Seraph Reviews

Far too repetitive and uninspired. There are some good things about the gameplay, but it was kinda boring for me, just moving through the samey corridors while holding down the trigger and trying to dodge the multitude of demons coming for you (in higher difficulties). The levels are randomly generated, and there are several "themes" or areas, but they all feel the same. It doesn't feel like a bullet hell, because you can't really have precision with the controls offered (plus there are a lot of homing and AOE attacks), nor timing based, because if you dodge one projectile another will hit you. To win in higher difficulties you have to be more careful, kiting the enemies into already cleared locations while they soak up bullets, but that is boring. There are upgrades, but they are of the +2% type. You can get +10% in some attributes, such as damage, but usually only if you grind a lot. There is a plot, but no ending. Overall it's not a bad game, but I can't really recommend it.

Seraph is hard to class. The game has traits similar to shooter games, action RPGs, platformers, and roguelikes. But it isn’t any of those. At its core, the prime mechanic is the “progressive account” mechanic (my new term). What I mean by this is you play through the game, kill stuff, collect stuff, and improve stuff. Eventually, you beat the final boss or hit a wall, and you can’t continue. So, what is next? You start over. However, all the improvements remain on your account. Once you collect a set number of superior shards, you have the choice to be reborn. This rebirth will erase the progress on your account but bestows a permanent bonus. In Seraph, you can do this a maximum of five times. The game you play, outside this larger metagame, is more of an action RPG than a shooter. The setting is a prison where the Seraph was held as a prisoner. She is let free, but in the process of coming to earth, a gate to hell was also opened dragging hellspawn into the mortal realm. (Sidenote: Technically the Seraph is genderless. However, I will refer to the Seraph as “her” since on the mortal plane it has inhabited a female human named Talia. Just as I call my Amazon Echo she, it feels more natural to refer to the Seraph as female.) The Seraph’s weapon of choice: firearms. You can pick up a myriad of different types of firearms from pistols and revolvers (which she will dual wield) to assault rifles or a railgun. In addition to your original pistols, which have unlimited ammo, you can carry one other weapon that will have limited ammo. Since you are an angelic entity, you also have blessings at your disposal. You start the game with two: 1) Repel, which as the name suggests pushes back enemies who are near to you and 2) Orb, which is a boomerang type projectile that does damage as it goes out and double damage on the way back. These two miracles can be improved, new miracles discovered and swapped to create a build suited to your playstyle. You also have access to another miracle, Smite, which cannot be upgraded or changed. This miracle is essential in destroying elite demons as well as the mini-bosses. Finally, as you increase in level, you are granted a blessing. You get to select from a random set of blessings and can either pick a new one or upgrade one you already have. Choose wisely, as you can only be granted four unique blessings. You cannot respec these; however, when you start a new game you choose new blessings - these do not carry over when you start over. As mentioned, the game plays more like an action RPG. While your primary weapon is a firearm of some sort, you don’t have to aim. Just press the fire button. You will auto-aim at the nearest demon, or split your fire if two are coming from opposite directions. When you kill a demon, sparkly motes will float in the air where the vanquished demon was previously wreaking havoc. Get in there fast, because initially, they are greater motes worth three times more experience points. They quickly degrade creating an interesting dichotomy. Since you are using a ranged weapon, the game rewards you for getting in close. Since the game auto-aims for you, specifically aiming at monsters isn’t the primary objective. This game is a parkour game where you must move to stay alive. You can hang on ledges, double jump, climb walls. All of these skills are necessary to evade the onslaught of demons. The critical move in your arsenal is called a “blink.” With this maneuver, you can move a short distance in any direction you chose. While moving via blink, you are invulnerable. Thus, you can evade demons or their projectiles. (It also comes in handy navigating the levels.) You have two blink usages that are on a short cooldown negating the ability to spam them constantly. The other interesting thing about Seraph is the game dynamically changes difficulty with your skill. The faster you gain experience the higher the difficulty. Die in a level, and the difficulty will be adjusted down. However, the higher the difficulty, the greater the rewards. Levels are procedurally created. There are two main types of missions in each level: 1) destroy the mini-boss of the level designated as a Lieutenant or 2) destroy the fountains which are the gates from where the demons are spawning. The mini-bosses have a three stage life meter and must have their health knocked down and execute a smite on them three times before they die. The fountains must be destroyed; however, when you start attacking them they send out a distress signal and new demons spawn in the vicinity. Some levels may have a high-security door blocking your way. Find control pad that will open the door to find a plethora of chests and lockers, a power-up (increased armor, increased damage, increased experience) that is active for a short period and a checkpoint which will allow you to continue if you die. If you die in a level, you will be resurrected at the start of the level docked a significant portion of your maximum health. If you