Sundered Beta Preview
2017 has seen a great first half of the year for Metroidvania fans. From the charming retro aesthetic of Alwa’s Awakening to the gorgeous hand-drawn animations of Hollow Knight, 2017 started strong for the genre and shows no signs of quitting. Now Metroidvania fans can get pumped for Sundered from Thunder Lotus Games, creators of the critically lauded Jotun. The bar has been set pretty high, will Sundered have what it takes to compete?
As it stands, the beta for Sundered provides you with a barebones experience in comparison to what the final product aims to offer. Featuring a fan favorite Lovecraftian setting it boasts plenty of eldritch horrors but no story yet. Thunder Lotus is currently in the process of doing voice over work for the story so while we can’t get into it yet it’s nice to know that we’ll have some surprises in hand for when the game releases. This doesn’t leave us empty handed however as the gameplay stands out plenty fine on its own.
You play as Eshe and like in any Metroidvania, she starts weakly with a basic electro-sword attack, a jump, and a roll. The sword, while largely ineffective early in, does have the advantage of sounding like a lightsaber and that’s always good fun. Back on topic, Eshe doesn’t stay in that weakened state for long. Classic Metroidvania abilities are yours to gain and owing to Sundered‘s added rogue-lite status, a rather large upgrade tree. You’ll gain access to an electro-shield, a double jump, and a cannon to help you along and while Metroidvanias do allow for some variations in the way we explore, there is still a ‘natural’ route to follow, usually the path of least resistance. Sundered leads you along this path nicely allowing you to use your new abilities to open up the world before you.
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“Sundered has real potential to be an extremely engaging and entertaining game.”
If there’s any bone to be picked with these three abilities, it’s that the shield doesn’t quite fall into the typical pattern of upgrades giving access to more areas. It’s a pure survivability upgrade. While immensely useful, it might be better suited as part of the standard gear at the start. The same could almost be said for the double jump, as well. While it certainly does make opening up new areas easier, a determined player can use the momentum gained from sword swings in the air to inch just a bit higher to places that are probably only intended to be reached with the double jump. I didn’t test it out on every single double jump scenario in the beta, but the ones I did I was able to pass with this method.
Enemies and canisters you encounter can drop shards which are spent in the aforementioned skill tree. Along the branches towards those ability upgrades are general upgrades to health, armor, damage and luck. This is also another reason to consider moving the shield to the ‘standard equipment’ pile, as it can be upgraded through all other branches just like the other basics. Rounding off the skill tree are perks that can add an additional augment to gameplay. Of those, the shield overcharge seemed to be the best way to go. Others, while useful had drawbacks that made them far less attractive options. More health elixir drops at the cost of reduced shard drops or double the cannon ammo but at a 50% damage reduction weren’t very enticing.
Speaking of enemies, the eldritch horrors that Eshe faces aren’t really the story here so much as how they are encountered. While there is the odd enemy encounter or two through typical means, the bulk of the combat comes to you in a horde. The coming horde seems to build over time and once you hear a gong, best be prepared. It’s the signal that all hell has been unleashed. Depending on the strength of the horde, and your current abilities, standing and fighting isn’t always the wisest option… sometimes you run… fast. The general enemy population, however, isn’t the toughest bunch in the world and most can be defeated with a few swings of the sword. Enter the mini-bosses. Obviously far tougher than the standard baddie, they will require more effort and utilization of the roll mechanic, along with using the environment to your advantage. While they aren’t exactly overwhelmingly difficult on their own, they’re also accompanied by large hordes as well. Things can and do get a bit chaotic trying to evade the one that will truly hurt when they hit while also attempting to thin out the herd.
Defeating these mini-bosses will reward you with a special fragment that when enough are collected (three in the beta) can be used to corrupt one of your abilities. After defeating all three mini-bosses my double jump gained a new trick; it added a transformation to some sort of winged creature which allowed for some hovering to be done. While it didn’t seem all too useful at the moment, it will most likely be important later on as the beta expands further. There will also be multiple endings and it’s not much of a stretch to see these ‘corruptions’ changing possible outcomes as well.
So what’s the prognosis? Sundered has real potential to be an extremely engaging and entertaining game. Keeping in mind that there will likely be plenty of changes made between now and the game’s final release, some of the more imbalanced quirks will probably be worked out. Collecting enough shards to fill up the skill tree can be a bit of a grind, for example, but is something that will certainly be tinkered with. There are occasional stutters, but they are far fewer than what could be found in Hollow Knight at release (both hand-drawn Metroidvanias built on Unity). It’ll be interesting to see how it plays as more areas are added to the lone area available now. There’s a slight worry that it might almost be too much, but as long as they don’t stray too far from the level design in area one then it should be fine. Sundered certainly looks like a game that is well worth keeping your eye on.
*** PC Beta key provided by the publisher ***
