Malebolgia

Did not enjoy it.

For a game focused around combat, it is exceptionally bad. I tried to get into this because I like the art style, but the combat is atrocious.

Loved the sound track and simple, dark design of the game. A short experience, which didn't over stay it's welcome. The controls are simple and combat is a little stiff. Great indie game!

I bought this as it seemed very interesting, pertained to what I like and appreciate, and similar to other games I play. Characters and lore looked and seemed very interesting and I wanted to explore this world. I read it had a Dark Souls-vibe, which meant I'd die. A lot. No problem.

Looks and actually game-play are far different. While the art style of the game is minimalist with characters and architecture being simplified polygons, I at least assumed the game-play would be more of the late 2000's RPG game or battles would include more intricacies. Nope.

It seems there's a very slow delay when trying to parry or attack. You feel the weight of the weapon your character welding to be like Thor's hammer and not a knight's sword. Actions seemed perfectly timed to collide with each other as there is one speed and one speed only: Slow. When I would try to parry an attack, it barely or didn't make it in time, only to unblock and try to hit when the other character was already preparing for another hit. It felt like I old Nintendo controls,

https://media.tenor.com/images/5b665942bc58193388318f5cfced89e8/tenor.gif





NOTE: This is my opinion and thoughts of the game and not an overall view of the game for general audiences. As with many reviews and opinions, take this with a grain of salt and do your own research. This notice should not be necessary, but is included due to previous inflammatory commentary on reviews from previous games due to people being "butt-hurt" that I said either something bad about the game, disagreed with it being good, or using "wording or descriptions" one doesn't agree with.

A retro computer gaming take on the Dark Souls formula. Where it lacks in complexity it excels in atmosphere. Challenging enough to keep things interesting, but never too hard or frustrating. As a fan of using torches to explore dark places in video games, this one is a definite winner, and it's runs on my $200 potato laptop!

I'm still a little lost on Malebolgia.

Did I enjoy it? Did I not? I'm still not sure.

I went in expecting a very mediocre, deriviative clone of Dark Souls. Actively what I wanted from it. And it managed to be more than that. But also managed to scuttle that with some very poor design decisions. Isn't that odd?

Malebolgia is a purposefully slow action game set in one self-enclosed level, that gradually opens up, then warps itself through later story sections. You follow one character, with one weapon, with no character levels or armour or any of that jazz. This isn't a bad thing and the story emphasis proves to the be the main driving motivation for this game.

"You're finally handling that weapon with pride, Leopold."

"We're all dead here."

"Forgive an old man his flights of fancy."

Let me summit up this game on few words ''this game is like an alpha version of dark souls ''
Reasons: level design is consfusing and lacks key landmarks so you cant distungish where are you going. if i really knew Where i was going for sure i would had finished it in less than 4 hours
The selection of enemies and their AI capabilities are quite limited pretty much all of them can be beat with just dodge and overhead attacks same counts on the bosses too.
Story was good i was not impressed but also not dissapointed.
No inventory , no consumables pretty much nothing you can use from a downed enemy or boss except the armor buff that some corpses can give you.
The starting weapon is the ONLY WEAPON you will use in the whole game !!!
With all these it is really hard for me to find something innovative or exceptional from the game!!!
Maybe the only thing that made me buy the game was the atmosphere, the art style and the promise that it is a dark souls clone!!!
Conclusion : not worth it even on sale!!!
EXTRA NOTE i read from the developer on the forum that he will put more weapons in the game but until now nothing happened!!! Like we couldnt guess it right?

A great aesthetic but ruined by poor gameplay.

Malebolgia cribs heavily off of the Dark Souls series, high risk high reward gameplay where death is going to be common. Sadly, the controls are way too clunky for paces it puts you through. Movement is very basic and the controls match, you have a Lock-On button, Guard and Attack button. The game falls apart when it comes to combat, your guard and attack buttons won't do anything unless you're locked onto an enemy, this is bad because there's some enemy attacks (grabs) which will automatically break your guard, and locking back on doesn't always work. All of your attacks are slow and cumbersome and you don't get a dodge roll. Dying in the game doesn't feel like you messed up, but rather the character didn't do what you wanted it to which is frustrating at best.

Other than that the art and sound create a great atmosphere but the palace itself is too copy and paste, and rooms get reused a lot, leading you to become lost easily. Animations on everything are also very poor and look incredibly amature. With a little extra polish the game could be a nice little jem. As it stands I can't recommend it. Dark Souls gameplay stems from it's high level of execution of mechanics, everything is very responsive, but that can't be said for Malebolgia though it gives it a college try.