die again, you will be docked another significant portion of your maximum health. If you die a third time, it is game over. You can continue the game in the level where the last checkpoint was or start a new game. The HUD will show you how many times you have been resurrected in the level in the upper right. If you complete the level, you get a clean slate. Occasionally, there will be an area that goes on lockdown. If this happens, the area you are in will be sealed off for one minute. Demons will continually spawn for that time. If you die, the lockdown will end, and you can travel through the area without an issue. If you survive, the last demon in the area is guaranteed to drop a shard. Shards are the ultimate prize in Seraph. Monsters will occasionally drop them, and when they do they are to be coveted. Shards can be invested in the skill tree to improve Seraph’s skills either offensive, defensive, or holy attributes. By investing shards into the various branches, you can open up higher level skills. Shards can also be improved. Three shards of one level can be combined to create one shard of the next highest level. Since you can only invest one shard in a skill, you will need to improve their quality to get higher level bonuses and unlock higher tiered skills. Don’t worry; shards can be removed and upgraded at any time. So, once you get them - use them. While I have been enjoying my time with the game, it isn’t perfect. First of all, the environs all look the same. You are in this part of the prison or that part of the prison. While every five levels or so, the colors change, it is still monotonous. Second, it can be difficult to tell where walls and solid floors are located. Sometimes it looks like you can’t pass through a “wall” only to find out it is an overlay decorative element. Floors are worse. Getting blasted from underneath when you think you are standing on an impervious floor is a low blow. The best way to think about it is any "thin bridge" connecting "land masses" is likely to be porous. Third, in some of the color schemes detecting the chests and then determining if you have already opened them can be difficult. Finally, there aren’t very many different monster types and their color palette blends into the rest of the game. In my mind, none of these issues are a deal breaker. The game contains much content and replayability. The controls are spot on. An opening screen shows a picture of a controller and states “Controller Recommended.” I can’t imagine playing this without one. The action is an intense blend of parkour, dodging, and shooting. Evade and move are important tactics in staying alive. The game isn't for everyone, but if you are into these types of games does have quick and addictive gameplay.

Seraph is a rather fun platform shooter with a heavy focus on mobility and acrobatics. The game itself is simple enough: Explore each level and either kill a boss or destroy a few demon portals, at which point the exit unlocks, rinse and repeat. Between all that is the combat. The shooting is all down to autoaim leaving the player to focus on avoiding enemies and their projectiles by using the Seraph's acrobatic manoeuvres which allow her to double-jump, cling to/bounce off walls and even teleport short distances. It's easy to learn but difficult to master (if you'll excuse the cliché) and with some practice you can be backflipping and cartwheeling between enemies, blasting away without taking a scratch. It's simple yet effective and highly satisfying. Firepower is provided by the default dual pistols which have unlimited ammo, but you can also carry a second more powerful weapon with limited ammo which can be replenished from ammo chests scattered around the levels or swapped out if you find a different one in a weapon locker. Added to that you can gather experience to level up, increasing your hit points and learning passive skills. You can also gather crafting materials to unlock and improve weapons, protective charms and Miracles, which are active skills that can deal huge damage above and beyond you weapons but are limited by cooldown timers. Finally there's crystal shards that you can gather which can be used to buff further passive skills such as bonus firearm damage, reduced incoming damage or Miracle buffs to name a few. Aside from a Story mode to finish, there's also daily and weekly challenges which reward the highest scores with bonus crystal shards and crafting materials, so there's plenty to do. My only complaints are relatively minor niggles. There's no automap which isn't a big hassle as the levels aren't that large, but it would be a handy feature. There's no way to tell what secondry weapon you're carrying or how much ammo you have for it without switching to it, which can be a costly error if you're in the middle of a big firefight and it turns out your SMG is empty. There's very little variety in the levels, aside from a texture change every 4-5 levels. For the most part you'll just be hunting down the boss or the demon portals, then moving onto the next, and you'll be doing this over and over. Finally the story, such that there is, is delivered though short text-based conversations at the beginning and end of each level. While the writing is good, it does break the flow of the game, grinding the action to an awkward halt while the Seraph chats with various NPCs via a radio or telepathically. I can't help but think it would have been better as a voice over, that way players could carry on blasting and backflipping. These sections can be skipped (along with the voice logs that can be located on each level) but it feels like a missed opportunity. Overall a rather addictive little platformer with engaging mechanics. Well worth a pop at £9.99 (or your region's equivalent) though the DLC seems a little pricey. £1.99 for an alternate costume for the Seraph is a little too much like Horse Armour to me, but it's purely asthetic and you don't have to buy it if you don't want to.

