I hate to be the barer of bad news, but I'm in a bad mood.

Disclaimer: I played this after playing Steamworld Dig, which I consider to be the closest type of game to this one that I've tried recently, so my opinion is coloured by my experience with that game and I'll likely be comparing the two.

In a nutshell, I simply find this game not fun at all. If it's meant to be painfully, brutally hard and frustrating from the start, then I was unfortunately unaware of this fact, and naively assumed there would be some sort of difficulty curve to help new players get to grips with the gameplay. There really is none. Even the tutorial is tricky, and I don't think it even covered the ghosts that suddenly show up right in level 1-1.

It's a shame as I love the premise, and the graphics, and the music, but so many things are just frustrating to work with. Walking is painfully slow, but running almost almost too fast and slippery. Hanging off ledges can be annoying because you can get stuck and there's not way to simply drop; you have to jump. The whip has a painfully limited range which makes hitting enemies extremely difficult. The different types of enemies are thrown at you very fast, instead of adding more and more as you progress, to give the player time to become accustomed to how each one operates. The arrow traps are awful for me as there doesn't seem to be a way to safely get past them.

Why I think Steamworld Dig is better than this game: gradually introduces new enemies, rewards you with new power-ups and better loot as you progress, gets more difficult as you go, frustrating elements are less common, movement is more fluid (standard walking speed is decent, and running is handled pretty well), less likely to get stuck.

I haven't managed to get past 1-1 without dying, and i really do not feel like I am a bad gamer, so please don't think ill of me, or use the "c" word, because I really do not feel like I deserve to be tarred with that brush.

If I were to review this right now it'd get maybe 1 or 2 stars, for the graphics, music, and premise alone. The gameplay itself is just much too frustrating.

I'd apologise for saying all this, but the impression I've been given is that being apologetic simply annoys people, so I suppose I won't.

Thanks to anyone who bothered to read this.

I agree wholeheartedly with your post, but I wasn't really let down, I only bought it because I wanted to try it in multiplayer with my brother and we had some fun for an hour or two, it was on sale too so no big deal.

Hi EuroMIX,
maybe you are still reading this. I've bought Spelunky on a sale today and played only for a few hours, but I have to disagree with you.

At first, spelunky is clearly influenced by rogue-like games and yes, those games are "meant to be painfully, brutally hard and frustrating from the start" and are due to their randomness allowed to be even unfair at times. That's surely not everyones cup of tea but there are people that do love those games because when you finally suceed it just feels so good :)

I'm just writing this because it is not the games fault that it is this way. And to be honest, I found Spelunky very accessible. At least it has a tutorial ;)

Secondly, you are not a bad gamer if you fail constantly in the first hours, especially if you are not used to games like this. Instead, start over again and try another strategy. Start some experiments etc. Dying is part of the game, everyone does. The ghost starts chasing you after 2:30 or so, so hurry up ;) Keep in mind that you don't have to kill everything, I finished 1-1 at least once without killing a single enemy. Ignore everything that's useless, like those pots that sometimes contain enemies, but never anything useful. Stand still and keep the up or down key pressed to move the view and check if the region below or above you is worth exploring. If time is running out use bombs to create shortcuts. You can drop. Hold the down arrow and press the jump key. If find the controls a bit fuzzy at some times, too ... but then I'm not playing platformers very often (at least I played Commander Keen...) and don't know about the genre standards. But there aren't so much different enemies in the first levels? I found the bats irritating at first because they are flying a bit strange, but now I just make a few steps backwards and have no problems with them anymore.

Spiders are hanging on the ceiling and fall down when you are below them. So rush through, let them fall down besides you and kill them - or (if possible, don't waste a rope for this) kill them from the side while they are still "inactive"

Giant spiders - avoid them.

Skeletons form sometimes out of the bones lying around in the dungeon, so just be careful when you see them.

Everything else should be quite standard. I found them irritating and annoying at first as well until I realized that they trigger only once. So you can deal with them. Lure some opponent through the trap, bats are especially useful here because they are flying. Drop an item (like one of the stones that are lying around) to release the trap, if no items are available dropping a bomb works as well. Of course you can blow them up, too. Or create a way around them. There are probably even more ways...

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I see that your first experience with the game was very frustrating and probably it's simply not your kind of game. But maybe you will try again?

Sorry for my poor english, I'm not a native speaker.

Just find another hobby.

Really.

I've played a lot of other games before and after this one and had a great time, so... why should I?

Really.

Seeing as you did respond this year, I'll add my agreement with your original thoughts. Being Rogue-like is fine with me. However, this game feels like it's Rogure-like as a lazy afterthought. It feels to me like it's unfinished, sort of like they started testing it, decided to sell it at it's current stage, found they were making money, and decided not to put any more time into developing suitable gameplay. Like you indicated in your last post, there is a huge universe of enjoyable games out there, so...yeah, it sits in sort of a what-could-have-been state.

I do wonder if the classic version of Spelunky is easier to get into? Its far less assuming than the "upgraded" version. So I find it easier to take the hits as they come whereas I expect much more from the more polished version and I don't think it stands up to that.