Abermore
- March 22, 2022
- Four Circle Interactive
Even Abermore's cult of beetle worshippers would draw the line at this many bugs.
Get on Steam"Abermore" is a first-person stealth RPG set in the unique, neo-Edwardian city of Abermore. As "The Unhanged Man," players have 18 days to prepare for a daring heist by undertaking countless unique heists, meeting strange characters, and assembling a ragtag crew with special abilities. Each campaign is different, offering new stories, spoils, and paths to the ultimate score, "The Feast of the Lucky Few."
PC
Windows
Reviews
- Abermore features a unique setting with interesting worldbuilding and character writing that some players find engaging.
- The game includes creative mechanics, such as a procedural level generation system and a tarot card system that adds variety to gameplay.
- Despite its flaws, some players enjoy the core gameplay loop and find moments of fun in stealth mechanics and exploration.
- The game is plagued by numerous bugs and glitches, including soft locks, broken achievements, and severe performance issues that hinder playability.
- Many players feel that Abermore was released in an unfinished state, lacking essential quality assurance and polish, making it feel more like an early access title.
- The level design is often criticized for being lackluster and broken, with issues like missing geometry, poor AI behavior, and a confusing tutorial that detracts from the overall experience.
- story42 mentions
- 7 % positive mentions
- 86 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The story of the game is criticized for being poorly written and filled with bugs that disrupt gameplay, leading to frustrating experiences such as soft-locks and mission failures. While some players appreciate the unique worldbuilding and atmosphere, many express disappointment over the lack of depth and coherence in the narrative, as well as the absence of voice acting. Overall, the story struggles to engage players amidst the technical issues and inconsistent mission progression.
“The small nuggets of story and worldbuilding paint a picture of a magic realist place.”
“I really like the art style, atmosphere, story, and characters.”
“[abermore] is the story of a thief, dreaming of building up his reputation to the status of legend in a world that is not without reminding you of Dishonored.”
“The story constantly lore dumps and you can't skip unless you want to spam the spacebar.”
“The aesthetic of the world and the general ideas are great, but the details of the story are absolute garbage and I cannot deal with that when all I want is some tense immersive sim thieving in a magitech setting.”
“But when you need to restart the tutorial multiple times and the first mission too, both due to game-breaking bugs, you can’t help but feel that either nobody actually worked on the game or tested it or that sometimes, someone, somewhere did something absolutely horrible with it.”
- gameplay20 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The gameplay features a mix of innovative mechanics and enjoyable moment-to-moment interactions, particularly in stealth and movement, but is marred by numerous bugs, soft-locks, and a lack of content. While some players appreciate the unique systems and energetic gameplay, many criticize the clunky design, repetitive environments, and excessive exposition that detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the game shows potential with its creative ideas, but significant technical issues and design flaws hinder its execution.
“The movement feels pretty good and stealth mechanics work well.”
“The gameplay integrates some interesting elements like tarot cards that give your character special abilities or crafting from the items you loot in-game and food to eat to replenish your stamina.”
“It has so many unique systems and the gameplay loop is solid.”
“You can soft-lock the game at several points, some mechanics straight up don't work, the game is generally lacking in content and the story... well it could almost create a new term: 'aberlore'.”
“Clunky menu design and an overdesigned stamina system that has mechanics to it but never actually utilizes them at all.”
“I quit when I had to go through two completely empty 'corridor' areas, each with their own loading screen before entering them, before I could start getting to any sort of gameplay after dealing with a ten-page prologue with maybe a minute's worth of gameplay that should have been a skippable tutorial.”
- graphics9 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the unique art style and atmospheric design, while others criticize the repetitive asset reuse and lack of graphical options. Many users feel that the overall execution lacks polish, comparing it unfavorably to other titles and suggesting it may appear as an asset flip. Overall, the visuals seem to fall short of expectations, leaving players wanting more detail and variety.
“I really like the art style, atmosphere, story, and characters.”
“Graphically speaking, while it is certainly its own, the level design and the main city are definitely inspired by the Dishonored series.”
“The aesthetic of the world and the general ideas are great.”
