extensive customization to suit various playstyles. The atmosphere feels familiar yet otherworldy, reminiscent of Blame!. Fans of Hellpoint, Mortal Shell, Lords of the Fallen, and The Surge will likely enjoy this game.

If you are looking for a game with dark and eerie atmosphere and great world and level design don't look any futher, this game is for you.

The gameplay may be junky, but not to the point of it being unplayable as it was at launch. The RPG aspect of the game is another part of the game i loved, the stats represents strongly the type of playstyle you are going for, for example the agility stat gives you critical chance, attack speed, movement speed, stamina, bow drawing speed etc., while strength gives you damage and carry capacity...

I recommend this game for any atmosphere enthusiast or RPG lover

7.5 A very good game and possibly the best souls-like experience I've had from a nonFromsoft title. A lot of bugs and glitches but none too terrible. At times I found myself falling into a rock but being able to climb back out. Some areas you'll want to be careful while parkouring as there are softlocks. The giant's boss fight had a blaring sun which I'm not sure if it was intentional or not but it definitely hurt me to fight it. The water section was creepy and a bit vague but honestly, it is an exploration-based game with trial-and-error mechanics and no penalty for death so I won't hold that against it. A lot of fun and worth checking out.

This game is one of the few that made me feel that anything is possible. Like three guys meet up and say: "we will make an extraordinary adventure." And they did.

I’m a big fan of action rpgs, but I do not have a large amount of time available. Not only did I complete this game, but came back for a second play through which says a lot in my opinion.

The world is just fun to explore and the progression is paced to keep you excited for more upgrades to your build throughout. World is huge, but doesn’t overstay its welcome and build variety is what makes you want to come back for more.

Only warning I’d give is that it takes some learning/reading to understand everything mechanically, but is still very viable to do a blind run.

Overall it’s a great experience, especially if you’re into exploring. Just be prepared to not be certain where to go all the time.

best game to play when u n a bleak place

Do you like Dark Souls 1? Can you handle a little bit of insignificant jank?

If yes, GET THIS GAME WITHOUT SECOND THOUGHT.

I liked this game made by 3 people way more than other soulslikes from much bigger AA studios.
It does have some jank, graphics aren't anything special (but they serve their purpose), it's not super polished, but gosh darn it it's a great game at its core.

I had noticed the game long ago, but I did wait to get it after all these updates and I'm glad I did, I can definitely recommend it at its current state, I suppose a good amount of the negative reviews were written about older versions.

Exporation, atmosphere are definitely its greatest qualities as many have already said. I'm not big on indies, smaller games etc. and if something doesn't play well enough to satisfy me, I will drop it (I found Atlas Fallen clunky for example, a game by a much bigger studio and I dropped it after a couple of hours). I had no problem with this.

I don't want to write much, I think the best way I can sum this game up, is that it's a smaller AA Dark Souls 1, with even crazier exploration and a great sci-fi, gloomy atmosphere with huge brutalist structures. If that sounds like something you would enjoy, game is an easy recommendation.

One of the best games ive played in a while! Amazing atmosphere, awesome soundtrack, solid gameplay, spicy difficulty. Cant wait to explore more of this gem. Get it no matter what and enjoy one of the most under rated "souls-like" experiences ever and support some very talented devs.

The setting and mood in this game are very cool; like Dark Souls met Hellpoint at a bar and had a bastard child. Beyond that I have trouble recommending it.

The keybindings reset themselves every time you die, go into the menu systems, or restart the game. This is made doubly bad because the default keys were chosen by an autist.

Also for some reason the devs decided to implement some sort of combo-point combat system that requires you to do light or heavy attacks whether you want to or not just to continue the chain. So is this a Souls-like or is this a Capcom game from 1992?

I was really excited for this. It looked right up my alley with the setting being a dystopian hellscape of medieval-inspired tenements inhabited by undead and transhumanist abominations. Sadly the jank and bugs are too much.

First blamelike rpg. Love the megastructure feel and visuals. There's some clunk, but it's definetly worth checking out if you enjoy Blame! or megastructures in general.

