5 people found this review helpful
Not Recommended
1.2 hrs last two weeks / 1.2 hrs on record
Posted: 4 Dec @ 1:11pm

Early Access Review
What's described here on the store page is just not the degree of content that is in the game. There's hardly any variety. These items that exist you pick once and that's it. Then it's the same cycle of upgrades over and over again. There's basically no decision since almost every upgrade is a DPS increase. I did something to the effect of 4 runs - 2 wins and 2 losses. My builds felt the exact same both runs except that I chose a different main weapon which changed mostly just how things looked. Yeah, there's like 4 or 5 abilities for your Q-E-R keys, but

The actual progress of the gameplay loop doesn't feel different enough, either. The scaling of enemies is so minimal that your scaling is also minimal. Maybe if you compare only the beginning to the very endpoint is there a major difference. Otherwise, you just watch a number go from like 12 to 20 by the end of the run. I'm not saying it needs to go to 10,000,000. But it would be nice to see a lot more meaningful scaling.

There's also some sort of sigil system - the one I remember best was a bonus of 5% to lightning damage for each lightning sigil, and this item gave 2 sigils. Ok, 10% bonus is cool, but I don't think I ever saw these sigils again after that upgrade.

I know it's early access, but it feels like alpha access, honestly. I'm disappointed about how much customization was mentioned on the store page just to find out there is basically none. Also, the dragon is so incredibly useless. Yeah, it lets you fly above enemies and make a quick getaway - but for being such a pivotal point of the game, it doesn't do anything. You just collect and use potions for like, 5 seconds. And then you collect the potions for another 5 seconds.

It's just way too shallow - to the point I requested a refund.
Maybe when this game comes out of EA it will have a much better slew of content, but for now, it's incredibly barren, boring, and bland.

I will say though, the soundtrack and sound effects are pretty solid. The dev truly nailed that aspect!
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Developer response:
datablob  [developer] Posted: 6 Dec @ 5:27am
Thank you for your review, it's clear you put some thought and effort into it and I appreciate all of the feedback I can get to make BDM a better game.

Clarification regarding the missing variety: There was a bug shortly after launch that may have prevented it (and other progression items) from being unlocked for some players, which further blocked progression.

That particular issue has since been fixed, which should offer more choices for mutators, a second character class and dragon with further scaling.

btw, I'm glad you like the homemade soundtrack and sound design! I love making music and I'm also pretty happy how it turned out. :)

I'll continue working hard on the depth and breadth of the game, hope to see you return on the path to 1.0 or beyond.

~ Datablob, solo dev behind BDM
1 Comments
Henry 18 hours ago 
Datablob, if you see this, I do hope you continue making this game great! I think there’s some great stuff here that could make it better. Your attitude seems awesome! I’ll keep my eye on things as updates go by, and when 1.0 comes out I’ll definitely be at least looking at the store page. :cozybethesda: