Zenith

Dear Reader,

I can't recommend this game. I have completed the game, and I will be discussing the ending, so spoilers ahoy. My main complaints are with the writing, but I also have quite a bit to say about the gameplay.

My biggest complaint (or at least, the first one) is the excessive swearing and occasional very lewd insinuation. As petty as that sounds, it is unrealistic and irritating to endure multiple conversations between characters that have no less than 5 f and s-bombs, and usually much because most conversations (particularly the plot-relevant ones) are excessively long. I've played rated-M games before, and never had to deal with this much language because what required maturity was the gravity of the material rather than language, and there are very few instances in this game where it feels like the situation is suitably grave enough for someone to argue that such language is acceptable (and in each instance the gravity can be conveyed by much better storytelling techniques than this). Suspension of disbelief aside, cussing on this level with this amount of frequency shows a severe lack of creativity for both the characters and the devs. For such an inventive guy, Argus has a very limited vocabulary since he always resorts to swearing at irritants (and he is easily irritated), and the other characters are no better. There were maybe one or two original expletives in the entire game. More original lines would've been a great way to help worldbuild because it would've established more of the beliefs and lore the characters have lived with, which brings me to my next complaint.

The world the game takes place in is not very well established. There are mages, but also spaceships? But no modern amenities like dishwashers. There are no explanations as to the rules, which would have helped explain a lot of things like why the war with the elves happened or how magic works. Can anyone become a mage, or is it an inborn talent? What are the limits on what mages can do? Argus is an arcanologist, and Brekka is a mechanomancer, but what that entails is left very vague beyond Argus uses combat magic and can decipher ancient languages while Brekka is good at making big guns and golems. I might have understood the plot and characters a lot better if the setting had been more established.

Speaking of characters, the best character in the entire game is Krigh, a mutated (sorry, evolved) rat man from a society of rat people that Argus created accidently by discarding potions. Krigh is intelligent, polite, somewhat naive, and responsible for Argus' progression multiple times, including helping to fix a big gun to help save the world at the endgame. No one else is likeable in any way. Argus has some sympathetic moments, but they're buried by Sinderia's overreactions to his mistakes and his overreactions to her idiocy in addition to his overall attitude. Argus is supposedly so sarcastic that sarcasm is an actual maxed-out stat in the game (not that it affects or is affected by anything), but most of his comments that are not plot-related boil down to something less polite than "screw you, you're stupid!"

In regards to the plot: the ending is disappointing. It's not necessarily a bad ending - after all, all the major characters live, the bad guy is defeated, and the world is saved. But considering the final fight's severity and the mentioned consequences of success, it's jarring that there's no follow-up. How the plot went was utterly annoying and not really very fun. Lots of back and forth decision making and unnecessary backstabbing. Argus is the only character stated to have a moral code (which fueled most of his actions during the post-prologue time skip), and it's treated by everyone else like it's a bad thing. Does no one else have any morals?

You'd hope the gameplay might be this game's saving grace. Unfortunately it's not. Your options in combat are a melee weapon, an AOE spell centered on you, or hucking an element at someone from a short range. Oh, you think that last one is the best idea, especially considering you're playing a squishy wizard? Sorry, but Argus is going to step toward the enemy with every casting, making it much easier for them to kill him. Potions have a cooldown, which is more frustrating later because their efficacy doesn't scale. I found exactly 2 larger health potions before the final boss. During that fight, it took 3 basic potions to heal to something resembling full health from the brink of death. Oh, and the armor stat means nothing. The only thing the combat has going for it is a working dodge, but you don't dodge very far unless you progress your fire skills almost to the max and unlock "a special ability that happens when you dodge", which is just dodging a proper distance and leaving a trail of fire that does nothing. The skill trees are very poorly balanced. Why can I unlock the ice tree's ultimate of getting some miniscule health regeneration about halfway through the tree while I have to completely fill out the earth tree to get the ultimate of a 10% health increase? You can save only at save crystals, which wouldn't bother me except when I have long areas between them, and there aren't any autosaves or checkpoints. The game will save if you enter a new area (say, from the world map), but that's about it. Oh, and there's no fast travel. You eventually get to move across the overworld like Final Fantasy, but there's no minimap/radar to tell you where objectives are both on and off the world map, so it can be frustrating to figure out where you need to go next, and the quest log isn't very helpful in providing navigation, whether you need to find a place on the world map or aren't sure what's left to explore in a dungeon. Next is the fixed camera that moves based on where the devs think you need to see. To all developers: if you're going to saddle a player with a fixed camera and give them no camera controls whatsoever, you need to design your game so that the player can actually see without needing to move the camera. Things like targeting and movements like forward, back, left, and right depend on where the camera is. Finely tuned movement abilities are required for getting past a puzzle early on that requires you to step on particular letters on the floor (yes, the whole dungeon was a ripoff of The Last Crusade. There were many references and ripoffs and parodies of stuff from other, much better written stories that were treated as though these ideas were uninspired and dumb. If you're going to do a parody, don't disparage the works you're parodying, because without them you'd have nothing to work with. If you don't like it, come up with your own ideas.). Proper targeting is essential for surviving combat. For the final boss, I had to continually position myself in front of him to make sure I was hitting him and not behind him because I had no camera control to better orient my mouse and therefore my targeting abilities. There's no auto-target to compensate. For puzzles, the ones that aren't simple are solved not by finding clues or fully understanding the instructions and exercising the skills you've developed, but by fiddling with multiple elements until you get the right answer. I'm not a fan of having to fiddle with things in order to progress just because the devs didn't put labels on the buttons in the case of rigging the experiment to blow or - in the case of the statue puzzle - gave me exactly one hint and used the other hints to badger the protagonist for not remembering information that can't be found anywhere.