First to say is that many reviews on youtube about this game are now a 1 Year old and counting. This game got serval updates especially targeting the combat and ui, it plays now way better as often mentioned in these reviews.
The rest of the game is more or less still the same, a indie Soulslike that take manly inspiration from Dark Souls 1 and other titles (not to mention because it would maybe spoil somethings). That means rhe combat is as slow paced as in DS 1 with a focus on exploration.
The combat is still a bit clunky but you can get used to it and will have a good time. Key is to try various weapons and playstyles on enemies and bosses.
I also like the fact that when you die you’re not losing anything, no ”souls”, no drained health bar or something like that, it’s just the runback.

Bugs are still a thing and can happen to you, personally i had an helmet disappearing from my inventory after upgrading my weapon.
Also a Boss essences disappeared in to the boss arena after i died, it should be there but it’s not.

If you can accept it’s flaws you can have an “oldschool” Soulslike experience and a ton of fun.

This game is amazing. It had a rough start and I avoided it for over a year until they released a major patch fixing a lot of issues but I kept my eye on it the whole time. The game apparently only has 3 developers. If they had a bigger team and more resources they would be rivalling the likes of From Software/Elden Ring. Not that they need to, this is a gem in itself. I haven't even completed the game yet but the world is stunning, I haven't felt this immersed in a world since Dark Souls 1 and it feels similar to that, it has a really bleak dark mysterious feeling to it.

Really fun dramatic weapons, combat feels great, the level design is amazing, bosses and enemies are well designed. Can't believe only 3 people made this. It is better than some AAA games I've played.

I've thought long and hard on what to say about this game. Its not a BAD soulslike, or a BAD adventure game, or a BAD action game, Its extremely ambitious and some of it is brilliant on paper. The end result however is a subpar game but an extremely unique experience. Let me explain.

Bleak Faith recently got an extensive overhaul that fixed alot of issues the game had on release. I bought the game recently for $5 so i can't say if the game is better or worse than it was before. What i can say, regardless of when you play it, this is a VERY VERY indie soulslike. The combat is stiff and borderline frustrating on certain bosses and enemies. The map design is like going out of bounds and exploring unfinished assets. Weapons feel decent with good feedback but fail to really capture any form of weight or strength. Bosses are interesting and some thought was put into them, but the inconsistent hitboxes and some questionable attacks make fighting some of them extremely annoying. The music is halfway decent but i bet i can find a few tracks on a royalty free website's "epic songs" page.

Despite all of this, I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. The amount of effort to make a soulslike unlike others while being familiar is 100% felt here. The gameplay is good enough, the music is good enough, the map design is good enough. The game is GOOD ENOUGH to warrant its price. The ideas here are extremely ambitious specifically for a Double A studio. Climb on the back of monsters, swim deep in monster infested oceans, ascend monolithic towers, ride on the back of serpents, cast a tornado to shred enemies, build a character to fit your playstyle. Its A LOT and the end result could have been A LOT worse.

Im not going to say the game is a hidden gem that you NEED to play, but if your looking for something different in the genre, i recommend it. $30? Ehhhhh..... $20? Sure why not. $5? 100% a buy.

Such an amazing world to explore and the soundtrack makes it so much better. Little jank and dodgey sometimes but once you see past that, its an amazing experience.

Definitely janky, definitely kinda buggy, definitely awesome. Spectacular art direction and atmosphere. More Demon's Souls with a weird dash of E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy than anything else.
Some points of criticism:
1) MUSIC. The music that this game does have is spectacular, but if you're going to be playing sad ambient for every area of the entire game, you need a larger variety of music. Area-themed songs, and a large variety of them. Maybe some adaptive-music style of construction would be good to keep it from getting repetitive. I'm barely halfway through the game and the typical ambient tracks are already burned into my mind
2) Sound effects seem to be missing for certain attacks? Particularly magic ones, which you would think would be very loud and weird sounding, but they're just missing. In fact, a lot of sound effects seem to be missing completely, and it takes me out of the game's spectacular immersion.
3) It's too easy. Unless you find yourself in an area you're not supposed to be yet, the game won't pose much of a challenge for you. In particular, once you get your build off the ground and you start to collect perks and get good armors, none of the typical enemies and even minibosses will ever pose a threat to you. I'm running a heavy armor tanky health-leech build, because I was expecting my survivability in this game to be absolute trash, but I hardly even need my health potions and when I do, I have a backup of 60+ of almost all the different types. For a game with this kind of atmosphere and tension, the difficulty needs to be ramped up a good amount.
Although I do enjoy the fact that you CAN be tanky in this game, unlike Demon's or Dark Souls. Don't change that

An amazing achievement for a small team. One of the few games where the world you traverse is the actual protagonist, and when approached with the right expectations this game will give you more than you expected. It surely has come a long way since its realease, and what I played was an approachable action RPG with world design that will amaze you you even in a post Elden Ring world. The mystery, the horror and the intrigue can be better driving forces than item or stat progression, and this is coming from someone with a brain as cooked by live service games as mine.