So lets get the bad stuff out of the way first:
Malebolgia is a one man project and it shows. From the clunky and janky control and combat, to the very simple design of the castle and repetition of assets.

However, if you can get past all of that, you will find a very interesting and creative game.

Its a mixture of Dark Souls with Resident Evil, where you explore a castle not unlike the mansion of Resident Evil 1.
It takes inspiration from the imagery of Dante's Divine Comedy, more specifically the Inferno part.

You are a knight trapped in what seems like a feverish dream or purgatory and you must deal with the mistakes of your past while facing and avoiding beats and demons from your own personal hell.

The story is vague and very unintrusive, but it gives you just enough detils to make you search for the answers and get a full picture of what exactly is going on in this castle.

But really what shines is the atmosphere. The castle truly feels haunted , with paintings of religious and mythology motifs hanging everywhere, giving you subtext and suconscious details about the story, and you are forced to use a torch in this pitch black place. And the janky combat system serves its purpose as well, like Silent Hill or other japanese survival horror games, where the difficult controls are used to enhance the tension and dread of facing every enemy.

If you find this game on a sale, do pick it up if you are into cool experiences, I truly wish that the guy who made this had a bigger budget/team to take it to the next level.

But, if you are the kind of person who gets extremely frustrated from wrestling with controls and backtracking, then dont bother.

I'm sad to say that I don't really want to recommend this game. I appreciate the aesthetic, and I knew it was meant to be challenging going in. But the game fundamentals didn't work for me. Ultimately, it boils down to the incessant pausing that occurs throughout combat. It makes the combat frustrating and clunky.

Combat works fairly simply: a basic weapon attack, a strong weapon attack, and an attack with your torch. A lot of the combat is built around the timing and maneuvering of your attacks versus the enemy's. Reading their attack signals is important as it lets you know to move out of the way or try to time your block. Okay, it's all fine so far. That's not a bad system. The game also seems to try to add a claustrophobic tension by having you fight often in cramped quarters versus large opponents. Again, a fairly neat idea.

Where it falls apart for me, however, is the way that all strikes and blocks cause the action to freeze for what feels like nearly a half a second. There's no obvious beneficial reason for this pause--my best conjecture is that it's an "action-enhancing" effect--but it results in some serious complications regarding the combat. As the combat revolves around the timing of attacks and blocks, these pauses inhibit my ability to "feel" the timing. Take a common scenario: I attack, but my opponent has also begun its attack animation. I feel that I can still block it once my attack animation finishes. However, successfully landing the strike has caused the pause effect to happen. I now have miliseconds to successfully trigger a block, but now, instead of timing it from the beginning of the attack animation, I have to time it from the end of the pause, which creates an even shorter window and that's if I manage to guess when the pause ends. The typical result of all of this is me missing my window and taking yet another hit.

I suppose if my attacks broke the enemy attack animation, there wouldn't be a problem, but they don't. Also, I'm sure that there are those of you out there who are able to compensate for the pause and still pull of the block. I'm not saying no one can do it. I'm saying I can't. I tried to get better at it, but it ended up just making me mad.

There's some very cool ideas in here, and I really wanted to expore more, but I don't like to spend my free time doing things that make me mad. I know I've got less than 2 hours of play time on the game, but that's split over three play sessions, each of which had to end when I found myself actually yelling at the screen. (And no, that's not a common occurrence for me.) This left me with an upleasant experience and as a result I can't, in good faith, recommend the title.

An amazing cinematic yet short experience, the story whilst lacking in depths execution made me sit on the edge of my chair wanting to know what is going to happen.

Pros:
Well crafted story + story telling
Combat system inspired by Dark Souls yet still unique
8 Bosses and 8 Mini-bosses, plenty of content
Interesting maze puzzle archetype

Cons:
Lag at one point even though not graphically intensive
Some enemies / bosses are uninspiring and not fun to fight
Virtually no animations
Graphical style might not appeal to all
Combat system is very clunky


Should you buy this game? Yes, it is well worth the price, playing the game you can easily look past all of the flaws and have a good time.

Great atmosphere punctuated awful controls.
Could be fantastic, but the handling of the game ruins it. Honestly, I wanted to love this, but can't reccomend until something is done.

Tldr; simplified dark souls style game, narrative is pretty good, atmospheric and striking visuals, good music.

