izigame.me

This game is far from perfect. It's not some super polished AAA game made by a team of hundreds with a budget of millions. What it is, is a passion project, self published by a few friends who have achieved something unique & absolutely mindblowing, given their resources.
I'll start with the pros, because there are many & they need to be talked about:
Exceptional Level Design. The looping, maze like designs of the various biomes feel natural & sensical, but lead you back to places you've already been seamlessly, & that's something I haven't seen on this scale since the original Dark Souls game. They perfectly capture that same sense of wonderment I got back then.
Stunningly Beautiful Art Direction. The game straight up looks gorgeous. Enemy design is diverse & interesting, the world feels imposing & real as you wander through the decay left by whatever "the anomaly" is. Excellent lighting, great use of particle systems & uniformly interesting & detailed texture work makes for a really, truly beautiful experience.
Unique Concepts. The idea of levelling through use of gear & gem slots on your gear isn't something you see often - and it plays really well. The fact that I can have two full sets of armour that let me switch up my entire build instantly is very, very fun & engaging. No finding rare materials & trekking for miles to respec. Special weapon abilities feel good & weighty, look amazing & are functional - a vast improvement on the weapon art system in DS3 that it clearly takes inspiration from. Finally, the way the game manages to limit your healing, but simultaneously doesn't, is also a wonderful iteration on the limited heal mechanics often found in this genre. To start with, you can have 2 heals on your belt at a time. Out of combat, these will automatically restock from your inventory, however when combat starts, because your character is busy, you're limited to just those two that can fit on your belt. This gives you all of the tension of limited resources without the pain of backtracking to refill.
Just Some Generally Really Good Ideas Following on from the last section, there's just some cool ideas in this game. You know in some games you look at something & go "God, I wish I could do x"? Well in this game, you can probably do x. To misquote Todd Howard: you see that weird fuckin' sky dragon? You can RIDE it.. There's also an incredibly anxiety inducing underwater section, which blew my mind mainly because I had not for a single second thought you could swim, never mind DIVE.
Ok, so pros are out of the way. I am absolutely happy to gush over the good ideas in this game, but it's not fair to just mention that without also talking about its shortcomings, which imo are few, but big, & very bothersome for a lot of players:
Control Scheme is Rough The game was designed with keyboard & mouse in mind, & the controller support is really lacking, so if you're not happy playing on keyboard, absolutely wait until controller patches & improvements come through.
UPDATE: Control scheme & controller improvements have been patched.
Even with that said, I've played 15h using keyboard & it's still not fantastic at times. Movement can be very floaty & inconsistent, the physics has an absolutely terrible time every so often (I fell through a lift/elevator platform to my death 3 times in a row before it remained solid, & I've been knocked & tossed around by the physics a LOT), & there's just so many buttons I lose track. Dodge with space, roll with double tapping space, jump with left alt, heavy attack is ctrl + mouse 1, weapon ability is shift+3, Q is heal, F is interact... it gets overwhelming. I'm used to it now, but it was a lot at the start.
Complete Lack of Direction The FromSoft games that this so obviously draws inspiration from are known for their limited handholding & allowing the player to free roam & figure out the way forward for themselves. This is very much not for everyone, but it's a style I very much enjoy when it's done well. Bleak Faith very nearly gets this, but that short miss matters a very, very great deal. You're dropped into the world after a short, effectively meaningless cutscene that tells you nothing & just expected to go for it. The exploration is vast & very satisfying, & as someone who absolutely adores exploring game worlds, that's all fine for me. There's a big but here though. I'm 15 hours into the game, I've killed 3 bosses & fulfilled 2 'main objectives', & I haven't got the faintest, vaguest idea of what I'm doing, where I'm going or why. Absolutely nothing of the story - which I'm assuming exists - has been revealed to me. I've met 3 NPCs, one of which essentially just laughed at me & said "Good luck", one is my upgrade person who keeps talking to me about a nebulous "objective" that hasn't even been alluded to, & the final NPC a random crusader lady who again talks in complete riddles about concepts we haven't been introduced to at any stage. Who are these warring factions? What is the crusade? Why am I here? Literally what is the point in ANYTHING I'm doing? Who are these bosses I'm killing? What AM I doing? - none of these questions have been answered & it makes what could be a deeply interesting experience feel very hollow. This I feel is the absolute greatest weakness of the game & a fix to the exposition & guidance through the game would go a LONG way to improving the experience. Compounding this issue is the fact that there IS a UI indicator showing you where your next 'objective' is, but it's only visible while standing next to a homunculus (this game's bonfires) & even then only sometimes & only at some of the homunculi.
The game is so close to being a magnificent experience, as it draws inspiration from a lot of my favourite games: The Souls Series, Sekiro, Dragon's Dogma, Shadow of the Colussus, Nier etc. but it just needs a bit more work to iron out the UX issues. Provide better guidance for the player for their goals (even DS1 says 'ring two bells that are here & here then go to Anor Londo'). I'm in love with everything the developers have come up with, the game excited & amazes me at almost every turn, but the frustrations & shorcomings in certain areas are SO great that a very large portion of the potential player base are going to be put off playing, & for good reason.
All that said, I am deeply excited for this developer to continue working on the game, maybe make a sequel in future & I will happily support & purchase anything they come up with, if they continue this quality in the areas they really shine.