It's definitely art, it's definitely slow-burn, but not in a tedious way, it does never try to waste your time. The 35 hours I spent during my two runs of the game were great fun, and having paid full price was absolutely worth it.

My single major pain point with this game was audio design. I felt like the mixing was not up to par, footsteps, impacts and certain actions in cutscenes do not have sounds, and that could definitely improve. The soundtrack is a banger, though, and greatly enhances this game even more.

Also, please do not expect a souls-like in the classical sense. There is no death penalty, you have a checkpoint you can freely place, and a lot of builds will absolutely wipe everything the game throws at you, ranged builds are also actually ranged, so you can have a huge advantage.

having a great time playing bleak faith , reminds me of dark souls 2 . Great job to the small development team at archangel ! would highly recommend

This game is a gem, a rough gem but a gem nonetheless.
Combat is rather simple and janky. But if I recommend this game, it's not for the boss battles, but for its breathtaking atmosphere and ost.
you'll be exploring an exceedingly large world,there's a great sense of loneliness and smallness while wandering around.
It was made by 3 people and I respect that
If, like me, you like to finance independent artists, even if their work isn't always perfect (which is what makes some games so beautiful), then I invite you to dive into this gloomy universe.

I'm really on the fence in total of this because there are some issues with the game in conveying intended path and made the experience extremely uneven because I almost did the game in reverse boss order

It's a bit short in total for the content that there is and how much of the game you need to complete "for a build", but it trims a lot of the annoying fat I have for most souls likes

At the end of the game I was kind of in "not recommend" territory, but the more I sit on it, the more I find myself interested in seeing if they could improve upon what they did with another entry, because I think they have a lot of cool and interesting ideas and it's not like the game feel is necessarily bad

This game has so many fundamental problems that it isn't really worth going through all of them. You'll feel them as you play.

Despite Bleak Faith having that undeniable asset-store feel, it has something important: atmosphere. It isn't always perfect. It often feels like a mishmash of styles and objects thrown together. But I think the devs have the right idea a lot of the time.

I'm interested to see what's next. Thanks for making the game.

It's like Two worlds....chunky and not so responsive......but i'll say this, if you don't rush and take your time the bosses are easy and so are the enemies. I'm having fun for what the devs had I can't complain!!!! 7/10

I bought this game on august sales after following it since the kickstarter trailer, because the release version wasn't looking too promising unfortunately. Though, the devs did an amazing job with all these updates, and right now the game is very enjoyable. I finished the game 4 times, I took time to go for platinum on Bleak Faith which is the first game I tried to do that on. The world is extremely mesmerizing, the music fits really well, at first the combat felt a bit janky but now I got used to it and everything feels fine to me.

I REALLY recommand giving a shot to this game, huge updates incoming and for now a unique experience, a breath of fresh air in the gaming universe (this is NOT your regular empty souls-like game)

Dark Souls and Nier Automata had a baby together and its name is Bleak Faith.

If you like either of the aforementioned, then you will like this game too.

Just try and look past the initial feeling of clunkiness. That's mostly a stamina issue you can mitigate as you level up

Personally I wish the game had co-op, because there is 1 boss that is incredibly hard and I've gotten him down to 1% 4 times and everyone who finished this game knows who I'm referring to.

For anyone reaching this point in the game I advice you to have a good stamina build, because you're going to have to dodge roll and jump a lot.

Warning to people with Epilepsy like myself;

Make sure you medded up. There are a lot of bright red/blue/yellow flashing lights during some fights, especially the one I've mentioned above (extremely bright firetruck red). I have the night version and I still, with meds, had moments where I had to take a break because I felt dizzy.

Other than that, this is an absolutely awesome game and I can see this becoming a cult classic. Even if the community is small.

I sincerely hope the devs will expand upon this universe, because its so appealing. And those gritty dark ages, dystopian and futuristic styles mixed together is amazing. Especially all that concrete and steel.

