The Black Masses

Abandonware

Got the game on sale for like 2 USD, it's obviously not good but I'm always down for a game that's slop but hits some decent notes here and there. This game didn't do anything for me. I played for 30 minutes and was LV4, the game wants you to grind out to LV5 before you start getting actual skills from the skill tree. The first really cool skill I'd seen people talk about was the Earth Stomp which would take hours to get at the rate it was going, and I was running forward to pull all the mobs I could and try AoE farming. The Basic skills you can get at LV1 aren't good, the Flame Strike ability you'd have to spam multiple times to kill even a single enemy. Ranged is way stronger but you need Ammo and a Weapon to use said Ammo. Enemy AI sucks and it's hard to pull and entire town cus 5-10 zombies will just chill in buildings for no particular reason. There's also a billion things to loot but it's just so annoying walking around clicking E on fifty things in every building, when 99% of it doesn't matter.

Optimization-wise the game is trash. Takes a while to load on startup. I had it on potato settings even though I could go higher and the pop-ins were infuriating. I mean you'd think having the lowest graphical settings would mean NO pop-ins but that's not the case. The darkness in the game made it hard to see BUT so did the lighting. The Sun would be so fucking bright I couldn't see a thing in front of me. I'm walking around outside squinting like what the fuck is this light setting.

Overall to me it doesn't seem worth anyone's time. An empty map zombie farming simulator with looting.

I bought this game and forgot to refund it... Whoops.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. The intense atmosphere with lots of blood and splatter was particularly impressive, creating a dark and gripping mood. The story was somewhat interesting and kept me engaged for the most part.

However, I have to say that the ending was disappointing. Even though the deity was defeated, the black plague still remains across the land. This aspect could have been resolved better. An alternative ending where the curse is actually lifted would have been much more satisfying for me.

Although it’s possible to continue playing after defeating the god, zombies and demons are still everywhere. This makes the player's victory ultimately feel meaningless.

In summary, I had a lot of fun with the game, but the disappointing ending significantly dampens the overall experience.

Yep. They got me.

Abandonware. Don't bother.
Save your money.

Abandonware - which is sad, b/c it could have been great

After having waited on this game for years remaining very hopeful, i tried it again after the "full release" and nothing feels different on the front end. Additionally, all the things that seemed bad that i figured would change for the full release all seem so much worse now. Feels like almost nothing/minimal in the world is actually lootable, can interact with very few things. The actual things you can open like chests and drawers have minimal loot if any at all. Combat feels very sluggish and forced. Zombies feel very dull and lifeless, so to speak. The animation and ai did not feel very immersive. The overall feel of the world just felt a little off, not only is is just very empty and dull feeling, with everything being stagnant and repetitive the environment does not feel alive at all. The UI feels almost like an after thought. This does not feel like a game, it feels like they slapped some assets together with their zombie rendering system and called it a day. I was completely discouraged to want to get into any of the mechanics of the game my second time around with the minimal effort put into the intro to the game. There is no action, there is no adventure, there is no RPG, and even the zombie fights don't feel good. I am sad to say that i can not recommend this game after looking forward to it for so long. This feel abandoned.

TLDR; game looks bad, ui looks bad: loot feels bad, combat feels bad. don't buy.

so i started playing it and i will say i love it the game is exceptionally good . i don't have any issues with it .

Malo y abandonado.

It's okay, I like it enough to give it a recommend. The Possessed are glitchy tho, going through the mines there was just a bunch in the floor. The Game is fun, but with the bugs and the glitches and the overall lack of attention grab makes it a meh experience.

Looking at the map, the game feels "too big" for the amount of attention grab it has. Im going to keep giving it a go, but not sure how much longer im going to invest in it. I like it for the most part, just dont know if id actually finish it.

Poor gameplay and poor optimization. This project seems more abandoned than "finished".

Aye, this shit runs at 4000 fps and attempts to cook my shit on launch. Prolly should configure that shit, cuz I'm not doing it for you. That jank slapped up in bundles im not unpacking just to find config that should be on front page. Thanks for the free game though, seems really cool and would love to play it, really hope you guys figure that out. Oh, and warning if you're in comments looking for bits, main menu with max out gpu as fuck and your tower will grow wings in attempt to take off in flight.

No development for a very long time and when they do work on it again they do nothing and somehow justify calling it "finished." Save your money, spend it somewhere else.

This game needs a few more rounds in development. And some playtesting. The last fight is fairly difficult even with cheats.

Half assed 1.0 release that is extremely disapointing. almost no work or updates for a long time, then out of nowhere 1.0? its definitely them abandoning the game. not even half the promised content is here, and what is here is incredibly bugging and rough around the edges. absolutely NOT 1.0. dont waste your time, its not getting any better than this, and the devs have left an incredibly bitter taste in the communities mouth. honestly wish i hadn't bought the game years ago

GREAT GAME

I almost did not buy this game because of all the negative reviews but i'm happy i did. Good job to the people who made this very fun game

I wanted to play this game after its finally 1.0(1.01 actually but close enough) I don't know how this happened but optimization got sooooooo bad since I last played this game couple of years ago. I can't recomend for anyone to buy it even on a sale since most people with decent PCs wouldn't even be able to play it unless they are ok with stuff literally appearing in front of their faces(no joke thats the only way I can play this) so don't buy it

For 2 bucks on sale, recommended.

