Ember Knights Review (Lloyd XMas)
The game is very fun and enjoyable.
Couple issues:
Enemies that spawn AOE's underneath your character without any kind of projectile. Just annoying and cheap.
Teleporting enemies, also cheap. If they can do this why don't they just teleport inside of me and explode me from the inside.
The architect fight (DLC) has 2 segments where they invert the controls. THIS IS THE ONLY TIME IN THE GAME LIKE THIS AND IT IS PATHETIC. The one thing I ask in games like this is being able to move how and where I want to move. Screwing with the controls takes away all the enjoyment I have with the game and challenge.
Also, the hands on the left and right side of the screens that shoot stuff at you during a wave can be very frustrating because they sometimes just pop up and immediately hit you without much warning. And with some of the smaller maps this can be highly frustrating. Again, seems cheap.
DLC takes up probably half the achievements. I don't like when it is required to have the DLC to complete achievements in the base game. (The DLC, while adding more levels, enemies and weapons, just adds more annoyance than fun. The base game was good on its own, and didn't need the BS they added with the DLC, specifically the architect fight.
For the good:
Like the weapon system, and upgrade system. The amount of relics is cool, and allows for a lot of neat variety. The skills however, are pretty lackluster except for a few. 80% are ones that I will pass on most times though because they are just inept.
I like the rogue like structure of the game, and all the additional modifiers and challenges.
I will not be completing this 100% though because I refuse to fight the architect with the control flipping. Which is a shame because I probably would have.
Movement is good, its nice knowing where your character is on the screen without necessarily keeping an eye on him the whole time. Just feels good. The only issue is that you kind of have to keep your eye on your character (instead of scanning the map for enemies and attacks) because occassionally you will have an AOE just appear underneath you and its probably from an enemy that was cut off on the screen. So good luck with that.
Lack of a meaningful timer. I hate timers in games. This one has a timer but it is locked to rewards. So if you don't get the target time its not really too much of a loss. Whereas other games will just kill you because you took too long or spawn some ridiculous boss that just follows you around and can't be killed. This timer system just rewards good play. But if you want to take it slow, go for it. Very good.
Have only played this in Solo. Cannot speak to the multiplayer.
Overall, the game is very fun. However, the base game is not the end. The actual end to this game requires the DLC and I can't recommend the DLC with the final boss fight. I can't stress how annoying it is to play fantastically for 45 mintues just to come to a fight that takes your control away from you and then fires only homing projectiles and corner you in (again, while not being able to move where I want to). I mean, the epitome of fun, (sarcasm). So, unless you like wasting lots of time, DON'T BUY THE DLC. Just play the base game.
I still think Hades is probably the most fun I have had with a game in this style. However, this game isn't far off. I would consider it similar to Voidigo in terms of quality.
If you do buy the DLC, make sure to take off chaos mode modifier in order to access the new worlds. I couldn't figure out how to start the DLC after I bought it and there is almost no information online to recommend this setting change to fix the issue. Would be nice to clarify after the DLC is installed on how to actually start it. Would have saved me many runs.