Dysmantle Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · January 19, 2022

Our Dysmantle Review has us leaving the safety of our shelter after the long long years event, a brave new old world awaits. A world inhabited by nasty and vile creatures. A world with no other human soul to be seen. A world with nature in reigns now. A world that’s about to get even worse because I am in it!

Dysmantle Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
1.6GB Download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Own in-game achievements.
Drop-in amd out local co-op.
Graphic settings – bloom filter, film grain, vignette, depth of field, and UI scale slider.
Gameplay settings-screen shake, freeze frame effect, text show duration slider, tutorials, rotate mini-map, temperature units, clock format, run toggle, and game log events and auto-lock enemies, Co-op friendly fire, rotate camera automatically.
Accessibility settings – emojis, text show duration slider, colorblind mode, reduce blinking effects and reduce Trypophobia triggers.
Can rebind controls.
Controller settings – run toggle, auto-lock to enemies, vibration, and Invert axis.
Four save slots.
Skippable cutscenes.
In-game cutscenes.
A 3D world with full camera control.
Tutorial icons.
Survival gameplay.
Upgrade your gear so you can break bigger and stronger items.
Campfire-manage inventory and upgrade gear. Will replenish health but also respawn all enemies.
Earn EXP from gathering materials.
Everything has a health bar and shows the damage done.
Medals-kind of like achievements in that they are awarded once you have done milestones like walk X amount of miles or upgrade a weapon so far, each has a counter of progress.
Find points of interest and fill in your log.
Bestiary that shows details on all encountered enemies.
Progress bar along with total time played.
It all runs very smoothly.
Earn EXP from just depositing resources into storage.
Can craft with items in the inventory.
Collectible radio shows to listen to.
Play how you want.
Can interact with the world like open/close doors or search through cupboards and fridges and the like.
Death-you drop everything but can come back and loot your body.
You respawn at the last camp used.
Hold down the attack button for ease.
Combat uses a lock-on system with heavy and light attacks.
Link towers–activate to fill in the map. You can unlock gates from the link towers.
Massive map.
Uses a lot of the mechanics found in a Dark Souls type game.
Save and exit.
Earn EXP and level up to unlock new skills via the massive skill tree that covers outfits, supplies, tools, and miscellaneous. When leveling up you can also get a choice of 3 new skills/abilities.
Big boss battles.
Enemies will have an alert bar and fill up as they see or hear you.
Dark Souls-inspired zombie survival game.
Absolute time killer.
New enemies are unveiled over time.
You can hunt wildlife, gather from the wilderness.
Craft new weapons and items.
The world changes as you get new abilities.
Addictive.
Day/night cycle.
When you need to use resources it takes from the storage.
Sleep – craft a sleeping bag to advance time, upgrade it to add more sleep lengths.
Excellent voice work.
In-game images are used for the cutscenes.
The collection will show percentages of progress, encountered enemies, etc.
Craft a shovel to randomly dig around for resources and loot.
Resources and loot have rarity levels.
Good progression loop.
The satisfying noise it makes as you bank your resources.

Dysmantle Review Cons:

You drop everything into the inventory chest.
You will spend ages breaking and storing everything as it has exp attached to it. This means you spend a lot longer doing mundane tasks than advancing the story.
Can’t zoom into the map.
Still has a PC setting for what happens when you minimize the game window.
No tooltip text for the settings.
When you are not upgraded enough to break something it keeps banging that text up on the screen.
You never feel sure as to what you can and cannot break.
No online Co-op.
Enemies hit way too hard at the start.
Camps are not just discovered and used, you have to be so far in the story for it to unlock or do a specific task.
Very slow and sloppy combat at least at first it is.