Preview: Arboria (Steam Early Access)

Begin your journey in this dark fantasy rogue-lite. As a warrior, a Yotun, descend into the ever-changing Durnar and uncover the mysteries of your tribe. Use a variety of Symbiotic Weapons to fight enemies and mutate to become even stronger

Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• 5347mb Download size
• Steam achievements.
• Controller support.
• Graphics-window mode, resolution, v-sync, frame rate, texture/shadow/effects/foliage quality, motion blur, view distance, AA, HDR.
• Opening tutorial section.
• Good voice acting.
• Roguelike element. Every run you choose a Yotun to spawn as. Each has unique stats and abilities.
• Essence-find in the world and combine with weapons to imbue them.
• Dark souls like combat.
• Can rebind controls on the keyboard.
• 3D action-adventure gameplay.
• Elements are in play, a chart shows which elements are stronger and weaker against each other.
• Collectibles throughout to find and give lore or blueprints for crafting.
• Uses Rogue Legacy system for new characters by giving them random stats and random ailments like Colourblind or can’t see etc.
• Every run makes your next character stronger thanks to pickups and progress.
• Gameplays out over a series of floors with the map uncovering as you play.
• Lock room-checkpoint between floors that allow you to deposit currency, level up your character, and maybe interact with random NPC.
• Vero-currency.
• OK loading times.
• All set underground in a plant infested world.
• Heal roots to get new upgrades and items for the village.
• Village-main hub where you start a run and can interact with people or buy new weapons/equipment.
• Carft/combine elements.
• Godz-you can please/anger them with your offerings of Veri. This will affect how the game world will be. Kind of like a difficulty modifier.
• Has an Oddworld vibe to it.

Cons:

• Mouse cursor stays on the screen.
• The tutorial is very basic and later tutorial pop-ups are just pages of text.
• A small pool of enemies and the first few hours are the same lots over and over.
• The map is too small even when you bring it up on the screen.
• You have to click into every weapon and compare it to see if its any good.
• Got stuck in the scenery a lot.
• Healing roots or opening a big chest triggers a wave-based mode all the time.
• Every death gives you the multitude of cutscenes (can be skipped but it’s still slow).
• Interacting with objects or skipping a cutscene is a case of holding down a button.
• Controls have a learning curve to them.
• No weapon preview so your never sure what you have.
• Slow to drink health.
• Enemies hit hard and with small health and health items.
• The lore is in collectibles and with it being so far apart and random, you never feel connected or part of the world.