I am really impressed that an indie game company has been able to develop a game with mechanics similar to Dark Souls. I enjoyed this game for the most part.

The visuals are beautiful and very clever. I really enjoyed the striking contrast of the colours with the simplistic polygon style. Malebolgia comes off as clean and never overpowering or crowded. I loved the use of light and the torchlight really lent itself to the atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed as the game progressed through the acts, the atmosphere became darker without being too obvious. If there's any critique to be made, I feel that Leopold's model could play with light and shadow a little better, as he was a bit awkward looking at times. I also understand that it's much more difficult to have light interact with dynamic objects though, so I am not too bothered. I also thought that important NPC's could have more defined models, as some of them share models with regular monsters.

I enjoyed the OST for this game. Very atmospheric and well done. I also enjoy a game that can appreciate silence as important in setting tone for a scene or area.

Narrative is great. I enjoy games that don't necessarily hand you the entire plot. The game trusts the player to remember small details and connect the dots themselves. The pacing is good, apart from the one of the last portions of the game, where it requires you to set specific things on fire. I thought this was so out of place, especially right after a big boss battle. It was easily the poorest part of the game in terms of pacing and mechanic.

Gameplay is good. It differs from Dark Souls in that there is no customization or weapon/armour collection. The fighting system is particularly simple, probably because it takes a great deal of work to code this type of game. This game can be quite difficult if the player isn't acquainted with Dark Souls style gameplay. I found it to be a bit too easy at times, as some mobs could be defeated by backstepping > attack > backstep > etc. I didn't utilize the block function very often. I found it frustrating that I couldn't unsheathe my weapon unless there was a mob around, and that when fighting multiple enemies, I couldn't choose which one I wanted to target with ease.

Overall, I enjoyed Malebolgia and I look forward to seeing future projects from this game dev.

I can see what they were trying to do with this game. There is some charm and atmosphere to the visuals and there appears to be an alright enemy variety. The environments are pretty similar to each other though and it is easy to get lost in the levels you are in. You do get a map though.

But the big problem is the combat. It is clunky, stiff and very basic. It is simply not very fun and for me it destroyed the charm of exploring the castle and fighting bosses and mobs.

I can see how some might look passed this and enjoy the game for its charm. But i would not recommend the game to a friend for the price that they are asking. I can see it being worth a try if you think the game looks interesting and you find it for the right price.

Pros:
+ nice visual style
+ great atmosphere
+ easy combat
+ fun to play in general
+ good price
+ nice storytelling
+ decent overall story

cons:
- achievements can be buggy if you care about them
- you never know if you missed something until you realise you are running around for an hour without making any progress. The game does tell you what to do but not very clearly (my biggest hurdle was when I was told to go to the senate but once I dealt with that I was wandering around not knowing what to do until I found out that there are !!2!! senates and I have to visit both).

rating: 6/10, good game

So I just finished playing through the game and thought I should write a review for it. You play as a man named Leopold confined to the Palace Malebolgia. You fight for your life battling demons who have took over the palace and now rule it.

PROS

• Amazing looking game and environments.
  
• Cool story with satisfying ending.
  
• Spooky and is full of mystery.
  
• Fun yet challenging boss fights.
  
• Can have your health and attack upgraded.
  

• There isn’t much telling you what to do or where to go. Can leave you wandering around for a while.
  
• Combat is hard to get a hold of. But similar to the Dark Souls combat system.
  
• Healing is based off lighting candles. Only found in doorways and sometimes there are none. You will also need to light a couple to get back to full health.
  
• Map system is hard to use and read, yet sometimes necessary to use.
  

• Confined to one weapon, your halberd.
  
• Save system is based off finding a clock, only a few within the entire game.
  
[*] Can find “shields”. Locations of them will change and sometimes are necessary for boss fights.

The recent update has improved this game for me significantly. My initial problems were never with the world, or atmosphere. The dark castle makes me want to explore and uncover its secrets, and there is a foreboding of dread as you open each door. The gameplay is reminiscent of the souls games, but without the high grade of polish. However, the recent update has addressed some of its issues, and I hope more will come to fully flesh it out. The update has added side-stepping, which expands your combat options, and also increased the speed of the players attacks, making combat more reliable. It has grown from an experience that I had to persevere through in order to see what is truly a compelling world to something much more enjoyable. In a future update, I think the addition of unlocked combat would truly complete the system (the ability to attack and dodge without having to be locked on). I recommend this game and look forward to any future improvements.

