Shattered: Tale of the Forgotten King

“I streamed this game and put it on 'streamer mode' for about half of the playthrough, but I could barely tell the difference when I turned it on because music occurred somewhat randomly at times and sometimes would just stop and not keep going.”

“The music consists of some very relaxing ambient sounds, and I mostly like it, but sometimes it is just too low or there is no music/sound at all.”

“But when the OST requires to give you an emotional vibe, it falls flat.”

“As it progresses, you are forced into camera-locked, Crash Bandicoot-style side-scrolling platforming segments that break the atmosphere.”

“The atmosphere of the game itself is really well done, with stark differences in visual identity between the different levels, a very interesting main character/narrator duo, and a story that you have to understand piece by piece by exploring and interacting with a lot of objects.”

“The atmosphere and the intensity that it built up initially is going to make me keep coming back for more.”

“So many moments in my playthrough bordered on maddening, not because of the challenges of the game themselves (I love challenging games and I devour them in one bite), but due to movement glitches, collision errors (so many...), ludicrous hit-boxes and the generally unfair or unbelievably backwards-stupid design of some enemies, of camera movements in many spaces and of combat dynamics - sum everything up and at times the only valid strategy is praying for good luck.”

“In general, the game suffers from a lack of polish: I experienced a couple of crashes, several collision issues, getting stuck in geometry, falling through geometry, missing background music, stacking background music, bizarre physics glitches that seem to consistently occur when fighting on sloped terrain resulting in - for the lack of a better word, enemies or the player yeeting themselves - sometimes across comically large distances or straight to oblivion.”

“I can't recommend this game as it is now; it could become great in the future, but now it does not work well, it's filled with glitches.”

“All that I can say about the open world level is that it’s bland, large, boring, and poorly optimized, but the dungeons are by far the best part of STOTFK.”

“In addition to that, there are two areas that suffer from severe optimization issues, where even on a 5900X & 3080 I experienced very significant drops in framerates.”

“- Poor performance in specific areas, even on high-end hardware.”

“The aesthetic, writing, character design, and art style are all top-notch, but unfortunately, the game falls apart where it matters most - gameplay.”

“The character design of the wanderer is striking and well done, but alas, the enemies, though well designed, tend to get a bit samey.”

“While the character design is impressive, the overall character development feels lacking and fails to engage the player.”

“Despite the interesting story, I don't see that much replay value just to see another ending that may just be a disappointment or a mute cutscene, since there aren't enough other factors gameplay-wise.”

“This game has no New Game+ which hampers its replayability.”

“The lack of diverse gameplay elements makes it hard to justify multiple playthroughs.”

“I understand the 'you need to explore and learn on your own' though, it's just a tedious thing in my aspect running around with a single half heal.”

“Tedious platforming in essential progression areas (the kind where you feel frustrated instead of the rewarding feeling kind).”

“Great game, but a lot of grinding.”