By the way devs; swimming down into the abyss dodging those baddies was really scary. Well done!

A short interim report after 20 hours: I love the atmosphere, the sophisticated level design, the oppressive soundtrack and also the difficulty of this dark fantasy adventure. I play Bleak Faith Forsaken on my Steam Deck and I'm thrilled. Of course there are technical difficulties here and there (frame drops), but on the whole the game runs smoothly. I hope we'll see a lot more from these three developers.

I played the game at launch and while I loved the aesthetic and vibe of the game, performance and general jank turned me off after a few hours. After a year of changes, upgrades, and additions, I think this game is a hidden masterpiece. While there is still definitely some jank, as you might expect from a three person dev team making game of this magnitude, it only added to the charm. The world design and exploration were absolutely top notch. Truly inspired vision for a game that has come to life despite the budget limitations. It reminds me a lot of the BLAME! manga. All of the bosses are fantastic (minus worm god), with some cool moves and visuals. The game is not overly challenging, but rewards exploration, has a variety of build options that feel fun to play, and offers a very unique perspective on the souls-like genre that I genuinely believe is worth experiencing. I hope this studio keeps improving the game or even perhaps moves onto a new project,, because it is clear to me they have passion for this art.

World design and soundtrack are phenomenal, the rest is serviceable. Most definitely recommended if you are out for a unique experience.

3 dudes made this on a budget and its incredible. The atmosphere, level design, music, build variety are all done extremely well. I could only imagine what this game could be if they had the money to really go all out.

I really wanted this game to be a hidden gem, but it is still very raw. Cyberpunk and ancient aesthetics design presets do not fit well into each other. For those kinds of blends, you need custom designs. Level design has to be vastly improved because it gets over the top confusing even if your directional feel is ok. Leveling up is too slow; even if you grind, you still do not feel any improvement most of the time. I hope developers get some experience from this game and will have major improvements in future projects because I would like to see the Blame's Megastructure concept in video games.

Dark and oppressing atmosphere, solid combat with a lot of character customisation options and a unique universe that blends medieval fantasy with brutalist architecture and sci-fi elements. If you like souls-like games you definitely need to give this a shot. Can't believe it was built by just three people!

The game is much more playable now compared to launch. It is still a flawed masterpiece; however, the good things outweigh the flaws. For 3 devs, it is highly impressive. I enjoyed this game more than Lords of the Fallen (2023).

A genuine gem of a game.

It's rare that I run into something that has such a clear vision right from the very outset that manages to keeps me captivated from start to finish, and upon looking through the store page/trailers/etc for the first time a few weeks back I truly was not expecting this to grip me the way it did.

I went into Bleak Faith: Forsaken (Which, if I'm allowed to be critical, is a rather silly name that doesn't mirror what the game is, nor what it feels like. Might just be me though.) with the intent to refund it before the 2 hour window was up. It had been on my radar since it first came out and I heard about how much of a confusing disaster it was. I just wanted to peek around and see what it was actually like now that it had been out for an amount of time, but I just.. couldn't stop playing. At first, out of bafflement and curiosity. And then, rather quickly, out of genuine enjoyment.

I've personally never played something as janky, unpolished, and truly immersive (For me at least, your experience may vary) as this, especially in the Souls-like genre. Something about the audio, visuals, and the moment to moment gameplay just clicked with me. I have a soft spot for unguided exploration, something that many games lack these days, and a great deal of the delight I felt while excavating this odd world came from how often I found myself lost and confused. So many studios seem to do everything in their power to keep a player on track, directed towards an apparent goal, but you'll find little of that here. And, to me, that is a breath of fresh air.

If you can get past the immediate lack of polish, frequent jankiness and semi-serviceable combat there's something special here if you value a sense of legitimate discovery and wonder. The game is weird, and never stops being weird. It's not a triple A masterpiece and not something I can easily recommend to the majority of people. It is flawed, but it doesn't try to hide that fact. For a studio of only 3 people to make something like this is nothing short of impressive to me. Other reviews here cover much of what I said in much greater detail and provide actual words on what the gameplay is like, but I can't emphasize enough how much of a -mood- this game is.

If you're on the fence about it I fully understand. Pick it up and play for an hour and you'll know if it's a game for you or not. If you don't like it, refund it. But if you do enjoy what you've experienced, you have so much more awaiting you.

