Downward: Enhanced Edition Review (Dreaderz)
Downward: Enhanced Edition - Nothing enhanced about this game. Don't be fooled by the positive reviews. This game is bland, empty and the mechanics are just awful.
The biggest gripe I've got with Unreal Engine is that devs think it's the be all, end all for game development. Sure, it does most of the legwork, but devs think that is good enough and if a game is pretty, then the mechanics don't matter. That might've been a couple of years ago, not anymore. Now, if a game has Unreal Engine, you better hope and pray that the mechanics and story are great because you already know that the game will look good. It's like they hide all the issues behind graphics and hope that carries the game.
The okay-ish:
The game has voice acting, which is good enough.
It looks decent, again Unreal Engine
The bad:
The movement mechanics are trash. For a parkour game, it's very finicky with certain jumps and ledge grabs. The biggest gripe I've actually got with this game is that I needed to go to a speedrunning turorial video in order to get gold on the challenges. Why you ask? Because the more "advanced" movements are not explained in the game itself. Things like dash jump is so inconsistent on mouse and KB, but you need to use it in order to get gold in the challenges. "No, you're just bad! It's implied that you learn the movement mechanics in order to get gold. Git gud scrub!". Ok buddee, listen here buckaroo, the game actually needs to make it consistent number 1 and number 2, let the player know they can do this. Obviously, being a okay-ish gamer myself, it was the first thing I tried. I ended up using my xbox controller in order to do it consistently.
Story is so bland and predictable. I get it, it's not easy writing a story that everyone will love. But it is so obvious what's going on and what's going to happen. At no point do you feel any connection with the 3 characters you get in this massively empty open world. Yes, there's the merchant, you and the lady. That's it.
Lore is something that they tried to flesh out the world-building, because with a world this empty, you fucking need it.
All in all, I'm severely disappointed in this game. If you like being frustrated by movement mechanics that don't feel like you've got weight or is inconsistent AF, then get this. You'll enjoy it. Otherwise? Steer clear.