You are weak as your sarcophagus opens. As you slide to the floor you realise that you had been imprisoned for over three decades. All of your guards are dead and the ship that serves as your prison is infested with hordes of daemons. You are a seraph, an angel, inhabiting the body of a human. Her name is Talia and she once agreed to let you control her. But the years have made Talia bitter. You need to restore your health and fight the daemons to free both Talia and yourself. Seraph is a platform shooter that concentrates on acrobatic skills. Aiming isn't necessary, which means you can jump, double-jump, wall-jump and otherwise focus on your movement while pressing the shoot button and automatically hit your enemies. Seraph is simply everything I love about 2D games. If you plan to play a 2D shooter this year, go for Seraph. It's great! Pros: - it's a blast - highly addictive - nice graphics - challenging but never frustrating - dynamic difficulty (difficulty rises gradually based on your skill) - tons of upgrades - different weapons - wonders - the longer you play the better the game gets - daily challenge that earn you upgrade items - weekly challenge that also earn you upgrade items - selection of upgrades influences your level of success - improved loot on higher difficulty - very good controller support Neutral: - I didn't like the music at the beginning but got used to it later. Some players love the music. Cons: - daily challenge left me with a blisters on my trigger finger - some weapons don't fire automatically. For pistols and machine guns you simple keep the button pressed. For shot-guns and rail-guns you have to keep pressing the button again and again.

I bought this game, because I loved the idea of a barefoot angel-possessed woman gunning down hordes of demons. Can a game get much better than that? Well, after having played through it all, it turns out it can. - For starters, if you die, it would be nice to start again from the level you were ACTUALLY ON, and not the previous level. Sure, you can collect a checkpoint gem that'll let you resume from that level if you die, but by the time you do so, you'll likely have already cleared most of the enemies in the level. And honestly... why have that? Why not just let the player restart from that level? The game is already challenging enough, without having that kind of punishment. - I also don't mind only being able to carry two weapons, but the default pistols shouldn't have to be one of them. Not when there are other kinds of handguns to carry. I would've been pleased to find the revolvers, if I could switch out the default pistols for them. Why can't I? I wouldn't have even minded if ammo for them was limited, provided I could find some on every level. - Those coins/rings/whatever that add to your defenses are nice, but why can't I keep them between levels? - But worst of all, is what happens when you finally beat the final boss. Not only is he a HUGE pain in the rear end to beat, but when you finally do, you're given a choice of whether to destroy him or join him. And what do you see, after making that choice? Nothing! That's right. You just press a button and it immediately cuts to credits. No image, no wall of text, nothing. What the HELL, devs?! What happens?! Does Seraph leave Talia's body and ascend to Heaven? Does she go on to annihilate the demon army/the human race? Do demons take over the world? Does God try to intervene at all? Explain, damn it! EXPLAIN! To think I actually bought THIS game, despite it being the only one on my wish list that WASN'T on sale!

