Recent reviews by (P2D)SlugNut

AI LIMIT is in a long line of Souls-like titles that takes heavy inspiration from the genre with only a few exceptions and even those are likely taken from other Souls-like games. This game won't win any awards for being original but it does do it well.

Players will take control of a static character in that you do not create her yourself and you make your way through it's world exploring, fighting enemies, and getting stronger through an RPG stat allocation system, aquiring weapons and spells, and various armors/outfits and upgrade materials. Like many contemporaries in the Souls-like genre, players will get a currency called "crystals" by defeating enemies, selling items, or other means that can be used in purchasing from merchant NPCs, trading for specials spells and items, or leveling up by allocating points into specific stats like Life for greater health or Vitality for an improved Sync resource. When dealing damage or using some consumables, your character will have a higher sync bar which allows for more powerful attacks and the ability to use some spells at a cost of a percentage of the bar while taking damage and using spells or weapon specific attacks reduce the bar. At 0 the player becomes stunned and vulnerable creating a dynamic back-and-forth to combat where players have to think about what situations using a special ability or spell or maybe hold back to avoid becoming too vulnerable.

The player can find checkpoints called "branches" which allow fast travel, restores health, a place to upgrade the character or their weapons if they have enough resources, and eventually a respec of stat points when a key item is aquired. They will also restore a healing consumable, a staple of this genre to those familiar, which itself can be upgraded by returning special key items in the environment to an NPC found early in the game (as well as just obtaining another from special enemies that increases its potency). There are some key NPCs throughout the game that will offer world building and tangible resources for the player. These characters help push the story but can be, for the most park, ignored but doing so may end up leading to one of three endings and some missed endgame content (namely an additional boss fight).

A majority of the gameplay will consist of exploring a handful of environments and combat. While the game is linear, environments have all kinds of nooks and cranies that reward taking your time and observing. Maybe some consumable items, a unique outfit, a special NPC or maybe a hidden boss can be found in out of the way places. There are a few potential off the main path areas to explore as well.

For combat, players can have up to 2 weapons equipped, using one at a time with a normal attack, a strong attack, a charged strong attack, and a special weapon art that uses the sync meter. There are swords, claws, lances, even a set of drills that can be used and upgraded for improved damage. The player also has access to spells, which can be a bit more clumsy as one can only equip one at a time but can be swapped in the menus whenever the player wants. Outfits/armors are consisting of a head piece and a body piece and each have their own stats for defense and resistances but there are few that can be outright better. While one set can be found early has the highest defensive stat, others may be better at resisting poison or lightning damage making swapping them more engaging as opposed to a one-size fits all but some players will have their favorites.

Lastly, one of the more unique combat mechanics is the characters right arm that, over the course of the game, can be switched between 4 special mechanics. A counter with special timing will negate an attack and either reflect it back, leave the enemy stumbled for a context-sensitive critical attack, or just negate an attack. Another is the classic shield. While leaving it up will continuously use the sync meter and only negate a large percentage of damage, after enough hits it will charge allowing for a strong counter-attack. A more unique ability will cast a very damaging status to the player costing a great amount of damage but as a reward, will attack an additional special attack to all of their swings. The last is a fancy dodge that moves the players quickly and when used just before getting hit, will not cost anything and leave an electric silhouette where the player was, popping dealing damage to any enemy close enough. These 4 abilities really flesh out the combat and while many may focus on one or two, they allow for player personality in how one may approach a combat situation from another. Will you practice timing and negate an enemies attacks or reduce your health for overwhelming offense? Probably my favorite feature of the title.

If I were to have any complaints, I would say that the platforming can be very frustrating. It uses the same controls on control as classic Dark Souls in that you hold down a face button to run and you press in the left thumb-stick to do a jump. I'm used to it from those games so most of the game it's fine but some late game areas requiring some precision the controls don't really afford. I would say some abilities like the counter can be very overpowered if you can get the timing down. I found it rewarding but I can see some savants really blowing through the game way too easily. Beyond that, as stated from the start, just not very original and feels like I've seen it all before.