A highly atmospheric exploration game with simple, yet serviceable combat. The bosses are all quite unique and have interesting tricks that ensure you'll die a few times before you master the fight. The palace of Malebolgia is vast, creepy and a ton of fun to explore. The exploration is very "metroidvania", you'll cover the same ground a lot with different enemies or barriers introduced to keep it fresh. It's not really a horror game, there were a couple of parts that made me jump and overall it's sort of spooky how quiet and empty most of the palace is but I have a very low tolerance for scary games and I never had an issue while playing this. The game is sort of short, only about 5 hours if you explore pretty thoroughly, but it's also pretty cheap so it evens out. If you're looking for a cool exploration experience I would highly recommend it.

Dark Souls + Horror + 1990s gameplay = Malebolgia

Pros

• Very spooky
  
• Old-school feel
  
• Nice art style
  
  Cons
  
• Gameplay is meh
  
• Fighting is very clunky
  
• A lot of areas look similar
  
[*]Dying because your character didn't do what you wanted

Review for the April Build-

Malebolgia is larger and better constructed than I imagined, by far, but it is also a very rich and interesting game full of clever mechanics and a real sense of... "itself".

The setting is hell in the form of a Prussian Castle and every facet of this diamond points to Dante's Divine Comedy in the most direct and meaningful way. The character is a commander of a pre-industrial country that must come to terms with the impact his life's choices have made, whether he is alive or not. All manner of great demons, ghosts and people of his past inhabit the palace, yet it is dark, quiet and horrifically lonely. The lighting and setting in the game are above par, complimenting the flat-shaded look of the environment and cast - a candle flicker illuminates a three-story statue in a haunting way, for instance. The haunting and beautiful music is the perfect pairing to this look -- sparse and finely played piano and low, grinding melodies that echo throughout. All of the paths are carefully thought out and the palace changes per each victory, making the large structures even larger with new paths to explore.

This game is constantly referred to as a "Dark Souls clone", which I think the developer can wear with pride (imagine being compared to with one of the greatest games available today!) but it is his singular vision that made this game much more than its parts. It is a fun, well-made and supremely atmospheric romp through the dark that I will be talking about for years to come.

I recommend this game (whole-heartedly!) and I finished the game in 14 well-spent hours, I cannot wait for more from this developer - whether it is more Melobolgia or anything else.

I just have to write it:

"Dark Souls clone".
There is no escaping this parallel, I'm afraid. Even the stairways look like they were plucked directly from Anor Londo. But! I'm not going to name it as a con.

I'll start with the negative aspects:
-Stiff as wood animations all around, which makes most enemy attacks look goofy. I swear, that tri-headed demon has a grab attack during which the protagonist stays completely still. Same goes for death animation - Leopold doesn't die per se, he just slouches a bit, looking depressed. It looks less like real combat and more like an elaborate game of pretend.

-Strange AI. Some enemies aggro only when you stand uncomfortably close to them, but can be provoked by locking on from afar. Which trivializes one of the bossfights, since you pick enemies one by one, lead them in a corner, then bash their heads in with a halberd.
Same goes for certain bosses - they feel a bit too easy, having extremely long windup animations and enormous amount of dead zones.

Would probably need adjusting for the final release.

-Not exactly memorable layout for the palace. Maybe it's intentional, but most rooms and hallways look copypasted to hell and back. 1 entrance+ 3 doors, with only 5 or so grand halls, and only 1 of them has at least something worth noticing (namely the giant statue). I can understand if striving for minimalism was a choice in design, but right now it doesn't provide that "hollow" feeling, it just looks unfinished. Fitting for an Early Access game, I suppose.


Now for something good. It's going to be a much shorter list.

-Ambience and music are well-done, amplifying the somber atmosphere of the game.
-Story is...not particularly captivating, but it's mysterious enough to draw the player in.
-Potential. Yeah, I don't really say that often, but the game certainly has potential. It's not gonna get any GOTYs, that's for sure, but I can see it as a pleasant experience in the near future.
All that, plus the fact that the game was made by one person (or at least that's what I've reckoned after doing some background check) really makes me want to recommend it.

And I will. But keep in mind, my decision is swayed by the fact that I'm a sucker for these kinds of games.

So if you want to play low-budget version of Demon's/Dark Souls, you can pick it up after the full release and just pretend that you're playing a game made by FromSoft's F-team. Or G-team.