izigame.me

I don't know what I was expecting really, but the whole experience was just very underwhelming. I feel like there's some good ideas here, but even those I don't think are all the way there.
For example, when I first found the 'wound vs injury' mechanic I thought it was an interesting twist; effectively you wound the enemy with normal attacks and parries, then need to use a secondary weapon (plague claw) to make that damage stick, otherwise it recovers. How do you think the developers reflected this idea in gameplay? Perhaps bosses have attack patterns where they're sometimes in range of your sword, and sometimes in range on your claw, so mastering the game involves learning where both these openings lie? Or perhaps enemies behave differently when recovering from wounds, such that this mechanic makes fights more dynamic?
No, in actuality the gameplay doesn't account for this mechanic at all, you could slot in enemies from any other soulslike and it wouldn't make a difference to how you play. This can lead to some annoyances you wont get in other games (chasing an enemy across an arena is one thing, but landing a perfect set of parries only to have the enemy leap backwards and regen most of that damage before you can cover the distance is another). But more than anything it's just a seriously missed opportunity; it's a real shame that the largest change this game makes to the standard souls formula doesn't actually add anything substantial, or even require you to learn a new skill.
My main issue though is really just the level and enemy design, it's just so... bland; it's functional, but lacklustre at best. The levels can basically be described by their theme, and that's about it; there's nowhere memorable on any of the levels, nothing remarkable in any sense, just a theme and then 'here are a set of paths/corridors, all in that particular theme, that connect the start of the level to the end'. Likewise the combat works but is just not really satisfying, there's very little weight to the vast majority of attacks and the enemy design is very simple.
Then there's the length. Keep in mind here, my playtime also includes farming to fully upgrade two boss weapons, which I wouldn't have bothered with if I'd realised there's literally 3 levels which have a few quests in each (and then one final boss fight). Ultimately though, it's all these things in context of the price which is why I'm not recommending it. The game honestly feels more like a tech demo, like a first draft to say "we're thinking something along these lines"'; it really doesn't feel like an experience that should be valued at £20. Maybe if you ever see it 75% off on a steam sale it might be worth considering, but otherwise I'd give this a pass.