This game has fluid mechanics and the movement feels fantastic. There is auto aim for the shooting so the game is more about evasion and dodges but it feels fantastic to play. I think if you had to worry about aiming it would interrupt the pacing of the game and slow it down considerably. The game is satisfying to play because you're really trying to manage satisfying momentum. If I had to describe it would be like crossing the Matrix with bullfighting. This game flew under the radar for me when it came out but I'm very glad I was able to find it. It's well worth the asking price.

Seraph is a well-done and very challenging platforming shooter that kind of makes me think of a mix of Bayonetta and an old Xbox game called Gunvalkyrie, but as a side-scroller. You also have an upgrade system like that of an action-RPG, where enemies drop resources that can be used to improve your weapons, spells ("Miracles"), and special limited-durability items that are the closest thing you get to armor. In addition, your character gains passive buffs, either from gathering the game's equivalent of experience points or from using special items called Shards, which interact with Seraph's three skill trees--Munitions, Defensive (which I recommend focusing on first, because your very limited health needs all the increases it can get) and Holy, which is a mix of offensive and defensive bonuses. Shards work similarly to combining metal in Team Fortress 2: three of Shard A makes Shard B, which is stronger; three of Shard B makes Shard C and so on, and Shard strengths and rarities are represented through colors, similarly to a loot system. The game doesn't really "have" a loot system per se, as other than finding resources and Shards that enemy Daemons drop, you are responsible for what you want to earn and upgrade. You can't make crafting decisions while you're in the middle of playing a section, but you can do so in between levels, as well as (smartly) from the main menu, which comes in handy if you know you're facing one big enemy instead of many little ones. However, you also don't have true weapon loadouts: other than your dual auto-pistols, which are always with you and are your only infinite-ammo weapon, you can carry a second weapon by gathering one from numerous lockers spread throughout the game. Which weapon you get--shotgun, assault rifle, submachine gun, railgun--is randomly generated, though some lockers might instead just offer extra ammo for the one you already have. Weapons don't have randomly generated prefixes or suffixes that determine their capabilities, so their power generally depends on your investments into upgrading their stats. Don't neglect your pistols, as they're invaluable when your stronger weapons run out of ammo. Even basic enemies can severely damage Seraph, and health pick-ups are very rare and rather meager when they do appear; in some cases these will barely replenish the equivalent of taking one hit. The game's central mechanic is its 360º evade system, whose two quickly recharging uses also function as a quadruple jump. You're meant to rely on the invincibility frames this gives you. Seraph targets enemies automatically and is generally smart enough to prioritize the close ones, though you can also lock onto them if you want the camera to focus on enemies instead of you. At times I'd like to zoom the camera out before blindly jumping into an area I can't really "scout out" beforehand. Along with replenished health, you get three lives per level, each of which having a significantly smaller maximum health than the one before it, so you effectively have 200% health spread over three lives. Lose all of those, and--this was forewarned but may turn a lot of customers away--you resurrect at the last checkpoint you activated, even if it was in a previous level. Many levels, which individually are small despite their nonlinear design, have secret areas that have these checkpoints and health/gun/ammo refills, so after you complete an area, you might not want to make a beeline for the exit without also looking for a secret checkpoint, unless you're already about to die. The game's few major boss fights thankfully auto-save at their beginnings. You can also find text logs, and for its genre the game actually bothers to tell a decent story; its writing style is flowery yet sometimes vague, but the story tries to be more complex than just a straight good-versus-evil tale despite its techno-religious motif. It's even a bit touching when it's not being cynical. These logs, which can be read during gameplay or accessed from the main menu, do a good job of setting up the complex relationships of the game's small cast, especially between Seraph and "its/their" vessel--intriguingly, but never ham-handedly, a Middle Eastern woman, whose interesting backstory brings up a lot of ethical questions. Character dialogue can be skipped but is worth reading. Even the weapons, the various Daemons, and the resources they drop have their own little bits of lore, which is a really nice effort despite the weapon designs lacking creativity. All these bits of story do a good job of explaining concepts other genre entries might take for granted: why are there Daemons, and