The Turgenev Study Reviews

Very more-ish.

uhhhh....i started playing and time traveled 5 hours into the future...BE CAREFUL!

ooh this is intriguing i like the theme and atmosphere

undercooked, needs more invul frames.

Cute little arcade game. Worth buying if you're interested in a unique spin on retro rogue-lites. I also recommend checking out Punkcake's other works; I really enjoy Shotgun King and Ecstatic.

If someone's complaining about this game and hasn't played for at least an hour, they quite simply don't know what they're talking about! (note: I've played for several hours on the itch version, I just bought it again on steam to support the devs!) Punkcake are masters of making utterly unique -- mechanically as well as stylistically -- hopelessly addictive ("in a good way") gems, and this is another one of them. Just tons of smart little ideas, all intertwined, in a beautiful package. It starts very simple, and incrementally gets more complicated, forever (or at least, for a very long time -- I'm stuck on mission 15 or something). If you're bored of the missions, try playing for a highscore; it is, after all, an arcade-action game at the core. If only there was a thumbstick-based control option, my stupid mouse-based RSI wouldn't be hurting so much. ;-;

I think this game is a good example of how you can come up with a novel concept for a game not just by thinking what the player can do, but what they have to react to. The Turgenev Study was apparently part of a larger project where games had to have some sort of mechanic that revolved around it happening every ten seconds. It's this weird feeling where a game has action but it feels so relaxed at the same time, and having a mechanic that simultaneously defeats enemies while setting up for getting their abilities is fantastic. A single play session will likely last under three minutes or less until you get better at it, so yeah, it's hard, but still highly enjoyable to play. High Score is currently 958 pts at wave 37.

the game was fun but in a hour there was a glitch that caused the game to be stuck on a black screen and it wont go away even after unstalling and restalling please fix this

Punkcake's MO generally leads to all of their games (barring Shotgun King) to having this weird "undercooked" vibe to them, and The Turgenev Study is no exception to that issue. Don't get me wrong: the visuals and sound design are absolutely perfect and the "play and work out the mechanics" concept actually *functions* here unlike in Metavaxx... but man there's just this constant feeling that this game could be so much more than it is. So get this, you're this weird lil harvesting microbe trying to chomp down some tasty bacteria to research it. You got enemies that just constantly get in the way by not doing any damage to you but bumping you around, you got enemies that slowly creep over to you, enemies that rush you once you harvest something, enemies that just rush you in general always, the list goes on. Despite the general appearance of the game, it's NOT a "survive as long as you can" game (although you can play it that way), but rather a game where you are given three objectives and asked to complete them over the course of several games. Once those are complete, you unlock a new enemy type, or a new mechanic, and gain another three objectives. It works really well! The problem is the game doesn't quite convey that properly for one thing but also you can only take two hits full stop before your game ends. Sure, you can unlock an enemy type that will give you more health but (a) that requires you to complete the THIRD (!) objective set, and (b) you have to not only harvest them once but then assimilate them just to gain one (1) extra set of two hits. You WILL die a lot in this game. The AI is *vicious*, and its not helped by the insane amount of "drone" enemies that can and will bounce you to the other side of the miniscule arena (which remains miniscule even once you expand it, frankly.) It's...frustrating. I want to progress but rarely am able to purely because its so obscenely difficult out the gate for no real reason and its completely at odds with its otherwise really pleasant and calming atmosphere. I love it *purely* on the fact that they absolutely nailed the sheer style of this game, it's absolutely gorgeous and feels like a "bit Generations" game from the GBA. I just wish it would get more time to cook so it's not as actively annoying to play.