Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins

Bullets

This is a big improvement over Viktor in pretty much every respect, and I can recommend it even if you didn't enjoy the original. Combat is smooth and impactful with various weapons to choose from, and the progression and unlock mechanics encourage thoroughly completing each mission. Missions are very compact, but fairly well-designed, with a good blend of combat and platforming. Each can be completed in just a few minutes, though you'll probably have to run them multiple times if you want to find everything or complete the optional challenges for additional (sometimes unique) rewards. Gamepad control for the most part is great, allowing you to easily move, jump, and aim all at once, but the phase mechanic is sometimes a bit awkward to aim correctly.

Being more of a long-form game than Viktor, the story has received noticeably more attention this time. It actually works pretty well, providing a more interesting scenario and world-building than the bare threads in the original. It does suffer a bit from being a prequel, since the post hoc groundwork laid here could have led in a more interesting direction than what actually happens in Viktor. There are also some loose threads left by the end. Still, the setting has a lot of potential, so it's too bad that the series seems to have ended here.

Unfortunately the game's progression systems are not as robust as they should be. Weapons as a whole aren't well-balanced, in that many of them (even hard-to-get ones like the scythe or megablaster) don't do enough damage to be worth using. I changed up my loadout several times during the game, but I didn't bother with most of the dozens of options. There's a mechanic to upgrade weapons, but this is only available in NG+.

Armor as well is stunted. There are several sets of armor with different bonuses, and each piece allows you to socket gems for additional bonuses. The problem is that each piece can only accommodate a certain number of "points" worth of gems, with stronger gems requiring more points. The strongest gems cost so many points that they are not worth using. I easily maxed out my armor with mid-level gems halfway through the game.

Even with its core shortcomings, though, this is a fun little platform shooter, especially if you've always wanted to battle dragons with a rocket launcher instead of a sword.

Stunning game.
+Retro
+Shapeshifting
+Crafting weapons
+Nais

Good game but the controls on a gamepad are a little clunky. The right stick aims but does so as a mouse cursor so it's less responsive than it could be if the aiming just 1 to 1 the right analog stick instead of emulating mouse controls. Still playable though and if the controls ever got sorted out I would consider this a hidden gem, a top 2D steam game, but alas those clunky controls.

The game is OKAY. It's polished, but pretty generic and repetitive.
It looks nice but overtime the levels start to look randomly generated with the same scenery and pieces copy pasted over and over again.

Not enough of a challenge to keep me playing, according to the menu I got 35% completion going for all the challenges and everything and I just stopped because it just got boring for me.

It felt like too much of a grind with not enough challenge or variation.

Well made game that has a ton of content. It's a smooth experience that delivers great bosses. There's too many missions that you need to kill X enemies but they're spaced out around other more exciting missions.

The weapons too! There are interesting ones like the grenade launcher or the devastator. Watch the reload times on some of these because that's how the game balances them.

Highly recommend if you're looking for an action platformer with just enough story that's a blast to play.

Full video review: https://youtu.be/sB0ht3oex8o

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This game is more grind than actual content and it feels like playing a flash game. You just accomplish different "kill X things" missions in a handful of recycled maps, and grind to upgrade your gear. Too often the new gear feels like a step back rather than an improvement over the previous gear and the weapons feel nerfed. The early crafted weapons are actually more efficient than some of the stuff you can craft later.
The dialogs are cringey and tediously slow.
The fact that the enemies can pass through bullets if they're too close is a real problem here.

Pretty much the kind of game you'd expect to play on kongregate or newgrounds, but not on steam. Even though it's flawlessly realized, working well, and better than most of the low-level garbage released on steam, I can't recomend it, because it's not very fun on the long term.

Im 14% complete in the story right now but, this game is very good! Good story, amazing combat. Also great movement!

WoW! yep, not like the 1st one, type Contra or what ever, cause now it has more of an RPG element so yeah, it's that much better. So far so good =)

A huge step forward

This game is absolutely fantastic! If you enjoy games such as Abuse, then you're going to love this. Difficulty is just right, graphics are great, controls are tight!

Lots of weapons to choose from (once you find the blue prints of course). I'm only an hour in but this is the most fun I've had with an indie game in an incredibly long time. Well done!

