Karmaflow: The Rock Opera Videogame - Act I & Act II

best opera rock game i have play 10/10

I found out about karmaflow through Simone Simmons from the band Epica. I like rock operas I think they are great. Karmaflow has a pretty interesting story. Your job is to set things right in the world by choosing who to help. You change the fate of the world which at times was hard to choose. I didn't think I was going to like it but it drew me in with each world and story. The music is fantastic, if you are into power metal. A few big names in the metal scene played a part in the game. It is a surprisingly good platformer but at times you will find yourself getting angry with the camera. The Controls are easy to pick up and play there's not much to complain about there and the graphics are pretty plain. You will not be blown away by it.

I think in story telling and gameplay the game does a good job. But I feel there were somethings that could have been done better. Being a rock opera you would think the characters would be more expressive and better animated to match up with the singing and the scene. I also feel they should have isolated the vocals instead of throwing it in as a track, it came off awkward. It was like watching a bad dub. I think that's where the game misses the mark. Other than that it was a good, but very short game.

The main reason to get this game is for the music in it. If you are into metal (and to a lesser extend rock) it surely delivers and it is nice that you get the soundtrack as well.
The design and art also adds to the experience.
The gameplay itself is quite short, a playthrough is between 5 and 10 hours depending on how skilled you are in platorm jumping and solving some puzzles.

As broken as the game can be, gameplay wise, I feel the music, story, and characters stand out beyond it. It can be irritating failing challenges, but the music makes it a relatively chill experience.

Though still with some bugs that can often force a level restart, Karmaflow is a still half-decent puzzle-platformer with one of the best soundtracks I've heard in years. It's clear where most of their budget went, and if they'd been able to meet their crowd-funding goals, the game itself could have been much more solid.

Don't get me wrong, the game still does what it had set out to do. The gameplay is nice and simple, the controls handle decently for mouse and keyboard, and the art is absolutely fantastic. Each world is unique, and very imaginative and vibrant. And the music, as mentioned, is top notch, so long as you're into rock or metal.

When all is said and done, I'd give Karmaflow a 7.5/10. It could easily be an 8 or 8.5 if the game was given just a little more polish, and the bugs ironed out.

TL;DR: I reccomend this game for :
1) Power metal lovers
2)People focusing on the art and style of a game
3)People who just want a simple Story mode game
4)Indie gamers that want to help promote developers as a whole

Now this is is the long part. As a Metal fan I decided why the hell not and bought the game without any kind of hesitation since I saw Marc Hudson (DragonForce) Epica, COF, etc. Power Metal always had a tiny bit of cringe on it, then the game took it the whole way down CringeTown. Whose fault is it? I'd say only for the poor dialogue sketch and maybe a bit for the character design. Regardless everything else, I saw something i havent seen in a long time, and thats the beauty and the art of a single player. Unique Ideas, unique character creation and mostly the scenery. PEOPLE! We are changing from a dark area to a beautiful palace in the sky! We are metal lovers! We think first of the pit of hell and then the glorious palaces of Vallhala! The game might be buggy but FUCK it! It shows the epicness and power/passion metal fans have deep down inside them.

Art 8/10
Audio 10/10 Fuck you ill say what i want (Power and symphony above all music)
Gameplay 3/10 (Not much to do)
Difficulty 3/10 (Come on guys)
Overall its something below 6/10 but you know what? fuck it. I hope the studio and the developers make something great in the future. Same concept, same idea, but please for the love of god, listen to the gaming community, you have a lot of things to listen to and improve in the future.
I give it a YES because I want to believe into something better.

Great concept. Amazing cast. Lovely story and art direction. This could go well as an animated story but there is no reason why it should be a game too.
However i had to uninstall the game in rage as it's too buggy, too slow, the framerate issue is not fixed even in the update and at times the soundtrack can glitch a lot making the whole experience of this ...somewhat new genre of game, difficult. I can't give a strong blame to why the game part of it is so sloppy as it is an indie game and i understand the difficulty in creating one. But i can't go through with it in the state it is.

Honestly: this game was an utter shitshow at release, poorly optimized and running terribly. Now, after an amazing amount of patches, the game runs smooth like butter. Amazing music, great level design, and arguably the best character design I've ever seen in any video game. This game left a massive impact on me, especially through the great music, and has been one of the very few games I've actually played through more than once.

And at €5, it's a steal. There's genuinely no reason not to get this game.

You know what. I was going to NOT recommend this game, but after actually finishing it and thinking it over. I will. I will recommend it, why?

