Posted May 14, 2023
Elderborn. A first-person melee combat game that takes after Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, with the now standard Dark Souls influence. You control a barbarian tribemember who's entering a decadent city full of zombie-like enemies, all of whom you're going to be killing.
It doesn't have the physics angle of Dark Messiah. You mainly kick enemies to break through their shield-blocking, not to knock them into beds of spikes placed everywhere (although kicking them off high surfaces is good), and you don't have any magic. You can activate respawn points here and there - if you use one to recharge your health, all the enemies resurrect, just as in Dark Souls, but unlike Dark Souls you don't have to worry about a stamina meter and can just hack away at stuff, although heavier weapons take longer to swing. At its best, the game manages to sort of feel like Dark Souls but a lot faster. You have a good ability to dodge or just run away from enemies, but getting good at the combat mostly comes down to mastering the block/parry system to stun enemies and nail them before they recover.
It's a decent game but for something that claims to be "metal AF" it's weirdly dry. The soundtrack is decent but I wouldn't say it particularly stands out in terms of getting the blood pumping, and it's not very colorful. The first level, the catacombs, is mostly blue, and the second level, the city, is a lot of brown/beige. It also doesn't help that the game is really short. It's surprising to get through the second level and then realize you're in the Epilogue, which is quite short in comparison. It's like playing the original shareware episode of Doom and then realizing there's no more game coming after it. It's worth playing if you've already played stuff like Dark Messiah and want something similar but cheap, but I wouldn't say it's essential or anything like that.
It doesn't have the physics angle of Dark Messiah. You mainly kick enemies to break through their shield-blocking, not to knock them into beds of spikes placed everywhere (although kicking them off high surfaces is good), and you don't have any magic. You can activate respawn points here and there - if you use one to recharge your health, all the enemies resurrect, just as in Dark Souls, but unlike Dark Souls you don't have to worry about a stamina meter and can just hack away at stuff, although heavier weapons take longer to swing. At its best, the game manages to sort of feel like Dark Souls but a lot faster. You have a good ability to dodge or just run away from enemies, but getting good at the combat mostly comes down to mastering the block/parry system to stun enemies and nail them before they recover.
It's a decent game but for something that claims to be "metal AF" it's weirdly dry. The soundtrack is decent but I wouldn't say it particularly stands out in terms of getting the blood pumping, and it's not very colorful. The first level, the catacombs, is mostly blue, and the second level, the city, is a lot of brown/beige. It also doesn't help that the game is really short. It's surprising to get through the second level and then realize you're in the Epilogue, which is quite short in comparison. It's like playing the original shareware episode of Doom and then realizing there's no more game coming after it. It's worth playing if you've already played stuff like Dark Messiah and want something similar but cheap, but I wouldn't say it's essential or anything like that.