Oh boy did this game come out of left field. I saw it and was mildly interested, but GODDAMN was I surprised. Are you looking for solid gameplay that feels great where everything just controls WELL? This is your game. Want some nostalgia? This game really pokes that "They don't make em like this anymore" button.

Pros:
-The Gameplay Is SOLID

-The game is as challenging as you want it to be.

-The movement system is TIGHT without being complex. Feel like a badass while teleporting behind people and whispering "Nothing personal kid" before stabbing them to death.

-The gear socketing system is pretty damn cool

-Some of the weapons feel FANTASTIC

-The soundtrack and sound effects really just hit all the right notes. The end of mission screen with all the upgrades tickles my endorphin buttons. Also picking up shards. Mmmm.

-The backstory. I haven't played the first one, and really the story isn't great here, but for some reason it just works. It gives me *just* enough reason to like some characters while feeling justified mass murdering others. Really takes a back seat to gameplay and is only as prevalent as you want it to be.

-SECRETS.

-SERIOUSLY SECRETS ARE EVERYWHERE.

Cons
-Some of the weapons just feel... bad

-A lot of the missions are just "Go here, kill stuff" and can feel a bit repetative.

-Upgrades are few and far between. Stuff is expensive, it takes a while to upgrade at times.

-Sometimes it feels like upgrades are hardly noticeable.

An excellent game that looks and plays much better than the original, which surprised me with its quality years ago.

The controls are tight, fluid, and in the case of the phasing mechanic, you can even adjust how much control you have over it, which is a huge plus. The weapons have a lot more impact, and the default melee attack, while not terribly useful on its own, is better implemented than the aoe burst you had in the original.

The mission-based structure of the game might put some people off, but I found it refreshing to have many bite-sized challenges with well-defined goals to run through even if I didn't have a lot of time to spare at once. The optional objectives for each mission might look at first like padding, but they are entirely optional and mostly serve as a way to guarantee yourself a particular crafting ingredient for a weapon you're trying to get rather than rely on enemy random drops.

The game has plenty of content, even if you dont attempt the time limit and optional objectives, and the newgame+ introduces a mechanic to let you to further invest in your favorite weapons to give yourself an edge on the more dangerous enemies.

This game is easy for me to recommend and if you enjoy it, you might want to look into the original, whose title is simply Viktor, and has more of a Megaman style stage select rather than short objective-based missions, but uses the same phasing and mouse aiming.

i played the original Viktor 5 or so years back. As a total package, I'd say this one almost matches up to the original.

Content wise, this game has A LOT more. But I feel it's a quantity over quality change. The levels on the original game were much more diverse and interesting than they are on this. I'm not generally the biggest fan of quest-type levels, which is what this game is made of, although I think it does them pretty well.

The upgrade system and the way it encourages exploration is what really sets the game apart. There is a lot of incentive to find bluepints to make new weapons and armor. The variety of weapons in the game is pretty big and I found some of them particularly unique and fun to use.

I'd say the game is on the easy side once you get the hang of the controls. If you think about your weapon choices, many enemies are almost no threat. However, the exploration and challenges do help to keep things pretty interesting.

It's not a game that is going to blow your mind, but it is pretty fun, especially for the low price tag. I'd happily buy another Viktor game.

You can't play it windowed with a controller because the developer decided the right stick would control the mouse pointer. Yeah. Enjoy that horrible mess.

Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins - is the second Viktor game and story-wise it's a prequel.
The first Viktor game was action-platformer, similar to Contra games, but this game is a little bit different. While the core mechanics of gameplay are almost the same, a lot of RPG-ish elements were added. There are different armor pieces now, gems, which improve all your stats and even armor set effects. Also the weapon arsenal is much bigger now.
Levels now look like short missions with main objective and bonus objectives or challenges. While most of them are pretty short, there are lots of them.
So, compared to the first game, how good is the sequel?

1st thing, graphics. I don't know why, but for some reason the graphics downgraded to pixelated and less detailed compared to the first game. Well, the game is a prequel, so maybe that's the reason - it has to look worse, lol :D Anyway, it's not that bad, just worse than Viktor1 graphics in my opinion./

2nd thing - soundtrack. Is it bad? No. Is it good? Well, not really. It fits, it's ok. But unfortunately it's nowhere near masterpiece OST of Viktor 1.