Because regardless of all the bugs, dull level design and the one game breaking checkpoint I found, It's an incredible experience.

While the game is rather dull and boring most of the time, and the bugs doesn't help. If you manage to get passed all that and get to the end of every act, you are rewarded tenfold for your persistence. Because there is where the music starts for real!
By the time I got to the finale, I was tired and didn't want to play anymore. But when I finished, I was more pumped then an Olympic Athlete on shrooms outrunning Sonic.

The music is fantastic (Even more so if you like Metal) and is sung by some really famous singers, Tony Kakko being a personal favorite. The story is interesting because every Act ends with a dilemma that you as the Karmakeeper has to solve (Choose really). The choices you have to make a rarely black and white but rather makes you choose what YOU think is most viable when all the choices might sound questionable. It's a really nice change from the clichéd "Good vs.. Bad" trope that plagues modern games today. Because of this it makes the characters in question more interesting and the overall story more compelling.

Karmaflow in a nutshell might be, It's dull as shit, but if you push through that dullness, you'll never regret it.

It's rare I get to sit down, and play anything like this. It honestly is. This game is simple in exeecution, but amazing in implementation. I have only minor gripes in the time spent so far.

You, as the keeper. Are the decider on a tale. As best I can describe it, you have a choice to make in the world. Is it right, is it wrong? Funny enough, I can't say. Each of my choices so far has been tough. This game manages to make neither the best, neither the worst. And it has no issues gutpunching you to make them. This strives to be a rock opera, so far, i fully believe it has.

I'll admit, this game isnt for everyone. It won't be. It is a music lovers dream though. Watch the video's, see if the voices and people are those who you like. If so, give it a go. I truly think you wont be disappointed. I haven't been yet.

Mechanically, and sadly I do have to touch base on this. Mechanically, the game has a few minor flaws. Most issues are minor, but can be an issue. At a few places, i managed to get stuck, not out of design, but my own cleverness. One of the resources you make do with, its possible to get too much of in places, and have to do some re-negotiation to divest yourself of it. It can be tricky to do so. A few minor issues getting stuck in places, but minor gripes to that. Those are the only complaints mechanically on this game.

I do however recomend a controller to play this game over keyboard. It flows so much better.

To praise some of the mechanics. This game gets the jumps right that so many bigger games fail on. The controls are fluid, easy to get into, and flow without any issue.

This is one of the best, most original games I have ever played.

Critically, I can see why it has mixed reviews; it is not perfect. There are occasional bugs - missing sounds, sounds cutting out, collision errors etc.

A lot of people are giving this game a recommendation, and in their review pointing out how well the team did given that they did not make their initial crowdfunding goal, yet made the game anyway. I think the team did well regardless of that. This game is everything I hoped it would be and more!

It is a puzzle-platformer game, the mechanics of which hark back to classic platformers I played in my childhood.* That's not to say it's dated - it feels very modern and the controls are tight, and I like the progression elements whereby the Karmakeeper (player) gains more abilities as they progress. The challenges this game presents are rather tricky in places, too - this game is no cakewalk!

* In particular, I felt the karmasurfing sequence with the Bird Goddess trying to knock back the Keeper reminded me of the second boss level in Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex!

Also the ending sequence is probably one of the best climaxes I've ever seen in a game.

But we haven't even gotten onto why I love this game so much! However I can easily see this being why perhaps you won't. It's quite a niche thing, really. I just love the way this game tells the story through the medium of operatic rock - possibly one of my favourite subgenres of music. I cannot stress how f*cking awesome this is. You'll just finish a platformer section, and then it enters a cutscene, and you're greeted by shredding guitars and the voice of Marc Hudson from Dragonforce (or any other members of the star-studded vocal cast), the likes of which is laden with arterial orchestra music playing, and then complemented beautifully by operatic vocals. A good musical comparisson is that of heavy metal group Nightwish. There isn't enough operatic metal in the world.

I have just finished this game and I cannot wait to play through it again - to make different decisions and see what else this game has in store!


Critically I'd guess this game gets about 7/10.
Thematically and based on my personal experience with it, it get's a full 10/10.

A $20 interactive album is essentially what Karmaflow is and by god does it do it well.

+Soundtrack and game music is badass
+Characters are interesting and compelling as soon as you meet them, a lot of love went into this game.
+Moderate puzzle and platforming challeges that make you think a bit but dont stop you dead in your tracks.
+Singing collectable gems, every game should have this.

Now with this though the game is fairly new and im sure that all of my cons will be fixed in future patches.