Lot's of problems, but the only one I care about is:

In a game about chopping zombies up with swords, chopping up zombies with swords has gotta be satisfying, which it is not. I figured once I found a sword it would start to come together, but it didn't.

This needs the melee combat of something like Mordhau or Dying Light 2. When there's much better options for a big part of what this game is going for it makes it hard to fight through the badness of this one to get to what they want you to do.

But I tell you what. If the melee/bladed combat got a revamp where the gore, dismemberment, blood, and sound effects (for the weapons themselves and the combat) this could really be something. All in all, the combat just needs better feedback. If this was 10 years ago it would be fine, but it's not.

It's tough because this game is like *this* close to being something of a dream game, but it's not quite there because of the combat and performance. And that's literally it, I won't complain about anything else.

What they need is funding and maybe some people with years of experience in Unity to shape it up properly, and I hope that happens. But if they're giving it away for 2 bucks, I unfortunately doubt that. But I'm hoping anyway.

scam game

it's just too laggy and buggy, the concept is great though

It's been actual years and it still has awkward instructions on the loading screen as how to not crash the game, very cute.

We have gotten up to UE5 but this game feels like it was made in UE1.

If you have to put a disclaimer in your loading screen saying "Please be patient, do not click at 90% as it crashes it by windows" its not an OS issue, its a game development issue. They had something good cooking but failed at the final execution. Game is buggy and sloppy. Cannot believe its in 1.0 Full Release, probably just to say they "finished" a game. Glad I bought this for $2.15 which tbh is a bit overpriced. Lol

Its just sad, coop doesnt worked for us. Couldnt join. Everything looks unfinished. For free it would mae sense.

Rushed to 1.0, runs like shit, bad progression but overall decent skill system, bad map geometry in a lot of areas and each town is basically a copy paste of the same few buildings in a different city layout.

Maybe I'm just not invested but the story seems bland, and there's nothing to really do with NPC's aside from a few lines of text basically saying "go here for one of a few reasons" over and over.

Only redeeming quality is the sheer volume of enemies that can be involved in a single fight, but this is also a drawback, at least early on.

Who knows, maybe they'll update and optimize it, it might be fun to return to from time to time and just hack shit apart until it gets dull. I don't necessarily think it's bad but them just slapping "1.0" on what was clearly an unfinished product was disappointing.

All after going on hiatus for more than a year.

For what it is, it's not that bad.

It's a small dev team, it's a passion project. It's fun, despite some obvious flaws.

I'm going to list the flaws, and it's going to seem super negative...but I've put hours into this game. I've had fun. I would recommend getting if A - you don't mind the flaws I list and B - you see it at a reasonable sale.

- Entering attics requires player to crouch.
- Combat and enemies are not varied enough.
- Quests should be re-thought. I Would suggest approaching these from a Skyrim approach. IE randomizing certain elements.
- Duplicate items do nothing, as far as I can tell. They should either return some usability to a weapon or they should be able to be broken down into scrap which can then be used for repairs or maybe building barricades or other type items.
- Tutorial could be shorter. This, for me, is a big one. I like to restart games a lot to see if I may have missed something early on. It's weird, I know, but it bugs me when it takes a while to get into the game, because of this. The tutorial doesn't really help a whole lot, so I would really shorten it down as much as possible.

Aside from those items, I think the game is quite entertaining. Killing hoards of zombies is always fun and the devs have delivered on several fun game concepts and I think this could be improved enough to become a good game. So, that being said, keep up the good work, devs. Don't let the negatives I listed bum you out too much, it's a work in progress.

For what it is, its fine. Kinda has its own charm. Not a masterpiece but if you like smashing zombies get it from sale.

I've read some of the negative reviews, and jumped in it for a bit to see if they're really accurate.

First: Optimization. I was able to turn the quality up more than I had it at before, and it runs well.

Second: features. I've never paid attention to what they promised. It's a medieval + simple guns zombie horde game. If the game's difficulty curve expects you to have extra protections or buffs, then I would call it incomplete, but I've not seen it.

Third: Abandonware? They're putting out regular updates.


Let the salty people be salty. Let people enjoy things.

I think this game is enjoyable.

My biggest issue is that it's listed as single player but has multiplayer features.

It really sucks that this game isn't optimized because if it didn't freeze to load assets every five steps I can imagine myself putting a lot of hours into this. The only reason I'm not refunding it is because I bought it on sale and want to wait to see if it ever actually becomes a playable game.

Massively buggy, largely unfinished, could be a lot better.

But it's cheap, has hours of gameplay in it, and is just basic fun.

Keep your expectations low, and you will have a good time.

cool concept but poorly executed. combat feels slow and stiff, textures models and animations look like they were purchased from a marketplace as none of them are in the same style.

I reinstalled for the full release to find the game hasn't actually been changed or polished at all since early access several years ago. I can't recommend this currently. Which sucks, because first person mass mob slaying is a fun concept.

Unfortunately the optimization got so bad that I can't even run the game on potato mode and get a smooth experience. When I played the game in 2020 it was fun, but even though my PC got better the game now runs worse. It's confusing. If the devs fix the optimization I'll 100% come back, because this game and concept is such a fun time! but since I can't even play it now, there not much else for me to say :(

I really wish the Devs had stuck with this. The potential of this game was insane and they just never followed through with it.

Just don't

Fun little game. Definitely get on sale though. Very unpolished in dozens of little ways. But if you just want to have some fun hacking and slashing through a ton of zombies and exploring a rather large world, it's more than upto the task. Just go in expecting an unpolished indie game with plenty of flaws.

The second half is definitely worse than the first half in that respect, but they quadrupled the playing area. Given the low budget and few devs i can live with that at a cheap enough price.

Rushed out unfinished 1.0 with placeholders for features that will never be implemented.

Loved the idea of this game but it was dormant for a long time. The developers returned to slap 1.0 on it and add the proper end of the story however the game doesn't feel any more polished than it did years ago. I can't recommend this game to anyone, even on sale. It's dull, janky, and has an overall feeling of lacking polish.

Abandoned DO NOT BUY! Cash grab POS

Abandon ware.

A hesitant recommend - while the game doesn't appear to have changed visually at all since the "pre-alpha demo in 2019", The map has been expanded and the concept of hoards is cool and works well.

But the UI is just terrible, very unfinished. Performance could be improved and visually some kind of LOD blend or something would help stop everything popping into existence.

There is fun to be had here, and I want to support the devs - but some extra love is needed.

This game feels like the bastard child of elden ring, cod zombies, and dayz

Do not buy this game , Everything about it is bad . borderline scam !. still the same pos it was on release almost 5 years ago, they abandoned it for years and then came back just to slap the 1.0 on it and claim its finished.

Utterly unfinished, 6 years cooking and it's still raw.

Everything feels like it's a first draft, ignore the 1.0 label, it's still unoptimised, still exactly the same apart from the AI reacting to you not crouching when you move.
There are still unimplemented skills, no armour, no alchemy, no real changes to be seen except a new region opening up and thus an end to the story, going by what other people are saying, it's just more of the same

Maybe buy this on a deep sale if you're curious, I'm not holding onto any hope of this ever being actually finished

Cool game from a small studio,

Weapon skills progress on use, but there is also a skill tree to invest into.

Alot of the spots in the world have 100s of zombies, quest seems to flow correctly.

You don't have to do things in order from what I have seen, game feels like a true open world with some freedom.

Alot of fun in Co-Op.

Game has a few bugs, but all and all a decent game from a small studio.

Game ran great for me, had one little stutter about 2 hours in, running on ultra settings / max.

1.0 dropped and 6 days later was bug patch.

Hopefully they keep patching.

Had this game for ages. First it was abandoned in favor of the studios other games, then it was half-heartedly finished just so they can call it 1.0. Quite a shame since the game was really promising.

better than dead island 2

Played a fair bit prior to the update and only played for a small amount of time,
The story isn't that in depth, half of the NPC's don't speak to you and there's only a handful of side quests.
Gameplay mechanic is actually pretty fun to a point, enemies become easier the more you level up, limited amount of Zombie/Demon variants, the hordes are fun to fight of course but they don't respawn. Lastly the parkour mechanic is scuffed, it works but sometimes you're just stuck there while zombies are ripping your ass apart from below.

Overall Score: 7.5/10
It would be cool to add a horde mode like they did with UESB 1.
Adding more zombie variants/quests would neat.
I wouldn't expect a whole lot to come out of an Indie game though, especially when they built a good portion of the game already.

Well... If you are reading this and wondering if The Black Masses are for you then it really depends of what type of games you are into.

It's the developer behind UEBS (Ultimate epic battle simulator) and it shows. They had to halt the development of this game to finish UEBS2. They did return to finish the story though.

There are hordes of possessed (Zombies) and they can be fun to kill, but that's about it.

The game is very much incomplete, and very buggy. It's so bad, that I encountered a bug during a quest and couldn't continue the game. And since it's profile based without any saves, I couldn't reload a save or anything.

And when I say incomplete, I want you to believe and here are just some few examples:

There are loot all over the place to an insane degree.
Annies antique shop is in every town and in several streets (repeating use of assets)
You have unlimited carry capacity but in few safehouses you can find Storage chests, so that leads me to believe that there were meant to be a carry limit but they cut it out.
The possessed looks like the same 2 models with more goop as the game goes on.
There is climbing in the game and it's not polished at all, so you will get stuck and frustrated.

I could go on but I don't think that there is a point to it. It's clear that the developers only completed it so they didn't drag a corpse behind them and that's in a sense fair. But also a damn shame because I actually think that this has potential. The first bit battle between knights and possessed were really fun.

Is it a polished game? not really. Are there some bugs? most definitely, but when all is said and done its pretty fun too jump into literal hordes and start swinging! its good if you like hacking and slashing. there is a good bit of exploration too and its a big map. so crack a cold one and enjoy the ride it takes you on.