Biomass

The last balancing patch addressed 80% of my criticism in regards to the 'power progression' so I have to rewrite the entire review to reflect it. Before the update, we didn't have a dedicated healing item, so now you can regain some of your health without engaging in melee combat, making the game more accessible to new players. Don't feel bad, you are not playing the easy version of the game, the developer also fixed the damage formula which inflated the power of some weapons by like 300%. Lastly, I want to mention that biomass (currency) has been nerfed overall, meaning that it will take much longer to flatline the difficulty curve (although it will still happen around the 8-hour mark). Some of the harder locations do not reward you with a reasonable amount of biomass, but generally speaking, the recent patch made the game less sporadic, even though it's more difficult overall. Props to the developer for pushing those changes so quickly, now it should be more difficult to find abusiv...

In all honesty, Biomass is probably one of the best investments of my time and money I have ever given to a video game. It is not simply "fun" or "interesting", or anything that can be fully expressed with a single adjective. Frankly, games like these are the very reason I think video games can be called art. The gameplay is great. The story is great, but more than either of those, I am in love with how Biomass makes the player feel. It captures the same sort of vaguely disturbing and lonely atmosphere that Metroid is known for, and despite the presence of NPCs, it is great at making you feel truly alone and unwelcome when it counts. As for gripes, I have none at all. But be warned it is extremely difficult and not very forgiving. if that's your thing, go for it. If it's not, your loss.

Was honestly expecting to enjoy this game after reading the rave reviews. I'm usually a sucker for pretentious meta commentary and souls-likes/metroidvanias in general but I had so many issues with this game within the first half hour that I couldn't be bothered. Combat feels very clunky and rigid. It's honestly hard to explain with words but nothing ever felt "good". Weird frame timings, attacks always seeming to be just out of range, nothing has impact whatsoever, having to wait a couple of frames after rolling to be able to attack again. It all just felt off. Adding onto the combat complaint, the parry system is extremely inconsistent. I tried to parry most attacks I ran across and it seemed like it really only affect 2 of the many weapons and attacks I came across. And the times it "did" work it took me a second to even register that it did something because the animations and combat in general are just so floaty and lack impact. Ran into an enemy that you literally couldn't dod...

Biomass is quite possibly the most interesting, engaging game of the year and I'm not even REALLY done with it yet. You're thrust into an eerie, crestfallen kinda universe encountering a variety of sometimes odd, sometimes badass, sometimes genuinely nerve wracking characters. You're feeling generally pretty at home, the combat has some trademark "soulsy" rolls, parries and overall "git gud or go home" to it. Then you start to realise how the equipment you wear, the items you find, the directions you go effect your interactions with the world, you start to wonder how differently the path you walked might have been. What'd you miss? Who didn't have to die? Then things get REALLY gnarly in ways you should only experience for yourself. Do yourself the favour, pick it up and don't forget to take in just how good that soundtrack is while your mind is being blown.

Yeah, it's an early review but to help the game with Steam placement I'm judging the title on it's demo from last year in the meantime: At first glance this may seem like a traditional Metroidvania title that mixes in elements from the Souls series, but it takes something I think is often forgotten about from other games that draw from that pool of inspiration—choice. I don't mean choice in terms of character growth (though the game supports that), but in terms of dealing with the world. In the Biomass demo you can befriend a character who would come to your aid later or attack you as part of a challenging boss battle. You could fight a boss to get a key item, or meet conditions to have them aid you. Open up a big locked door? Well, there could be serious repercussions for the people who had good reason to keep it sealed. The full game can, apparently, even be completed without fighting a single boss. Playing this demo reminded me so much of the first time I played Demon Souls. A ...

Fantastic sound and atmosphere Challenging yet fun Definitely recommend

Quick: 2/5. I do not recommend this game in its' current state. Biomass is more frustrating than it is fun or challenging. It starts off so well, then rapidly devolves. My first hour was fun, and intriguing. The last nine hours were mind-numbingly irritating. Like many games that I have reviewed recently... this one fits the trend of 'difficult-for-the-sake-of-difficulty'. There are extra unnecessary features that would make the game instantly better if removed. There is a shocking amount of oversight in regards to the mechanics, simple and complicated alike. There is almost nothing beyond the initial impression to keep the player invested. More: I had really high hopes for this game. That all began to change after the first few hours of game-play. This game has great artwork and presentation. The music is phenomenal, and the story is interesting. At least, that's how it starts. You begin as a nameless player awakened in what appears to be some sort of underground fa...

You want my opinion? I think you should buy this game So I've just finished it (by sheer luck and happenstance more than anything), and I think it's brilliant, though there are definitely issues I'd bring up. First: This game should've had a map really. I can understand this would've involved a decent amount of development time, but I feel like the nature of the game really needs it. When you get stumped at a specific point in the game, you will likely lose track of the places that act as trigger points for specific things, and it can be quite frustrating to constantly navigate areas to job your memory, given there is no warping. Second: Feels awful to say this about an indie project, but maybe there could have been a bit more meat on the bones. The boss battles are top quality, so it was a shame to see there weren't more. The weapon variation is neat, especially how you can combo two together. But the mods are mostly pointless, and items also somewhat irrelevant. Third: This is a ...

Final edit: Just a heads up about combat, check inventory, learn how to deal with tough enemies, get timing right, and I believe you won't have any complaints like the ones in the negative reviews. Combat gained depth, world design gets even better, story is still really interesting with well made storytelling, and some outstanding visual narrative moments that make this game memorable the most. How the game deals with it's world events is amusing, decisions you make have a real impact, and even though I am not a big fan of making decisions in games I found myself really enjoying how consequences work here, and with a certain amazing twist in the events of the game and the lore to make this point about consequences even better. Another great thing is that you don't just need skills but also good observation and thinking, whether it's how you have to deal a boss or how to get into new areas. . . . The review I wrote at 85 minutes of gameplay: The game so far is really good, the atmosp...

I'm not sure what's wrong. This game has everything that I like: tight combat, mysterious worldbuilding, a distinct art style... and yet, I very quickly caught myself that I'm not having fun. At all. I'll try to make sense of what my feelings on the game are: - the worldbuilding is a little [i]too[/i] mysterious. I found nothing I could really grab onto, nothing I could use as some kind of point of reference. There's also no real introduction. - the combat... while it certainly is quick and there are some interesting quirks (parry as a special attack, gun uses stamina), it does not feel good at all. Parrying in particular only seemed to work when it felt like it. - the art style is distinct, sure. But the colour palette, the resolution and overall design made me feel like I'm being served pixel bigos. And I really don't like bigos. - maybe I'm just tired of the soulslike genre. That one's on me, it's definitely not the game's fault. All in all, the game failed to spark my intere...