Despite a few minor flaws here and there this is a great game! I love the setting of a steampunk abstract reality with a soulslike mechanics.

This game is a bit of an oddball. I had a lot of fun playing it, but I can see clearly why it isn't a game for everyone.
It's a bit clunky, slow (expecially the stamina regen if you don't invest on it) and there are some parts that can really be frustrating.
But it has an amazing world to explore, build diversity and gear that you can upgrade with the stats you want.
The loot from enemies is interesting, and with generous drop rate, you can try whatever weapons you want because upgrade materials are abundant and there are no stats requirement on weapons (making easy to swap from one weapon to another for specific fights/resistances).
One positive thing is that you can change your stats whenever you want by crafting a potion, BUT you can't respec your perks, and that's a shame, hope they'll patch it.

Overall a fun game, if you can get past the slowness you'll find a little gem

(pls dev make perks respeccable :c )

I played this in 2023 and thought it was pretty terrible. I played about 2 hours back then.

I'm currently on a mission to finish every souls like game and this came up as my 32nd game....
Wow, this has changed drastically!


So many improved mechanics like the perfect block and the change of weird enemy placement like those teleporting things.
Did you remove the ladder by the second bonfire? I'm sure it used to be accessible by default, now you have to kick it down.
Even the first boss is now enjoyable rather than just annoying!

I haven't finished the game yet but I'm simply impressed by the amount of changes the game has had.


I've gone from hating the game to being quite excited!

Only having played about an hour so far, I can only speak about the game so much, obviously. But what I can say is, before I purchased Bleak Faith, I already purchased and started Wukong. I've been in a souls-y mood of late, and have been wanting to find good souls-like games to start a good backlog to work through. Granted Wukong is a bigger budget game, as I'm trying to play through Wukong, I can't stop thinking about Bleak Faith lol. I just want to slog through Wukong (which I'm not really loving to be completely honest) so I can get back to Bleak Faith. I already spent my money on Wukong, and am already past the 2 hour refund window, so now I've gotta get my moneys worth.... upsetting.
But the atmosphere in BF:F is fantastic. It captures the dreary, odd vibe of a darksouls game but more future post apocolyptic like. But so far, the ABSOLUTE cream of the Bleak crop is the combat. This seems like a hot take in comparison to most other reviews for BF:F, but let me explain.... I'm basically hating Wukong BECAUSE of it's combat. The developers chose to make most things uncancellable after executing an action (and lotttts of unregistered button presses). It drives me crazy. It prioritizes the pretty animations that are happening on screen over the player having direct control over the character you're supposed to be controlling. I never understood why developers would want that in games where combat is so pin point and fast and hectic. That's when you need control over your character with your button inputs lol, at those insanely crucial moments. That's my opinion anyways.
THAT'S where the developers of BF:F absolutely NAIL the combat imo. Others may say it feels jank, but at the end of the day, yea, it is a video game lol. I'm not expecting absolute true to life movement. What I do expect is for the game I'm playing to be fun, and they made the right choices in my eyes. You can actually cancel your actions to switch tactics up mid fight and defend yourself with your natural survival instincts, AAAAANNNNDD they even break it down for you and explain what can be canceled and when. Yesssssssss, that's what I'm talkin about doood. And I think the timed swings adds a level of finesse to combat vs mashing a button to death. And perfect parrying is a 5 star choice to me after playing through Lies of P, where you basically have no choice but to buckle in and get it down to survive situations. I believe the choices they made regarding combat were actually thought about, considered, and executed with purpose.

For all I know, I may end up sucking and hating my life, and maybe not beating a single boss. But before I get to that point, I wanted to say my piece on how great the combat feels to me.
It's seems to be a greatly interesting game by design so far, and I can't wait to dive back in.

I don't like that this game contains stolen assets and animations from Dragon's Dogma and the Souls-series. From enemies to bosses, and the player's own attack animations much is clearly taken from elsewhere. There are far too many exact copies of the same animations for it to just be 'some accident', especially if you've played those games.

Crashes, loss of save data on quitting out of the game via the menu, animation bugs and more make it very difficult to enjoy the experience.

And the goddawful explosion sounds while you stab the giant enemies. That is far too loud for anything, including the flashbang effect added on to it.

Very impressive and immersive adventure in unique mysterious land. The Omnistructure blew my mind!