Dragon Marked For Death Reviews

it's good

nice

I've been kind of in search for games that would give me a "MMO experience" in a singleplayer package and I was especially on the lookout for a game that would capture the gameplay of 2d anime MMO's like maple story and la tale. This game seemed like it would satisfy this fix, and while the reviews for the game were a bit mediocre, I initially just shrugged them off - complaints about pc port issues that did not happen to me and maybe got patched, old reviews complaining about the initial release of the game that got outdated thanks to the devs patching the game pretty extensively (good), complaining about grinding... that didn't bother me, as I was looking for a grindy game in the first place. And my initial feelings about the game were actually pretty good! Solid spritework, alright combat, VERY cool designs for the different classes - just the premise of a good time, especially after I saw the missions have a kind of "monster hunter" system to them where you pick a mission and get dropped into the "dungeon" with a timer - I am into monster hunter, so I was definitely into this. However, in the short amount of time I put into this game it actually became apparent pretty fast that the complaints people had about the game are actually pretty valid. >I picked the warrior because "haha first class? Human male warrior of course [gigachadimage.jpg]" and it turned out to be not that great - he's supposed to be a tank, so he's slow, not very agile and with a small jump (in a 2d game with platforming elements mind you) and he doesn't have a combo of any kind, just a single swing. Combat ended up being standing in the enemy's face and spamming this single attack over and over, mixing it up with a tackle attack and a charged slam attack.. Not very exciting... at least his guard ability was pretty useful, so here's that. >Super fucking limited character equipment - 2 weapons for switching (you can have only 2 types of weapons for your class and they function pretty much the same with tiny differences, so I fail to see the point...) and 2 slots for accessories - that's it. Dude, really? That's all? It really takes away a lot of fun from gearing your character when it's so limited. >Character growth also limited... you just raise your stats and that's it. You don't unlock skills, traits, perks or anything... super fucking lame! >Little enemy variety... I played through a couple missions and in each fucking one it was just these crabs, bugs, goblins with bows... eeeeevery fucking mission. REALLY lame! And looking at the wiki I already saw a good chunk of the enemy types that are in this game... seriously, if you have few enemy types in your game at least make alt versions with different appearance, hell phantasy star online has you killing a lot of the same enemy types but they have stronger versions with a different appearance so it doesn't feel so samey... and you encounter new enemies in each area too. Here it's just bugs, crabs, goblins, flying bugs all the time... I actually got frustrated when I started a mission in a big monster's gut and instead of fighting some unique flesh/parasite themed enemies it was just crabs, goblins and some random frogs... then I went to a ice area and it was CRABS AGAIN. God. >mission design... ASS! It's either you just running left/right and killing whatever critters get in your way until the boss or... god, you get trash like a mission that really soured my opinion on this game. First you defend this ship from some goblins... fine, more goblins, but ok... then this weird sea monster comes out! Okay, neat... his fight ends up sort of easy once you understand it but EVENTUALLY you reduce his health bar to zero. But then the actual mission starts, I guess??? AFTER a boss fight??? And oh god... this one is platforming heavy. With platforming over pits that burn you, while having to avoid getting touched by these floating fucks because if they DO touch you, you get a ice status effect... which slows you down and makes your jumping puny... in a platforming section. Also if you whack a goblin off a platform into the pool of acid, he doesn't die. But you will get burned if you jump in trying to get the kill. What? Anyways, tons of tedious platforming later you get to ANOTHER boss, which is easy and kind of boring but okay. Then the mission is over. Next one I picked? Had ice in it, joy. I just alt f4'd and decided I had enough. >Game was clearly designed with multiplayer in mind... but multiplayer is dead, so you better bring friends. I don't have friends (sad) so I just had to endure a platformer grindfest with basic, repetitive combat, very limited character growth and little actual reward or sense or purpose. I got some kind of rare accessory after a mission, felt nothing. In the end I felt nothing from leveling too, because there's no actual progression, skill unlocks, some kind of "prestige class" system - nothing! Lame! Monster hunter doesn't have classes and it made me feel giddy about getting a better sword or finally having enough materials for some better armor - this is just watching numbers go up and nothing else, and you have no people to show off these big numbers for. Wack! Phew. Well, after all that... I don't actually think the game is HORRIBLE - the spritework is cool, the artstyle and character designs are super cool, and I will always respect games made by healthy straight men who are not afraid of some pixel cleavage and titty jiggle. But it's pretty clear this game needed more work and someone in the team telling others that "no, this is too basic, not varied enough... can't we do more?" I'm sure this game was a blast when you were just playing it with other players and teamed up for different raids, but in singleplayer the game feels very hollow and just... pointless. Playing Monster hunter or phantasy star online in singleplayer mode doesn't feel that way, it still feels very fun without other players. This, sadly, doesn't, and it carries a stink of a game that was mainly fun only through multiplayer. Since steam itself gives me no choice: 6/10.