why do you in particular want to fight them? How does gameplay death work if you're an angel? How do experience points work? Some of the Daemons, however, look like they came out of Dead Space and were then run through a grayscale filter--some more color and design variety would have been nice. The ending gives you two choices but doesn't really explain much afterward, even if I still had fun overall. Many enemies also have icons over their heads representing their abilities, but the game doesn't extensively explain those unless you look them up in the main-menu manual; the ones that really matter, however, will probably become obvious during gameplay. The procedurally generated level designs function well (except for the one time a mandatory enemy spawned inside of a wall, forcing me to exit my Survival run) but don't always have a lot of 'art' to them. Graphically there's not as much style as something like Transistor or Mark of the Ninja, but the setting concept is thoughtful and interesting. The soundtrack, which reminds me of a mix of Frozen Synapse and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, is a lot better. On smaller notes, some of the platform supports can be jumped through while others cannot (not sure why), and the "Motes" you gather sometimes look a bit too similar to the light fixtures. The single biggest reason to play the game, besides its defense mechanism, is its difficulty, numerically represented in a corner of your screen. This adapts to your playing skill and singlehandedly keeps the game fun: the early levels might seem too easy while the game calibrates, but that won't last. You can also choose starting difficulty from a few options. The main story may only take about four hours, but the last boss fight was INSANE even compared to the rest of the game (14 Nov EDIT: This difficulty got nerfed shortly after the game's launch but is still formidable) and took me yet another four hours' worth of attempts, with the difficulty never decreasing all the while. I'm not complaining--it was amusing and even somewhat welcome to see a game so utterly unapologetic about its challenge, and I most certainly never got bored. However, (this will hopefully be fixed) that last fight could use better optimization, since the bullet spam repeatedly slowed down my framerate--devastating in a high-speed game like this--and caused one of my two crashes. There's also a funny but minor glitch where Seraph's graphic got stuck in a prone position but otherwise played fine. A controller is highly recommended, as the keyboard technically works but makes directional evades a bit of a pain. Most actions can be rebound, except for pausing and (on a controller) movement and enemy focusing, though the left and right stick functions can be swapped. You also have daily and survival challenges you can do, complete with leaderboards, and some select rewards from these challenges carry over to the main game. If you perform well (e.g., top 75%/50%/etc. of players), you can get extra items. Other than some issues with the art and the game's stability, I've been very happy with this little game that takes a simple concept and keeps it exciting. Time to start New Game Plus! (Update: I don't even know how many playthroughs I've done now.)

This is proving to be one of those games where just having a positive / negative rating isn't enough. It's a slick side scrolling shooter, that has oomph to the action and responsive acrobatics - which put it on the positive side. But on the other hand - it's a rather limited experience, padded out with a grindy upgrade element, and only satisfies in small doses. It's simple and frantic fun, yet that simplicity works against it because of the repetition enforced by the need to level up. It just isn't doing enough to hold my attention and make me want to play for extended periods. Shooting is done through autoaim, so the skill in the game comes from cartwheeling / jumping / air dashing / wall jumping to avoid enemies and projectiles. You can only carry two different weapons at once, and have three special abilities. Then there's passive upgrades, improved weapons, and levelling up yourself. None of which really add any variety to the standard gameplay - they just mean you won't get your gluteus maximus handed to you on a plate quite so quickly once you've levelled up. However...levelling up takes replaying through levels over, and over, and....ooooverrrrrrrrr, and this really exposes it's limitations. What starts off as exciting quickly becomes monotonous. So much effort for so little difference, and it's not an avoidable grind as this is pretty tough even on the easiest difficulty. For some people adding a tiny amount of extra damage etc might constitute progression, but for me personally I like to feel like I'm constantly moving forward - and for a game to do that the levels have to change, enemy types have to change, fresh setpieces come around, and have boss battles with varied tactics. The game does not do any of those things, and to me it's design is the path of least effort whilst trying to appear to be deeper than it actually is. It says it isn't a roguelike, but has random levels, a tedious grind for barely