Marrow

About

Marrow is a single player action adventure game with horror and fantasy themes. It was developed by VincentGuff and was released on November 25, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Marrow is a single-player Horror Action game with a fabulous atmosphere and great soundtrack. Explore a menacing mountain filled with crypts, a rotted town, and a Manor, all serving as a burial site for cosmic crimes. Leap, crawl, slash, and blast through challenges, puzzles, platforming, combat, and navigation to find your lost friends and uncover noxious truths.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

70%

Audience ScoreBased on 33 reviews

atmosphere11 positive mentions

story3 negative mentions

The game features an amazing atmosphere, with excellent visuals and sound design that create a creepy and immersive experience.
Marrow offers a challenging gameplay experience that rewards perseverance, making progress feel meaningful and earned.
The level design is well thought out, with hidden secrets and puzzles that encourage exploration and critical thinking.

The game suffers from significant design flaws, including a lack of a map, limited visibility, and a punishing save system that can lead to frustrating backtracking.
Combat mechanics are often clunky and unfair, with unpredictable enemy behavior and hitbox issues that detract from the overall experience.
The absence of a coherent story and context within the game leaves players feeling disconnected from the narrative, relying instead on external sources for lore.

atmosphere
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
34%
14%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its exceptional quality, with many reviewers highlighting its immersive and creepy elements, supported by impressive sound design and music. While some players noted that the game's difficulty could be a drawback, the overall aesthetic and atmospheric presentation are considered standout features that enhance the gaming experience. Many agree that the atmosphere compensates for any gameplay flaws, making it a key aspect of the game's appeal.
- “The atmosphere in this game is absolutely amazing!”
- “Beyond that, the atmosphere is phenomenal.”
- “The atmosphere of the game is done extremely well and I adore the aesthetic throughout.”
- “The other benefits to the oppressive atmosphere is the sound design for monsters, giving a fair share of anxiety both from their first encounter and every run-in with them.”
- “The music helps support this notion, with synthesized melodies supporting a near-alien atmosphere.”
- “The atmosphere is really creepy.”
music
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
40%
15%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its atmospheric and eerie qualities that enhance the overall experience. While some players appreciate the soundtrack's ability to create a foreboding ambiance, others criticize it for being monotonous and detracting from gameplay. Overall, the soundtrack is noted as a standout feature, with requests for its release on platforms like Bandcamp and Steam.
- “Art and music are top notch.”
- “The music helps support this notion, with synthesized melodies supporting a near alien atmosphere.”
- “The music design fits perfectly to add a foreboding feeling to each area.”
- “It's an experience similar to finding out that your drink got spiked and you are spinning in circles of the worst dance floor to ever exist, you shriek for help while drowning yourself in loud music and noises --- then someone kicks your nuts.”
- “A game designed by someone who knows jack-shit about game design, that isn't fun, has a monotonous soundtrack that goes on and on and on... even if the theme of weird (almost-lovecraftian) horror is there (in terms of art, and barely), all the other negatives I listed makes it a no-buy for anyone who wants to actually stay sane and not descend into madness for real - even at deep, deep discount - do not buy!”
- “You'd be better off just listening to the soundtrack or watching someone play through the game.”
gameplay
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some praising its nostalgic metroidvania elements and intense atmosphere, while others criticize it for frustrating mechanics, such as punishing save points and a reliance on trial and error. Many players found the combat challenging but infuriating, and some felt that essential gameplay features were missing, detracting from the overall experience. Overall, while the game excels in presentation and creativity, its gameplay design has left many players disappointed.
- “For all that is worth and speaking with total nostalgia, the dev absolutely nailed several aspects of those games in visuals, gameplay, progression, and most importantly --- the feeling; like you are playing one of the first attempts at making a metroidvania ever made.”
- “Marrow is intensely imaginative and demanding, and every design decision is carefully crafted to use the gameplay to cause fear, stress, dread, etc. It's one of the most laser-focused games one can try.”
- “The fantastic and creepy art style drew me in, and the challenging gameplay kept me hooked until the end.”
- “You'll be flipping coins at the mercy of RNG, and this isn't good gameplay design.”
- “The game is a bit weak in regard to gameplay, with combat being terrifying in the sense that if you die, you're sent back to a save point an hour back, becoming especially infuriating when you would find a save point not too far off, something that was quite common later in the game.”
- “There are gameplay elements that I would have expected from an action/platformer (health meter, map, etc.) that aren't there.”
graphics
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The graphics of the game are highly praised for their nostalgic and immersive qualities, effectively capturing the essence of early metroidvania titles. The art style is described as fantastic and creepy, contributing to a unique atmosphere that blends cosmic horror with puzzle-platforming elements. Overall, the visuals are noted for their ability to evoke a sense of unease and intrigue, making the game visually compelling and engaging.
- “The visuals, sound design, and setting are insanely good, doing a great job of making it feel like you are slowly descending into a location beyond human understanding, where people went too far.”
- “The fantastic and creepy art style drew me in, and the challenging gameplay kept me hooked until the end.”
- “The atmosphere of the game is done extremely well, and I adore the aesthetic throughout.”
- “The atmosphere of the game is done extremely well and I adore the aesthetic throughout.”
- “The art style really drew me to this game.”
- “Recommending this if you miss some unique and arthouse-esque + cosmic horror aesthetics and stories.”
story
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The game's story is described as mysterious and intriguing, with some players appreciating the subtlety of its narrative revealed through environmental storytelling. However, many reviewers criticize the lack of a clear plot and the absence of guidance, leading to frustration with the overall experience. While some elements hint at a deeper lore, the execution feels unfinished and unpolished, leaving players wanting more clarity and engagement.
- “A good game with not-so-intense but acceptable fights with monsters, cool sound design, and quite a mysterious story.”
- “There's a bizarre storyline told with nothing but what you see in the backgrounds, but as you progress, you will start to see it unfold and begin to understand it, especially when you reach the manor section of the game.”
- “If you ever wanted to get punished for trying to play the game, with clunky controls, poor combat, a Metroidvania/Dark Souls checkpoint/save system without a map to navigate, an HP bar that isn't visible at all times (you have to press F to see it, and then it goes on magical cooldown, which is also non-visible), zero story (like seriously - nothing, not even an obtuse introduction) - then oh boy are you in luck, because Marrow ticks all the aforementioned boxes!”
- “It seems like Fever Dream Gameworks wanted to go the FromSoftware route of backstory and watch from the sidelines as the player base discussed and interpreted the game's lore with each other.”
- “- Unfinished, unpolished game, deadly silent devs, no story at all, bad clunky platforming, no map for crying out loud (in a Metroidvania!!!)”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The stability of the game is hindered by buggy coding, particularly affecting the functionality of the magical orb, which fails to operate as intended.
- “You are supposed to use the magical orb to see where it is, but due to buggy coding, this doesn't work as it should.”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The game's optimization has been criticized for several issues, including a problematic right-click feature that unintentionally restarts the game, frequent stuttering during camera panning, and unreliable audio cues for key gameplay elements like secret bosses and collectibles.
- “To name but a few, being able to right-click at the edge of the game's screen causes a 'restart game' dropdown box to appear (which unfortunately I can confirm does restart your game). The constant stuttering that occurs when the camera tries to pan, or the audio cues for important secret bosses and collectibles, don't often work correctly.”
- “The optimization is severely lacking, leading to frequent frame drops and unresponsive controls during critical moments.”
- “I often experience long loading times and crashes, which disrupt the flow of gameplay and make it frustrating to progress.”