At the end of the day I do recommend the game, especially if you want more souls-like combat that's done well, especially at a budget. I feel this game is gonna get ignored for releasing alongside First Berzerker Khazan (which I have not played yet) and I feel like it does deserve some attention. If you're sick of the souls-style, AI LIMIT won't change that but if you are looking for more, especially one that isn't super long or as cryptic, give AI LIMIT a shot.

Works the Souls formula into it's own thing very well while still maintaining it's own identity. Challenging but rarely felt unfair with a dark world of old tales I do strongly recommend giving it a go.

Current devs care more about censoring themselves then appealing to the audience that got them here. ♥♥♥♥ 'em.

Strong exploration and combat, witty characters and dialogue, doesn't outstay it's welcome. On top of beautiful pixel art, it's a solid recommend. I only have some minor nitpicks being that some effects in fights can make it hard to tell whats happening on screen but that's pretty rare. Had a couple fights where I had a difficult time figuring out what to do but after a couple of tries I figured it out. This only happened a couple times. The positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

Jump, strafe, shoot, punch, gib, eat organs. Wasn't expecting much in early access but I really enjoyed my time with Ch1 of this game where, even in it's current state, I feel it's well worth the price. It can be beaten pretty quick but knowing two more chapters are coming, it seems well worth the asking price.

Fantastic first-person shooter. Loads of secrets for those who want to explore, great gameplay with good enemy variety and an assortment of weapons, each with different fire modes like your revolver with lock on to deal with the more evasive smaller enemies, a wick on the grenade to detonate over time or not and let it roll around to find someone to blow up, the weapons all feel great. The levels are pretty good, you got your set pieces like a subway train, your tall cityscape where you're fighting up on rooftops where you can't even see the ground, and even a sewer level or two! A very solid game and I would easily recommend to anyone who wants a good single-player campaign, retro or not.

As someone who only played this version and did so recently I can safely say it holds up really well. It is challenging but once you get a hang of how the weapons work (and make good use of quick save) it gets really good. It sets an idea that this isn't a traditional classic fps when your first weapons are TNT bundles you throw and a flare gun that takes time to burn enemies. You have axe wielding zombies that may get back up when killed unless burned or decapitated. Secrets hidden behind breakable walls, hidden rooms behind bookcases, and spots just out of normal view. Usable items like a medkit, jump boots; timed powerups that activate on pickup like invincibility and dual wielding most weapons. The level design is also pretty good for the most part with many levels folding in on themselves or fun themes like a fun park or a train however I did find on a few occasions I had to look up a guide to figure out how to proceed so some methods if hiding where to go is a bit outdated as I could find secrets more easily then the actual path on occasion. All in all I would recommend it.

*NOTE: I WAS A BACKER FOR THIS GAME'S KICKSTARTER*

I'm not gonna go too deep into this game because it's pretty obvious as to what it is by looking at it but I can say it is an excellent platformer from WayForward that has some metroidvania elements. The game is hud based, and you can revisit previous levels in order to collect items needed to progress. So, what you are looking at is a game that's part traditional run left to right platformer, and part collectathon. You will get various powers and upgrades as you progress through the game not unlike a Metroid or Castlevania title. You'll have a scene with characters in a hub town, go to a level and make it through, then likely have to find something you couldnt get before to progress to the next level by revisiting previous levels. The good news is that you won't be playing the exact same things over again as levels do have some changes as you go through them again but it's mostly the same. If I have any major negatives it may be the nature of having to revist old levels over again though it didn't bother me too much, and that it's fairly short, taking about 7 hours for me on my first run to collect everything and beat the game.

A pretty short and generic shooter but what saves it, and I can't believe I'm saying this, is the plot. I won't go into it too much but keep in mind the gaming climate in which this game was released and that the generic combat is generic for a reason. I nominated this title for the 2016 Steam Awards catagory for "THE "WHOOOAAAAAAA, DUDE!" AWARD".

Excellent fighting game, but lacking some content on launch. Very little single-player modes outside of training, survival, and a very limited story mode but more modes are expected to be added in March. If single-player is important to you, I would recommend looking into exactly whats there and consider waiting until more is added. Other than that and the servers not working properly at launch, I find it to be very fun. I enjoy the V-skill system that really seperates characters into their special skills and rewards the player for using them.

Still missing:
Story Mode
Zenny (premium currency)
Key Bindings