Published 2024-12-11
tag(s): #reviews #gaming
I've been meaning to write about this game for a while now, because I fucking love it.
It is a roguelite: games where you die and repeat the whole thing, buying permanent upgrades
for future runs. Similar, and probably more popular, games in the genre: Dead
Cells[1], Rogue Legacy, Spelunky.
ScourgeBringer has a 2D pixel art style, to which I am partial. It is modern pixel art though,
so it has a lot of colors and details rather than an 8-bit look.
You start the game with a sword and a long range gun. You can slash, if you do it mid-air you can sort of float. There's also a "heavy" smash, that does much less damage but can stun enemies. Also when (most) enemies are about to attack, an exclamation mark appears above them, and you have to smash them to prevent them from attacking.
There are a few levels, each level has a number of rooms. Enter a room, kill all enemies, move to the next room. Each level has 1 to 3 guardians, meaning, mini bosses. Then a judge, meaning, boss. There's also stores for alternate long range weapons, health items and the like.
On the permanent upgrades front, there's the ability to reflect bullets with the smash move, a
combo counter to get more coins blood from each enemy killed, a super move that hits
everything on a screen, among others.
You feel powerful when the game starts, but the upgrades give you the feel of becoming a
killing machine (more on this later).
Finally, there's several upgrades that are good for that run only:
Of course I didn't take screenshots. I just ran a DuckDuckGo search and got a few screencaps I liked from the results.
The combat is fluid in a way that is hard to explain, and I don't think videos make it justice. And the game is hard, but not unfair[2].
This is highly subjective, but: You have just enough moves, and when you combine them in just
the right way, you clean a room in a couple seconds. And that gives you the satisfaction of
being an unstoppable killing machine.
However, you have to balance the all out attack with some caution, as it is very easy
for enemies to overwhelm you with either bullets or quick attacks (level 3 onwards, many
enemies have a really short "warning" window). And it's not difficult to lose 3 or 4 HP in a
row when things go sour.
Most reviews I read before buying the game complained about two points: repetitiveness, and lack of variation between runs. I agree in both points, yet, I still consider this game a 10/10...how come?
Well, the game is indeed repetitive. It's not something that usually bothers me.
In the case of ScourgeBringer, less is more. Like I said "just enough" moves: slash, smash, a
quick dash, and Dragon Punch (a more powerful dash that also reflects bullets). But the game
has a rhythm to it, you dash into an enemy, hit a couple slashes, smash it to throw it against
other enemies, slash some more, smash again. If you are quick and lucky, you clump all enemies
against a wall and just decimate them.
BUT if any are about to attack, then you decide if to smash (you might be late), dragon punch
(but, the move has a cool down!), or just evade. And the evasion might be hard, as dashing has
0 (yes, ZERO) invincibility frames. You are so mobile that it doesn't matter, but you cannot
be careless as you might hit bullets or another attack on the way out.
If find it extremely balanced. You are uber powerful, but not indestructible.
The lack of variation between runs...that one I agree less with. Which upgrades
blessings you pick in an altar CAN have a big effect in the gameplay style for your run. For
example, "bear spirit" gives you 5% increase in slash damage per missing HP. In those runs I
try prioritizing health upgrades, because having 8/10 HP is very different than 8/20 HP.
Rifles and miniguns have larger clips and bullets that "travel" on the screen, while lasers
are immediate hits and have 1 to 3 shots per clip. That makes a difference and when you shoot,
and which one is more effective against bosses or regular mobs, since weapons are reloaded by
hitting enemies.
So while I sort-of agree the effects of these things are maybe subtler than picking an ice or
poison build in Dead Cells, they still make a noticeable difference.
Last but not least in the "things to love" department: the music in the game is AWESOME. See for yourself: https://youtu.be/j9qaQTtV4Ss
Dear reader, if you like challenging games, and value good combat, with very tight controls, than you have to play ScourgeBringer.
Q: Is this gonna be your standard review format going forward?
A: We'll only know if I ever love a game enough to write another review.
Q: Are you only gonna write about games you "love"?
A: We'll only know when I hate a game enough AND write a review about it. Until then, yes?