Gameplay is almost the same, although I liked longer missions with bosses, how it was in 1st Viktor, more. More stuff, gear and upgrade gems are cool, but short missions in the same stages are not to my liking. I also liked bosses from the first Viktor more, but there are still some decent bosses in loyalty and blood too.

VERDICT: New stuff is always a good thing and probably it's a good thing Viktor 2 is not a clone of Viktor 1, so I'm glad devs tried new stuff and all. But still 1st Viktor is more to my liking. Anyway, I'm glad devs made Viktor 2, I never expected a sequel actually, so if this becomes a franchise - I'm all for it. Viktor 3 will be a day 1 buy for me.
So here goes: not better than the first, but still solid. 7/10.

Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins needs more polish but it is shaping into a promising platformer. If anyone is wondering the game is NOT a metroidvania or a roguelike. However, I would not call it just a platformer either. The game has a lot of RPG elements and all kinds of different objectives. Basically, you operate from fortress where you can buy and upgrade equipment. You can select between story and side missions like killing enemies, escorting, rescue and so on. Each mission generally has secrets and challenges for replay value. If I could say only one thing about Loyalty and Blood, It has a lot of content. It takes anywhere from 5 to 15 hours to complete the game depending on how many side activities and challenges you are doing (also it has new game+)

Platforming Elements & Gunplay

RPG elements & Grinding

Aesthetic & Content

Overall Thoughts 7/10 (9/10 if all of the technical issues get fixed)

Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins is a fantastic platform shooter with good castlevania-esque music in the background. This game is a refreshing breath of air from the giant pile of garbage pixel games on steam. Support these developers and buy this game.

A very competent action-adventure 2d platformer. Challenging but not impossible, wonderful sprite art with equally good sound to boot and a one-to-one control, if you are using a mouse and keyboard.

A few concerns which to me, holds this gem down a bit:

This is not a "metroidvania" or even a open world game. This game is structured around missions you have to engage in the hub area, missions with submissions. Kill a boss, only use this weapon, kill 10 spiders, collect 5 of this item. And all of them got a time you need to beat if you want to complete every mission perfectly. Makes it impossible to "do it all" in your first and even 5th attempt. Designing every mission around these rules makes it kinda repetetive and after a while it feels like you are doing it all in your sleep.

You only got firearms, projectily based weapons if you don't count the melee (which is put on E by default, and really tricky to use when you walk right. Controls can be remapped thou)

Upgrading is useful, but you have to find blueprints and you can only apply gems in armor, buying weapons by walking far away to the end of the castle each time. Gets a bit annoying when you don't know if the blueprints you found is better then the items you already got on you.

Most concerns are small and if you can look past them you got a great 8 out of 10 game right here, deserves more recognition and a proper sequel with a little better design choices.

- - -

Quick update after 12 hours gameplay.

Game is entertaining thru the whole race. New game + gets unlocked after last boss is beaten and adds the option to replay the whole game and upgrading your weapons. This indie title is my biggest surprise so far in 2018.

The game seems pretty good, a cross between platformer and rpg, using a controller was a bit awkward and couldnt really get a good feel for it and slowed me down, but i found that the Keyboard and mouse combo works MUCH better :)

The game has a phase shift mechanic (basically a short distance teleport) which allows you to traverse through walls and obstacles which is pretty cool and the stages seem to have time challenges, which you can choose to complete or not

The Music is pretty decent and sets the mood nicely

I havent finished it (yet ;)) but so far it seems to be an 8/10 :)

I played bob was hungry and never played the original Viktor. When I recieved the coupon for this game I thought it looked good, and it is. Mission based shooter with an interesting mechanic. Got it relatively cheap too with the sale and the copuon. After playing this I am going to have to play the oringal Viktor. You don't really need the story from Viktor to understand as far as I can tell so far. Viktor comes home from traveling the world (which itself was the game viktor) to join a band of heroes in defending the world. Fun game, from Bob was hungry to this is a drastic difference, though both games are good.