Fraymakers
- January 18, 2023
- Team Fray
Get on Steam"Fraymakers" is a local and online multi-player platform fighting game, featuring customizable characters, stages, and modes from popular indie games. With easy-to-learn mechanics and full movesets, it offers fun for both casual and competitive players. Despite its promising features, the game is currently poorly optimized with bugs and rollback netcode for smooth online experience. The colorful visuals, delightful music, and irreverent humor add to its overall appeal.
Mac OS
Nintendo Switch
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- The game has a solid foundation with fun and fluid gameplay mechanics, making it enjoyable for platform fighter fans.
- The character designs and assists are unique and add depth to the gameplay, enhancing the overall experience.
- The modding potential is fantastic, allowing players to create and share custom content, which can significantly expand the game's replayability.
- The game currently lacks content, with only four playable characters and unfinished animations, making it feel incomplete.
- The online experience is plagued by lag and performance issues, making matches frustrating and often unplayable.
- The user interface and control options are clunky and not intuitive, leading to a less enjoyable experience overall.
- gameplay222 mentions
- 47 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Fraymakers is generally praised for its unique mechanics, such as the assist system and air dash, which add depth and strategy to the platform fighter genre. While many players find the core gameplay fun, fast-paced, and engaging, there are significant concerns regarding performance issues, limited character diversity, and the overall lack of content at this stage. Despite these drawbacks, the game shows promise for improvement, especially with its modding capabilities and potential for future updates.
“The assist mechanic is a welcome addition to the platform fighter genre and gives way to a lot of unique combo and stage control potentials.”
“Incredibly fun gameplay that mixes in the good aspects of most platform fighters, plus the customization is amazing and surprisingly friendly for someone with zero coding knowledge.”
“The unique airdash and airdash cancelling, assist mechanic, and one-sided shields opens up new offensive combo routes and interesting ways of defensive play that make Fraymakers a one-of-a-kind experience.”
“This game has nothing going for it aside from frustrating ledge mechanics, poor input registering, horrible online, as well as bringing nothing new to the table aside from directly copying Smash Bros and traditional fighters with one-sided shields and assists.”
“Currently I cannot say this game is a good experience; the game has good controls, yes, and the gameplay is perfect, but... the netcode is so bad and the frame drops in single player are bad too.”
“The training is literally just a normal match with a level 0 CPU that only tries to recover, which is actively kind of painful for a game with so much potential mechanically; the replay system doesn't work particularly well with the online functionality that's there, and there's really nothing else.”
- optimization82 mentions
- 4 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 41 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with players reporting inconsistent performance, frequent stuttering, and issues with netcode that hinder online play. While some improvements have been noted following recent updates, many still find the game unplayable in multiplayer due to these ongoing performance problems. As it is in early access, there is hope for future optimization, but current performance issues significantly detract from the overall experience.
“Performance has improved 10x with the newest update.”
“I do have to say the content in the base game is a little lackluster and some of the animations are unfinished, but I believe once early access progresses more, the performance and the overall polish of the game will be way better.”
“Overall I'd still recommend the game but might consider waiting for some optimization updates.”
“The netcode/overall performance of the game makes online unplayable for me and many others.”
“Combine this with lots of performance issues, it can be a struggle for some people to run this game well.”
“The performance issues make it hard for the rollback netcode to do its job, so it's nearly impossible to get a lagless match at the moment.”
- music80 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received widespread praise for its quality and variety, with many reviewers highlighting the excellent remixes of indie classics and the overall engaging soundtrack. While some players expressed a desire for custom menu music, the majority found the tracks to be energetic and fitting for the gameplay, enhancing the overall experience. Overall, the music is considered a standout feature, contributing significantly to the game's appeal.
“The soundtrack has a good mix of everything and really does a great job of remastering so many indie classics. I'm really excited to see the soundtrack continue to grow as more stages are added.”
“The music is also extremely kickass, and fitting for a fast-paced platform fighter.”
“From well polished gameplay, beautiful spritework, epic music, and incredible indie game representation, this is certainly a title not to miss.”
“I thought I would love the music from the trailers and stuff, but in practice it's kind of grating and feels like I'm playing a very cheap game. Definitely not fixable, but might be fixable just on my end in my own head.”
“The only really good thing about the game is the presentation and the music.”
“This game needs to have custom menu music.”
- graphics66 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their impressive pixel art style, vibrant character designs, and smooth animations, which contribute to an engaging visual experience. However, some users express concerns about the accessibility of this detailed art style for modding and the game's performance, noting issues with frame rates and unfinished graphics. Overall, while the visuals are a strong selling point, there are calls for improvements in stability and content to enhance the gaming experience.