-Controls are a bit floaty, a bit of a challenge landing correctly on platforms.
-Audio cut outs with characters especially after the 1st world.
-Audio choppyness and sputtering during the levels especially whenever framerates get low.
-Camera likes to freak out and mess with your depth perception, very tricky when you get to the more complicated platforming.

This review is based on a full playthrough of the game (Act 1 + Act 2).

First let me say that reviewing this game is difficult for various reasons.
I really appreciate the effort the developer put into this game, combining a Musical like experience with video games.
It's absolutely unique in its presentation and all of the cutscenes are great, yet as a whole it could be so much better.

See, the game around which these scenes are built is not that good honestly.
It's basically a 3D Jump n Run without any real enemies and clunky puzzle elements.
The pacing in my opinion is where this game is suffering the most.
The levels are large, and while visually pleasing there is almost nothing to collect or to discover inside these vast worlds.
A few shards which contain some backstory are scattered throughout the maps, but you can count them on one hand.
The game would be much better and rewarding if they would have simply cut the playtime in half and instead added more scenes with staged music, which is the true highlight of this game and the only reason why anyone would want to replay this again.

But now, after finishing it once, I'd wish I could simply skip to these scenes or at least be able to keep manual saves to have access to them anytime I want. It's not possible to watch them twice without replaying the game. And since the levels are large and mostly uneventful and these scenes are few and far between it's simply annoying the way it is.

Also there is no sense of progression or any kind of reward for the player except for the finale of each stage. You really only keep playing to reach the music (at least I did). There are some nice touches in art design though. Some nice views are to be found, but just as much bland stuff that could have been drastically shortened to improve the overall experience. Added length is not always better if it feels like a drag. A game like Journey for reference, which was obviously an inspiration for this game but A LOT more fun to play, was very short but infinitely replayable due to it's pacing. Pacing is important in games like these, and the developers didn't get it right here.

Especially world 2 seems to drag on forever. It surprises you with 4(!!) long, mandatory escort missions after the point where I was already tired of the map. Escort missions have always been more misses than hits, even in other, better games. It's beyond my comprehension how this was considered to be a good idea at the time of planning.
But also chapters 3 and 4 are way too long for their own good, with more of the same stuff you'll become tired of halfway through world 2. Sure, they sometimes try to mix things up with a rail-sufring minigame similar to the modern Sonic games, but without the pace and sense of speed. You will want these stages to end long before they do, the journey is not the destination in this game.

Actually if the whole game was paced like the really great final stage, this would have been a hit.
Finally gameplay and music go hand in hand almost right from the start in nicely mixed up sections which are actually fun when presented in this way. You'd wish the whole game was presented like this. Sure, it would have been a much shorter game, but way more entertaining in the long run. I'd rather play a 1-2 hour game filled with stuff like this, and always come back to it like to a good CD/movie, than traversing through these empty and out of scope landscapes that stand between me and the good parts. Especially not for a second time. It's unfortunate really, because it's an indication of where the real talent of this new developer lies.

Also for a game that heavily relies on sound and music, the environmental sound effects are somewhat underwhelming. Sometimes there are no sound effects at all. You miss the oomph when being hit by something. It doesn't happen often, but it bothered me anyway.

Yet, while the gamplay is not a winner even when working as intended, the game is still ridden with bugs and other issues. The sound might disappear randomly, it's possible to fall through some walls (Act 2), the camera is unfavorable in many situations (to put it mildly), jumping button may not register input now and then. A lot more can be added, but you get my point.

So, taking the actual game aside, let's get to the good part.
As mentioned before, the musical score is outstanding and a joy to listen to.
Each chapter ends with a bang, a big scripted musical number, which gives you choices inbetween for how you want each scene to play out. There is no real consequence other than a different variation in the song, but it's nicely done anyway. Like I said, the game would have been so good if this was the main focus. Had the stages been cut in half and the musical scenes been doubled, this would be a metal fans dream come true.

The soundtrack is also included, and although some of my favorite parts from the choices I made are not there (apparently it must be the other choice), it's well worth a listen for fans of epic metal.