discernable "differences", makes you go back several stages when you die, and eventually gets all the joy sucked out of it - which are all things I attribute to roguelike games. One for the masochists, or gamers with OCD, otherwise it gets boring. Sure - there's a story to hold all of it together and provide some impetus, but seeing as how you have to often repeat stages upon dying you'll be regularly skipping the same old chat. It's good that the developers allow you to skip it, and bad that they designed it to be so repetitive in the first place. It's a brief bit of fun, that's than artificially stuffed with insignificant padding that passes for "depth" and all the tedium that comes with it. I don't want to give this a positive review, but it's not bad either - it's just an acquired taste that doesn't appeal to me, and it's daft that Steam is so inflexible as to not be able to say "this is a bit meh! and you should know what you're getting into"

By and large one of the best running Unity action games I've played. Unfortunately a lack of interesting content and procedural variety, coupled with an MMO level of nearly imperceptible progression tied to a per centage chance enemy drop farming mechanic ultimately make the game a chore instead of an adrenalin rush. The painfully slow progression could've been overlooked entirely if the game were truly completely player skill based, but perplexingly Dreadbit chose to artificially limit the player's freedom to dodge with a two charge meter that has a cooldown period. The end result of this, in union with the built-in dynamic difficulty, is that when playing well you'll inevitably get to a point on the difficulty scale that you'll be getting hit with swarms of enemies that are simply impossible to avoid taking damage from with two dodges. This then enforces the grind, to survive *some* hits from 7.00+ difficulty enemies and to have enough DPS to avoid drawn out encounters, instead of making it a natural reward loop. After bringing this up on the forum, Dreadbit did respond to me (I will say, always, kudos to developers taking part in their distribution communities), and the game apparently did at one point give the player complete freedom of movement; the restriction on it was actually an addition! The sentiment was that you could essentially fly with unlimited dodges, which is both an empowering (read: fun) mechanical concept and fitting for an angel. Dark Souls, and the stamina meter therein, was used as a point of reference for the logic behind the dodge cooldown. The problem with that notion is From meticulously hand crafts games tailored to a steady and deliberate pace, each encounter is give and take. Seraph on the other hand is essentially a hot procedural mess once you hit that 7.00 and up difficulty mark, vomiting out rainbow colored packs of "elites" at you indefinitely, the majority of which just spam whatever special powers they spawned with. Ultimately, I simply can't abide by the decision to intentionally make a game less fun in the pursuit of emulating somebody else's mechanics, but I can't fault Dreadbit if that's the feel they're going for. As it is at the time of this review, what you see in the trailer is basically all you get. There's a couple different environment backgrounds, two objective types to clear each floor, a handful of enemies and enemy ability modifiers, a handful of consumable ammo gun types, a handful of cooldown-based powers, and a core dodging mechanic designed to shackle the player instead of free them; which is actually fitting for the plot. With all this in mind, if you really like the trailer then go for it; its far from the worst way you could spend $12.99.

TLDR: Buy it. I had no idea this game existed until I saw it released from early access today, and picked it up on a whim and have been very pleasantly surprised. It's a very slick action oriented platformer that's a ton of fun to play. If you have any interest in difficult platformers, pick this up, it's an absolute steal. Positives: Adaptive difficulty - I *love* this feature, if I'm playing well I get better rewards and things ramp up. Refined movement - Double jump and and a dash with invicibility frames really lets you flit around and dodge like a madman, when you're in the zone it's a ton of fun. No aiming - As weird as it sounds, I actually like the fact you don't have to aim, it makes concentrating 100% on movement possible. Daily/Weekly challenges - There are challenges which reward high level upgrade items in game if you do well in the rankings, which keeps things interesting and provides incentives to keep improving. Enemy/Item compendium - The pics/info on the enemies is really cool and helps provide some background to the story. Negatives: Backgrounds can be tough to differentiate - At times it's hard to tell if something is the ceiling or an opening you can jump through. Unexplained mechanics - A lot of the mechanics in the game are left up to you to figure out, the loading tips are useful but there's no manual or any detailed explanations for what everything in the game does. Summary: I love platformers and buy a ton of them, this is one of the best I've played in a long time. Highly recommended.