“The graphics in Fraymakers are truly impressive and bring the characters and world to life in a vibrant and exciting way.”
“The artwork in this game is amazing!!!”
“Amazing game feel, stunning graphics/animations, banger OST, fun mechanics, and an absolutely fantastic future for the modding scene.”
“In the meantime, Rivals 2 and Combo Devils will both probably be done in the next year with much better graphics and gameplay for both.”
“The edges of stages are made less clear in the name of the art style.”
“I'm well above the minimum graphical requirements and the recommended specs, but the game on default settings went to 45 fps in my testing and it would often stutter and dip lower, which isn't really acceptable for a fighting game.”
- stability26 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game currently suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent bugs, glitches, and online connectivity problems that lead to stuttering and freezing. Many users express frustration with these issues, deeming the game unfinished and not worth its price until substantial updates are made. While some players find the game enjoyable, the overall consensus is that its stability detracts from the experience.
“Even when you do manage to find someone to play online with, the game stutters and freezes, which can completely ruin the experience.”
“The game is far too buggy right now to be worth anywhere near 20 dollars.”
“And everything I don't like or think should be in the game will most likely be fixed within coming updates, but at the moment I have to give this game a negative review and I cannot recommend it due to how, while I like it, it's just entirely unfinished with glitches and lag being very prominent.”
- humor24 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is widely praised, with players enjoying its funny custom characters and community-generated content. Many find the game to be hilarious, featuring amusing elements like quirky animations and entertaining music. Overall, the comedic aspects contribute significantly to the game's fun and engaging experience.
“Awesome, hilarious fun with tons of community fueled content.”
“Very funny game, can't wait to see Fraymakers in the future.”
“Groovy music and funny characters.”
- character development12 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is highlighted by its colorful and detailed character designs, which are visually appealing and distinct across different titles. The assist system and character modding potential add depth, although current workshop offerings are lacking. Overall, the game successfully combines unique character designs with extensive movesets, showcasing a strong emphasis on character individuality and gameplay mechanics.
“The colorful and detailed character designs are a treat to look at, and the special effects and environmental designs are also visually stunning.”
“Personally, I'm a fan of it - ironically I'm not the biggest fan of any Smash game themselves, but a game with a full set of grabs, tilts, shields, parries, etc. surprisingly feels like a bit of a rarity, and while other games work well with the reduced design space, I've always thought that good character design and larger movesets don't exactly have to be mutually exclusive.”
“And I think Fraymakers proves that well - Orcane isn't their character, but out of the three featured, Commander Video is an entertaining enough entry-level character with some added unique spice in the form of a jump-cancelled slide, and the remaining two characters I think are shining examples of unique character design.”
- story12 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's current state lacks a developed story, with users expressing a desire for a more comprehensive narrative and additional content in future updates. Concerns about the game's early access status and potential security risks related to external tools have also been raised, indicating a need for caution among players. Overall, the absence of a substantial story mode is a significant drawback for many reviewers.
“Once it is fully updated with a nice roster, more stages, and a story mode, I can see myself spending hours playing.”
“---{ story }---”
“☑ no story”
“Another thing I want to add is the fray tools. When I try to go to the website, my antivirus software catches that the link is a phishing link (aka ransomware, spyware, etc. were detected on the website). Considering this game is early access and a lot of the animations aren't even there and are instead just storyboard art, I'd be careful anyone who went to get the fray tools and would probably check your stuff. There is a good chance this game might turn out to be a scam to get you.”
“You can play as a storyboard; honestly, what else can you ask for?”
- replayability6 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is currently limited, as most available mods are simple reskins and lack variety, leading to a quick sense of boredom. While online play offers a more engaging experience, the overall content is sparse, suggesting that future updates may enhance replay value.
“Edit 3: online is way more playable.”
“Though you can easily mod the game using the workshop to add more playable characters, assists, and stages, almost all of the mods are simple reskins, and there's not that much of them either, causing it to get boring really quickly.”
“It'll probably get more content later on, but for now, this game has very little replay value.”
“Online play is way more engaging.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Players express that the grinding in the game is excessively time-consuming, suggesting that it requires an unrealistic amount of effort akin to having a second life to fully engage with it.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users express a sense of disappointment and guilt regarding the game's emotional impact, feeling that it fails to resonate or compete with rival titles, leading to a decision to return it.
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Users express concerns about the monetization strategy, emphasizing the need for developers to address issues related to it, as it is a crucial aspect of the game's appeal.