“The art style is boring and assets are reused so much throughout the entire game that I experienced the same rooms more than I experienced actual unique gameplay content.”
“The graphics and art direction are all over the place.”
“Any graphics card out there, even that 1060 potato that Steam reports as being owned by 'everyone', can handle much higher details than this game has.”
- stability6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game is plagued by numerous bugs and glitches, with players noting a level of instability comparable to that of Cyberpunk 2077. Many report that the lack of clear tutorials and functional systems further exacerbates the experience, leading to significant frustration. While there is hope for future fixes, the current state of the game is considered remarkably unstable.
“The bugs and glitches can be cataloged so extremely clearly that it’s incredible that this game even got released, let alone past playtesting.”
“It's remarkably buggy, badly tutorialized, systems vary from nonsensical to nonfunctional, and you can't even see the controls in-game.”
“A catalog of bugs and glitches, on par with Cyberpunk 2077.”
- optimization5 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with performance issues leading to inconsistent frame rates, often capped at 60fps, even on high-end hardware. Players report significant softlocks and various glitches, suggesting that the developers have implemented questionable hacks to manage performance. While there is hope for future improvements, the current state of optimization is deemed abysmal and detracts from the overall experience.
“This game is definitely what I wanted; it's like getting a custom-made game for myself. I love it, but unfortunately, there are some downsides. The optimizations are all over the place; I get 50 frames, then 144, then capped at 60, and then 90. This is not on a low-end or mid-end PC; it's on a high-end PC with a 3080 and i9 9900k, 16GB RAM at 1080p resolution.”
“So I can definitely see the devs fixing optimizations and glitches. If any of the devs see this review, I can show screenshots of the glitches I faced.”
“Performance is also abysmal and appears to be capped at 60fps.”
“After spending a few hours trying to figure out the performance issues this game has and identifying the source of the softlock in the tutorial level (which I have informed the developer about), I have decided otherwise regarding my enjoyment of the game.”
“The abysmal performance, even with the ridiculous hacks that developers have implemented (like disabling shadow casting for almost all surfaces and setting a far plane for the camera to a distance of less than 100m), is disappointing. As a game developer myself, I know that Unity is capable of handling a game like this and much more.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability due to its beautiful, randomly generated environments, which provide a fresh experience with each playthrough. Players particularly enjoy the stealth mechanics and the attention to detail, enhancing their overall engagement with the game.
“This game is beautifully randomly generated, which means infinite replayability for me. Stealth is my favorite genre, and I also love the small details, like when you get close to walls and your character puts their hands on them.”
“Though I cannot speak to its state at launch, it is far more playable than most of these reviews would have you believe.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is highly praised for its engaging art style and storytelling, creating a tense and creepy environment that enhances the stress of missions, particularly in the context of thievery.
“I really like the art style, atmosphere, story, and characters.”
“When on a mission, the atmosphere is tense and creepy, making the stressful job of thievery even more nerve-wracking.”
“When on a mission, the atmosphere is tense and creepy - making the stressful job of thievery even more nerve-wracking.”
- music2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, with praise for its quality; however, some users feel that the addition of ambient music could enhance the overall experience.
“Nice job on the sound and music!”
“The soundtrack really enhances the overall experience.”
“The music perfectly complements the gameplay and sets the right mood.”
“Wouldn't have hurt to have some ambient music, right?”
“The soundtrack feels repetitive and lacks variety.”
“The music doesn't match the game's atmosphere, making it feel disjointed.”
- humor1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Abermore features a captivating world populated by intriguing and humorous characters, contributing to its overall charm and entertainment value.
“Abermore is a fascinating world with interesting and funny characters.”
“The humor in this game is cleverly woven into the storyline, making every quest a delightful experience.”
“I found myself laughing out loud at the witty dialogue and hilarious situations the characters find themselves in.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, with excessive and poorly crafted exposition detracting from the overall enjoyment of the gameplay.
“The little bit of gameplay felt nice, but the tedious and poorly written fantasy novel's worth of exposition is not worth it.”
“Grinding feels like a never-ending chore rather than an engaging part of the game.”
“The repetitive tasks required to progress make the experience feel more like a job than a game.”
