Source of Madness

63%
Game Brain Score Based on 397 reviews
  • graphics
  • gameplay
  • atmosphere
Source of Madness Game Cover
I found myself more enamored with the idea of playing Source of Madness than I did with the game itself.
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"Source of Madness" is a rogue-like action game set in a Lovecraftian-inspired world. Players will face nightmarish creatures and bosses, using a variety of weapons and abilities to survive. The game features procedurally generated levels, providing a unique experience with each playthrough. Explore the ever-changing landscapes, uncover hidden secrets, and unlock new abilities to progress through the game's challenging encounters.

  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • Play​station 4
  • Play​station 5
  • Steam Deck
  • Windows
  • Xbox One
  • Xbox Series X|S
  • Play​Station
  • Xbox
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

63%
Audience ScoreBased on 397 reviews
graphics43 positive mentions
grinding10 negative mentions
  • The game features a unique and visually stunning art style that captures the essence of Lovecraftian horror.
  • The combat, while initially confusing, becomes engaging as players learn to adapt to the unpredictable enemy movements and utilize various spells.
  • The procedurally generated enemies and environments provide a fresh experience with each run, enhancing replayability.
  • The controls can feel floaty and imprecise, making it difficult to navigate and engage in combat effectively.
  • Many players find it hard to distinguish between enemies, projectiles, and the environment, leading to frustrating moments during gameplay.
  • The game lacks a clear tutorial or guidance on mechanics, leaving players confused about abilities, upgrades, and enemy behaviors.
  • graphics91 mentions

    The game's graphics have received mixed reviews, with many praising its unique and eerie art style that effectively captures a Lovecraftian atmosphere. While some players find the visuals stunning and immersive, others criticize them for being overly complex or muddled, which can detract from gameplay clarity. Overall, the art direction is seen as a standout feature, though it may come at the cost of gameplay coherence for some players.

    • “The graphics are eerie, a Lovecraftian dream, with jiggly flesh and a dark, grim theme.”
    • “The visuals are stunning, almost unsettling.”
    • “The game is just graphically beautiful, and captures the mood it is going for, so flawlessly.”
    • “This game has sloppy movement, lackluster visuals, and a mid combat system.”
    • “The visuals are unique, but from a gameplay perspective, they're a complete failure.”
    • “Keyboard and mouse interface is a mess, muddy murky graphics, floaty movement, combat is chaotic, and I can't figure out what I'm meant to be doing or where I'm meant to be going.”
  • gameplay81 mentions

    The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its unique mechanics and engaging atmosphere, while others criticize it for being clunky, slow, and occasionally confusing due to overwhelming visuals and unclear mechanics. Many noted that while the art and sound design are impressive, they can detract from the overall gameplay experience, leading to a lack of clarity during combat. Overall, the game offers a solid foundation with potential for improvement, particularly in refining controls and enhancing the core gameplay loop.

    • “The gameplay is sharp and responsive, the story is mysterious and engaging.”
    • “Gameplay is fun, engaging, and challenging.”
    • “Overall it is very fun, I love the art and music, the gameplay is great, right up my alley personally, Lovecraft mythos based, platformer, roguelite, solid game overall, I'm excited to see where it goes and how things improve.”
    • “The gameplay is floaty and unresponsive, and hitboxes are almost impossible to distinguish from all the background noise.”
    • “The visuals are unique, but from a gameplay perspective, they're a complete failure.”
    • “The downside is the incredibly disappointing gameplay often layered with grinding, camera and control issues, underwhelming combat, terrible UI, and repetition beyond the norm for a roguelite.”
  • atmosphere26 mentions

    The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its unique and immersive qualities, featuring a blend of Lovecraftian horror, beautiful art, and effective sound design that enhances the overall experience. Many players appreciate the creepy and gritty ambiance, although some note that repetitive elements can detract from its initial impact. Overall, the atmospheric elements are considered a standout feature, contributing significantly to the game's appeal despite some gameplay criticisms.

    • “The atmosphere is just amazing with the creepy graphics and the spooky, yet cozy music.”
    • “The graphics and atmosphere of the game are a unique-feeling and gorgeous take on Lovecraftian cosmic horror.”
    • “Source of madness is dripping with atmosphere with a great visual art style and OST to match!”
    • “The only parts I liked were the themes of Lovecraftian creatures beyond our comprehension and the gritty atmosphere.”
    • “- atmosphere & story/lore: I'll just say it straight up, this probably has been my biggest disappointment. I thought completing Act 1 and 2 would impact the hub world, but it seems to have done nothing.”
    • “This is a positive for atmosphere but potentially a negative for gameplay because, unlike other great games in the genre, the player cannot memorize the attack patterns of the monsters and react accordingly.”
  • story24 mentions

    The game's story is generally appreciated for its unique Lovecraftian themes and mysterious atmosphere, though some players find it underwhelming and lacking depth, particularly in the early acts. While the setting and visuals are praised, many reviewers express a desire for a more substantial narrative and deeper engagement with the story. Overall, the execution of the story is seen as a mixed bag, with some enjoying its originality while others feel it falls short.

