DRAGOT Reviews

You really have to want to like this game, then it might be for you. The game is somewhat unique, but it just does not feel fun to play. It feels like a game jam game, that someone spent a lot of time refining technically, while spending zero time refining it mechanically to provide less friction and engaging gameplay. Pros: - Nice graphics and visual implementation - Great music, even tho maybe clashing a bit with the retro style of the game - Variety of characters and powers ups Cons: - Awkward controls, that seemingly are in places awkward and more annoying than fun by design - Very slow start which doesn't try to pull you into the game - Not even an attempt of lore or story or flavor or hint of giving anything you do any purpose or at least intent The controls feel awkward and it's get worse by small issues with them: - When you run into an obstacle, you lose control of your character and have to move your mouse back over it and click it again to control it again. This seems by design to make it "more challenging" by being punished for getting stuck on obstacles, but mainly it's a mechanic which is more annoyance than challenge or fun and therefore seems like a bad call. It's even worse that when you then accidentally move the mouse on the left of the screen it will open an overlay window showing your character stats while hiding the actual gameplay behind it. - When you move out of the room through a door on one end of the screen, you lose control of your character, which will then spawn again on the opposite side of the screen where you will have to move your mouse and click it again to gain control of it again. If you pick very niche controls for a game, you should try VERY hard to at least make them as intuitive and fun to use as possible. It should be very simple: you should never lose control of your character when you don't intent to and you should always have means to easily interact with windows and buttons when needed. Neither is the case here. And for many things there would be really easy solutions: You have a level up window picking a choice of three bonuses? Let the player use 1, 2 or 3 to choose one, since they have to use WASD anyhow and mouse is focused on character control. When the player opens a chest, let them pick up items that same way. Don't force the mouse to be player movement AND UI interaction at the same time, when there's no reason to do so or it can't be implemented in a way that just is totally seamless. Speaking of chests. The game doesn't halt when you open a treasure chest. Especially when you start out and have to read item descriptions, this is very much not fun. I can understand you think this "part of the challenge", but when a mechanic is more annoyance than fun, then don't add it to the game. This is a clear case of such for me. It's a pity this game is such wasted potential. Especially since someone clearly poured their heart and soul into this, but focused too much on what they think is fun, instead of focusing on what actually might be fun for others to play.