In short, this game had a few interesting ideas and could have told a compelling story in a rich world, but it fell flat on its face in every aspect of execution, my complaint against excessive swearing aside. My only consolation is that the game cost me only 8 dollars. If you read the entire review before getting here, congratulations! Also thank you for your time.

There is one potentially grindy achievement - kill 500 enemies in one game session (do not exit the game before you kill 500). This will take 1/2 to several hours in one session: 1/2 hour near the end when you are the most powerful with level IX equipment.

A funny and generally fun isometric RPG. The combat is a little limited and the skill trees do not seem to do much (too weak), but the game is quite funny and different form most RPGs.

There are location-based saves - manual, and some automatic, but not enough of either them.

Controls on a keyboard are sometimes awkward as all 2-D angles of motion are needed and you cannot rotate the view. Also, you cannot zoom the view.

I am used to FPS using WASD controls. It is not easy for me to become proficient with WASD for an isometric game. Most isometric games I have played do not use this control method.

The volume is not adjustable and the music and effects are loud.

What a ridiculous, charming, entertaining little game!
Rough around the edges and with a host of flaws, this game nonetheless made me laugh more than any other I remember. It is elevated (and made worth looking past the clunky combat, lack of Settings, and confusing UI) by its narrative, dialogue, characters, and humour. I adore how an irreverent parody of the genre still managed to craft a story with twists and turns I couldn't see coming, stakes that made me nervous, NPCs I cared about, and a morally grey protagonist making impossible choices that had me wondering "are we the baddies?" at several moments.
Do not be deceived, however, and prepare for every serious moment in this game to be cut short by the silliest possible segue, fake-out, or wisecrack.
I heartily recommend Zenith for a little bit of harmless fun that doesn't require a big time commitment, but will nonetheless tell a story you remember.

The controls are horrible and the combat sucks. The little of the story that I did see is written for 5 year olds by 5 year olds. Also, no options, so the music is extremely loud.

Very fun and amusing game. The references are great to find. It has a couple of issues but they were few and far between. The combat reminds me of old rpgs and has a bit of a learning curve. Still, I recomend it.

I like the game a lot, but 7 hours or so in you will have a game breaking bug. You will not be able to continue on with the story whatsoever. Steam will not give you a refund, and by the looks of the forums, don't count on a patch.

This game is just hilarious and good fun! Underrated gem

Good

funny writing, decent gameplay. Really sucks that i got about halfway where youre escaping the acumen, shut off the last barrier console to get the scepter and my guy gets stuck. no response to any input. ive reloaded a bunch of times but no luck. im done, what a shame

funny

Meh, it's alright but only on a discount. The story is good, funny quips throughout. The combat is too janky but not so much as it isn't playable. Worth 5 to 10 bucks. One of those you'll start and forget about only to uninstall it for room for more jank down the line. I did "have fun" for the first few hours.

Okay so the gameplay is undercooked, but I laughed my ass off.
If you can look past how clunky it is and you played the games it's satire is based on then it's great fun

For all it's flaws as a game, this was one of the best pieces of fantasy/comedy I've ever read. If you like Terry Pratchett's work you will like this too. Just be patient with the game part of it.

I want to like this game, I really do. The story is good, I like the nods and references to other story tropes and so on. But the combat is just so bad, its incredibly unfair and the only way to learn what monsters are strong against or weak against is through letting a monster attack you and then trying to see if it does more damage when you are wearing Fire Resistant robes or Earth Resistant robes, then you can try and see if its weak against Ice Damage or Fire Damage. Deaths to traps are very common, many enemies can kill you in 3 hits. Checkpoints are reasonably spaced but I still spend a lot of time backtracking after getting killed.

Even for just $5 its not worth it to me.

I will start with the bad:

The graphics are terrible.
The animations are buggy.
The music is repetitive and feels as if it was a public sample.
The combat is hideous and the particles are all broken.
The inventory system is simply annoying.

The good:
It's short enough that all that's bad about the game doesn't matter that much, it stops before it becomes too unbearable.
The story is more serious and interesting than the game deserves it to be. Truly fun and catching.
The jokes that begin being bad puns and silly, end up building up, and when your guard is low, truly giggle inducing stuff starts happening.
The climax is VERY good.

Storyline is good but the gameplay is dull