    • “I want to like anything that has a Lovecraft tag on it, and this game had a story we don't see often from such games.”
    • “The gameplay is sharp and responsive, the story is mysterious and engaging.”
    • “I really love the Lovecraftian elements and aesthetics; the game does an outstanding job capturing the creatures and the landscape that you would expect to find in a Lovecraft story.”
    • “The devs do the Lovecraftian part very well, but the combat is repetitive and the story is underwhelming at the beginning.”
    • “I beat 2 whole acts and got a few lines of dialogue that connect the acts; is the game's story really 3 acts of less than 50 lines?”
    • “Add in the rather miserable sound effects and the equally lackluster 'story' and it's just a wobbly boneless mess.”
  • music24 mentions

    The music in the game has received praise for its atmospheric quality, effectively complementing the Lovecraftian themes and enhancing the overall experience. While many players appreciate the soundtrack and its integration into the gameplay, some express disappointment over the absence of specific tracks in the official soundtrack release. Overall, the music contributes significantly to the game's eerie ambiance, though a few players suggest it could be darker to match the game's themes more closely.

    • “The aesthetics and visual style of the environments, monsters, and also the music are all excellently done.”
    • “The atmosphere is just amazing with the creepy graphics and the spooky, yet cozy music.”
    • “Source of madness is dripping with atmosphere with a great visual art style and OST to match!”
    • “Out of all the volume sliders including ambient sound, special effects, etc., wind sounds are tied to music???”
    • “I love it in general, but I also bought the soundtrack and was incredibly disappointed to learn the song that plays while you view the Book of the Dead wasn't included.”
    • “Like going down the elevator, the music starts playing is really strange, but this is the only time you hear this.”
  • grinding10 mentions

    Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and unfulfilling, with many noting that the rewards for higher difficulties do not justify the effort. While some appreciate the unique experience and enjoy the game overall, the excessive grinding—especially for achievement hunters—can lead to frustration due to expensive upgrades, poor AI, and repetitive gameplay. Overall, the grinding is seen as a significant drawback that detracts from the enjoyment of the game.

    • “Also, the rewards on higher difficulties aren't worth it, so for blood farming, it's just better to stick to easy mode.”
    • “It feels slow and tedious; it's not hard, just extremely unfun, and you can't just run past all of these because the path is blocked by obstacles and monsters move faster than you.”
    • “The downside is the incredibly disappointing gameplay often layered with grinding, camera and control issues, underwhelming combat, terrible UI, and repetition beyond the norm for a roguelite.”
  • humor4 mentions

    The humor in the game is highlighted by its whimsical characters and amusing gameplay mechanics, such as the quirky interactions of builds that can lead to both hilarious and chaotic outcomes. Players find joy in the absurdity of the game, particularly through the use of comical items that can create unpredictable and entertaining scenarios. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with engaging gameplay, making for a fun experience.

    • “This game is fascinating and hilarious.”
    • “Funny lil guy in a big world.”
    • “Is this even a platform or another funny wobbly bobbly monster?”
  • optimization4 mentions

    Overall, players report that the game's optimization is generally strong, with good performance even during intense moments. However, some users have experienced specific performance issues related to older hardware, which have been addressed through developer support. A notable concern remains regarding enemy collision mechanics.

    • “I don't know what else to say, performance is great too even with a lot of stuff going on on the screen.”
    • “But perhaps I just haven't played around with optimizations well enough.”
    • “After initially posting a negative review due to some very specific performance issues tied to my GPU (a GTX 770), I've had a lot of back-and-forth with one of the developers, who has helped me try and troubleshoot.”
    • “Besides the performance, I only really have one major gripe about the game, and that's the enemy collision.”
  • stability3 mentions

    The game's stability is heavily criticized due to poor hit detection, limited AI behavior, and significant bugs, including issues with character movement and procedural generation. Players report frustration with the random and chaotic nature of monster interactions, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite its appealing concept, the numerous glitches and design flaws hinder gameplay and enjoyment.

    • “Monsters are just collections of torsos and limbs that flail about randomly. It's impossible to tell if something's attacking, how dangerous it is, or how much health it has. Hit detection is random at best, AI is limited to charging directly at you and maybe firing a projectile, and there's buggy collision detection and inverse kinematics to boot.”
    • “I love the idea of a Lovecraftian roguelike with randomly generated monstrosities, but I found myself too frustrated with poor design choices and glitches to continue.”
    • “Looks cool and fun, but it's super buggy. My character literally got stuck in a situation where I couldn't get unstuck, and I had to manually exit the run and forfeit a loss because of the poor procedural generation.”
  • replayability2 mentions

    "Source of Madness" offers high replayability due to its rogue-lite metroidvania design, featuring procedural generation of environments and monsters that ensure each run feels unique. The diverse array of skills and items allows for various play styles, enhancing the game's longevity and replay value.

    • “Source of Madness is a rogue-lite metroidvania that features procedural generation of environments and monsters, guaranteeing fresh scenery and uniquely nightmarish monsters on every run, and offering infinite replayability with its diverse array of skills and items to suit various play styles.”
    • “The art style captures the idea of cosmic horror so well, and I feel like there is enough diversity in builds to keep the game replayable.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

61% average critic score

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Play time

15hMedian play time
13hAverage play time
5-24hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 4 analyzed playthroughs

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