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[SpitfireKit]

While I somewhat enjoyed it in the beginning, it's not growing on me.
I love Metroidvanias - Guacamelee, SOTN, and all the others.
Procedurally generated isn't a selling point to me, it's a negative.
Have I been here before?
Who knows, it looks like the same place I was a couple screens ago, and you'll get that feeling just about every other screen.
Great, more random (but the same) enemies.

 

[Adaren]

I love this game's art. It's absolutely gorgeous.

I'm still fairly early on, but I'm actually enjoying the combat quite a bit. The enemies do come in hordes, but that just means that it becomes all the more important to stay mobile and use the terrain to corral them and avoid getting cornered. The larger enemies (such as the laser gun robots or the floating sword-wielders) require more precise movement and timed dodging. This gives the combat both a "micro" element (dodging individual attacks from big enemies) and a "macro" element (moving around the screen to control the hordes).

I don't think the gameplay is revolutionary, mind you, but it's responsive, fun, and good enough to keep me entertained while I ogle the beautiful animations and backdrops. Running away from horde attacks can also be a tense experience; the horror of the horde attacks contrasts nicely with the otherwise serene platforming.

I'm also getting the occasional hitches that others mentioned (though it got significantly better once I swapped from my laptop's integrated card to the dedicated one, so that means that it's better on stronger hardware). My other complaint is the load times, which are criminally long at over 30 seconds. But at least I only have to load once in a play session usually, at least so far.

 

[hawk2025]

Nearing the end of the game at ten hours or so, and it's blown me away.

Once you have the controls down and starts corrupting abilities, the gameplay is sublime.

Also, DAMN are these bosses great. It all looks like pure chaos at first, but then you learn how to deal with their harder attacks and it's just great.

Also, I wish there was a bestiary just to watch all of these incredible boss animations over and over again, it's so damn impressive.

 

[Brandon F]

Just finished(if anyone even cares at this point).

I didn't really seem to like it at first, but I kept gnawing away at it every now and again, usually with a podcast on. Found the abilities(especially the corrupted abilities) really opened up the world and combat in ways that left a really rough and poor first impression. It's not so different from a Metroid given how meager you begin in those games as well, but comparatively this lacked the engagement with its constant ticking clock of enemy dogpiles, excrutiating loadtimes to regenerate a world that lacks much identity as is, and inability to even realize how crazy your abilities can grow. Yet, I did keep coming back knowing that every session and every death meant small improvements to make each run last a bit longer and further. That kept me playing.

I did have to grind XP(almost maxed out the entire skill page) at the end to withstand the final boss which fortunately was easy to level with certain perks equipped. A real pain that boss was actually, but just like all of them, it looked spectacular.

I almost am now compelled to try a playthrough without corrupting runes out of curiosity(and to get a glimpse of the different final boss), but that also means grinding all over again, which I am less inclined to do.

 

[kingpotato]

I recently picked up Sundered from the PS store on sale for $5. It's been loads of fun so far and I personally believe it would have been worth the regular price of $20. Do studios/publishers take the hit when games are on sale in a digital store? Does the store owner take some of the burden of the sale price? Does the studio make much off a $5 sale? I'm enjoying the game enough I almost feel a little guilty for getting it at such a low price. I didn't find an official thread, but I hope the game did well enough for the studio to consider a sequel.

 

[namekuseijin]

I didn't buy it on sale now, I had both Sundered and Jotun in my backlog from long ago. Tonight I finally began playing them. Jotun is awesome, but Sundered really takes the cake.

It's basically Super Metroid Lovecraft. I mean, Metroid always had a sinister side to it, in it's deep organic settings and places like Norfair - I don't think it's too far from Lovecraft. I think they nailed Metroid looks (organic+machinery) and level design.

The fast-paced melee combat is as awesome as that of Dead Cells or Dust an Elysian Tale - artwork for backgrounds is as beautiful as the latter.

Is it really rogue-lite, though? I started on difficult and found it way bewildering so after an hour or so started other save and the map overall major layout is still there, though not sure about the small cells between each major place. If it is randomly generated, they did a good choice because the overarching structure is the same and the intent of game designers is there, while still keeping it fresh each time you go through small segments...

What I found strange is that there no enemies restricted to certain spots - they seem to just show up in waves from time to time to challenge you, though they may be tougher in some specific areas.

I'm not really a fan of unlocking skilltrees with in-game currency, which is a staple of modern game design and rogue-likes - because levels are procedurally generated, there's not really many chances or uses to find treasures or powerups in carefully thought-out parts. But like I said, there's an overarching level design in place here and so you really do find some powerups only in specific places - this is an excellent mashup of genres, like Dead Cells being Metroidvania+rogue-lite+infinite runner

All in all, Sundered is a truly excellent game.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Sundered was a cool game but it would've been even cooler if it had ditched the procedural generation in favor of actual level design. I'm so fucking tired of rogue lite elements in otherwise beautiful games.

 

[GymWolf]

I have sundered special edition on epic store when they gifted the game to everyone.

Never tried for 2 reasons, i dkn't like the art design of the normal enemies,i heard that the screen is always filled with a shitload of enemies and after a while is better to escape and don't fight because it's a waste of time.

I don't even know if this is true tbh.