Let me sum up my thoughts with simple pros and cons:

Pros:

- Art design
- All that has to do with music
- Scripded cutscenes with choices inbetween

Cons:

- Stages overstay their welcome by far (especially 2!!)
- Not much to do, to collect, to actually play except jumping around and extracting/infusing karma
- Boss "battles"
- Musical cutscenes few and far between
- Bugs, glitches, general lack of polish
- WAY too long/artificially lengthened, badly paced

Suggested improvements:

- Either drastically shortened stages...
- ...or maps filled with more to do, to collect, to discover, to reward players
- More musical cutscenes with choices throughout the game
- MANUAL SAVE OPTION! Let players use the Checkpoints as manual save spots at least!
- Chapter select option, or separate autosave before each stage finale.
- Movie mode with all musical scenes
- More sound effects for environment

I really would like to recommend this game to anyone who likes Metal, or simply a good, innovative game, but as it is, I can't do that whithout fooling anyone. I really appreciate what the developer tried to do, even with non sufficient funding at their disposal, but since this is 95% game and only 5% (or less) great stuff, and gameplay is what matters for most people, this game is only recommendable for the most patient and forgiving gamers out there.
Anyone else is better off with one of the many other great games that are available these days.
Maybe in the future after some seriously needed updates to enhance the flow of the game (*badum tss*) I'll reconsider, but for now I'll have to keep the thumbs down.

I can only recommend this for people who are into Heavy Metal or at least Rock music. Because the Soundtrack is included, the worst case is, you are buying a good metal album, with a game attached to it.

For me the cutscene with their epic music are just worth it. The visual concept is also very creative, but of course a matter of taste too. The problem is the annoying gameplay inbetween...

I have nothing against plattformers and puzzle games, but this one is just too simple and boring. Even in the third level I did not have to think one time about a "puzzle". Actually you can hardly call them puzzles at all, simply because you never have to plan some steps ahead, which is basicly only a local-search, the devs should have known that >.<.

Even if they get harder and the plattformer part gets more interesting later, i lost most of my motivation after the first three levels. So i just started hearing the soundtack instead.

However, if you like the idea of such art projects i recommend supporting it. I want to see more creative indie games with a focus on music in the future.

Firstly watch the trailers, it'll explain most of the gameplay looks like.

The game has its positives and negatives.

The negatives first as it's the main thing that most people look for, the mouse controls are rubbish and unresponsive at times and the menu is a bit weird.

Its a platformer in its core were you make karma go to different places to continue the story but I will say, the music is seperate in places and not all the way through but the cast and voices are brilliant, also the actual songs are amazing and made me continue.

The graphics look nice and colourful. It's different so if your not into different things then it's not for you. I will say personally, I found this game really good! I enjoyed it and i'm a few hours in.

The deluxe edition doesn't seem worth it, but I will say, I am glad i bought it personally.

It's a nice new niché idea and i'm glad for a new unique I.P.

Pros:

- The rock music within cutscenes is awesome!
- Character and NPC models are well done and original.

Cons:
- The game is terrible at telling you what is going on in the story.
- Boring environments.
- Mediocre platforming and puzzle mechanics.
- Environment music is boring and forgetful.
- Progress stopping bugs and crashes are still in the game after numerous patches.


I really wanted to like this game, the music in cutscenes is really good but everything else is terribly boring. No thought was given to platforming and puzzle mechanics. Both are terribly easy. If you can press the jump button and point the character in the general direction of a platform they will make it. Puzzles are stupid easy and require almost zero thought to solve. With the puzzles and platforming lacking the game becomes a walking simulator to get to the next cutscene.

The story is terrible and no effort is put into explaining exactly what is going on. Your own character isn't fleshed out in the slightest. Other characters know you are but refuse to tell you exactly who you are. The game offers moral choices at the end of the worlds but your decision has no noticeable impact, and the game refuses to tell you exactly why you are making these decisions or why you should be invested in the outcome of the decisions in the first place.

There are some really good ideas presented in this game, but the execution is terrible. I would pass on it for a better puzzle platformer on Steam.

You can read my full review of the game here: http://www.skepticalminotaurgames.com/karmaflow-the-rock-opera-videogame

Better than i expected. There are some minor bugs, but the developers are constantly patching the game.
If you like rock opera's or symphonic metal, you probably already bought the game.
Simply put it's a story driven, music, puzzle, platformer :)

Although the checkpoint bugs make playing Karmaflow difficult sometimes, it is VERY MUCH worth playing. (also, I’m told those bugs are being fixed as we speak)
The implied narrative that lies in the extracting and infusing mechanic seeps in slowly to a point where you know you have to use those powers *I will not spoil* but you REALLY don’t want to.
This is not a game about music, like for instance brutal legend, this game IS music. The music seeps out and leaves you with goosebumps behind your desk. The talent of the people who helped creating this game by giving their voice, instruments and skills is incredible.

Karmaflow is a masterful blend of music, art, and gameplay. It's had a bit of a bumpy launch, but team Karmaflow rallied together and patched most of the issues by the end of Day 1. Very rarely have I seen a team work that fast at fixing bugs. This is even more impressive when you consider this is a new studio who crowdfunded the game on Indiegogo (they didn't reach their full goal) and are new to the game development world.

Seeing all the complaints of bugs on Steam, I waited until the first wave of patches before playing the game. I am happy to report that I ran into ZERO game breaking bugs and I really enjoyed my time with the game (played with a controller). NOTE: There are still some minor bugs being worked on, but what game doesn't have those?

This game is all about the music. If you don't like symphonic metal then you're probably not going to like the game, but what did you expect out of a game calling itself a Rock Opera? If you do like the genre, then you are in for a real treat. The orchestral performances of some of Metal's most recognized icons (seriously, look at the cast for this game) was spot-on and combined with the game's unique visual style, created a deep atmosphere that really drew me in.

Without going into too many details, the story follows the Karma Keeper as it travels from world to world restoring balance after the mysterious "Dissonance" has wreaked havoc. It is presented, as you would expect, in rock opera fashion by having the characters sing/scream their parts to tell their tales. There are shards scattered around the worlds that present Karmaflow's backstory, and really solidify the atmosphere of the game. The addition of subtitles (see! They were listening to the community and added this in the first string of patches!) really helped me keep track of Karmaflow's story.

While the designers are new, they did a fantastic job of using subtle visual cues to keep players on the right path. There are no direct hints to solving the puzzles, meaning if you get stuck, you will have to look around the environment and experiment with different approaches to find your way out. I love this approach because it keeps you in the game instead of constantly waiting for a hint.

The ambient sounds in the game could be better. Like when a boulder hits the ground, it would be nice to hear a solid crash instead of an odd crunching sound. I wasn't too fond of the thudding sound the Karma Keeper made when it landed after jumping, but that's just personal preference. There lots of little instances like these where I wished the ambient sounds were a bit better, but hey, this was a crowdfunded game from Indiegogo with a killer soundtrack and vocal cast, I'm not complaining too much.

Lastly, while I really enjoyed the puzzles within the game, there were no consequences for failing or dying. If the Karma Keeper dies in the game, you respawn close by and continue where you left off. There's no reset or anything. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does remove any sense of urgency or fear from the boss "fights"/"puzzles" (I'm honestly not sure what to call them). But again, this game is all about delivering a killer Rock Opera experience, and it does that with gusto.

Overall, I would give Karmaflow a 4 out of 5 as I sit and wait for Act 2 to be released later this year!

Pros:
- Soundtrack
- Music
- Epic musical solos (noticing a trend)
- Solid puzzle mechanics
- Atmosphere
- Solid Rock Opera style story and presentation
- Game includes soundtrack (To be released with Act 2 later this year)

Cons:
- Ambient sounds could be improved
- No consequences for failing
- Act 1 is very short (roughly 3 - 3.5 hours)

EDIT: The game is being fixed very quickly! Once all the performance errors are fixed, I'll happily change this to YES! :D As of right now, subtitles and most errors are fixed along with it being made more balanced!

Original Review:
I'm going to be blunt, I'm running a decent rig with a 780ti and i5 4670k and was unable to run this at a stable fps on ANY graphic settings which makes me super sad because there was so much hype for this game, at least from me who LOVES this genre of music. That being said, the game play I did experience was a bit buggy with some sounds being unnaturally loud and the lack of subtitles but besides that, this a beautiful game and VERY fun to play!

Overally, I'm saying No until the game is optimized a little more to the point of 100% enjoyable play. Hopefully we can see a nice update before Act II drops in April! :D

So that was short for €15, I know it says you get chapter 2 but still, don't go in expecting a substantial chapter one. Story wise I haven't a clue what’s going on (bar the intro and visual queues), I'm Irish and despite what it says on Wikipedia, our first language is English and there were some words/sections of the Story/Singing that I found entirely inaudible, I thought at one stage in the finale the conductor said "swimming pool".
This is in part to the backing track being far too loud and drowning out the lyrics and partially due to the singers clearly not being native English speakers and singing in English (at least for their sakes I hope this is correct, otherwise seriously quit your day job), a prime example being when you first encounter the conductor he twice says the word "Faith" when he meant "Fate" and clearly annunciates it as "Faith"

Visually it’s actually quite nice, I almost wish it was far bigger so I could float around and enjoy myself similar to Journey, which the graphics remind me of also but not overly, it definitely has its own style. Again it’s so pretty I wish there was more to interact with and consume at a slower pace to get to know the world and characters.