The Black Pool

About

"The Black Pool" is a 3D action roguelike game that can be played solo or co-op with up to 3 players. Your journey home takes you through a series of randomized worlds with diverse elements and abilities to discover. Carefully select and strategically upgrade your abilities to maximize your potential and battle your way out in this skill-based, high-paced game. To provide feedback, ideas, or discuss the game, join the developer's Discord server.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

87%

Audience ScoreBased on 136 reviews

gameplay20 positive mentions

stability2 negative mentions

The Black Pool offers a fun and chaotic co-op experience, allowing players to combine elemental abilities for powerful synergies.
The game features a high level of replayability with randomized abilities and environments, keeping each run fresh and engaging.
The art direction and music are well-executed, creating a captivating atmosphere that enhances the overall gameplay experience.

Movement can feel floaty and frustrating, making combat challenging and sometimes unfair due to enemy spawn mechanics.
The game lacks a comprehensive tutorial, leading to a steep learning curve for new players who may struggle to understand abilities and mechanics.
Enemy design is often uninspired, and the game can feel empty or barren in certain areas, detracting from the overall immersion.

gameplay
52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
56%
6%
The gameplay is described as a well-designed roguelite experience that combines dynamic mechanics and cooperative elements, making it engaging and addictive, especially in co-op mode. Players appreciate the solid mechanics and varied boss encounters, though some find aspects of the gameplay frustrating or lacking cohesion. Overall, the game shows potential for growth, particularly as it continues to evolve through early access.
- “Overall, the mechanics, movement, and content are absolutely superb.”
- “You'll find the gameplay loop incredibly addictive.”
- “The combo mechanic in co-op encourages cooperation and communication, making the gameplay even more engaging and fun.”
- “How would I know if I actually want to pick fire if I don't know how it'll change my gameplay?”
- “I get it, it's for the aesthetics of new, unexplored worlds and it's quite thrilling, but for gameplay, it's a hindrance.”
- “Certain levels are quite dark but that seems to be by design to give a more haunting feel and mix up the gameplay.”
music
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
25%
8%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many praising the soundtrack as phenomenal, atmospheric, and well-suited to the gameplay, enhancing the overall experience. However, a few users express dissatisfaction, stating that the soundtrack is not very good. Overall, the music is highlighted as a standout feature that contributes significantly to the game's immersive qualities.
- “One standout feature is the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.”
- “The music really sets the mood.”
- “Beautiful landscapes and exciting music carry you through worlds as you attempt to figure out the best way to combine your powers and dispatch enemies.”
- “The soundtrack is not very good.”
- “Normally I turn the music off for every game I play, not this one.”
- “The music/art direction creates a very eerie vibe.”
graphics
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
38%
13%
The graphics in the game are generally praised for their impressive aesthetics and cool visual elements, with many users noting the polished look despite being developed by a small team. However, some players experience performance issues, particularly with frame rates, even on lower settings, and find that prioritizing performance sacrifices visual quality significantly. Additionally, while the expansive landscapes contribute to the game's exploration theme, they can feel overly homogenous and hinder gameplay.
- “The graphics are impressive, it runs smooth, and the music is amazing.”
- “Although it is a 2-man dev team, it is really polished and the graphics and music are amazing.”
- “First off, the graphics and music in the game are quite cool.”
- “I can't get a smooth frame-rate when running this game, even when I bring all the graphic settings down to medium/low.”
- “They also added a graphics setting that prioritizes fps above everything else (draw distance, particles, shadows, etc.). While turned on, it did smooth out the massive fps dips I was having, but the game looked so terrible I never turned it back on again.”
- “For example, I love the aesthetics of each world; but the landscapes feel like they were procedurally generated; they're too big, too expansive, and too homogenous.”
replayability
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
17%
17%
The game is praised for its high replayability, attributed to its diverse enemy types, randomized map layouts, and a wide array of abilities and perks that enhance gameplay. Players enjoy the unpredictability and challenge of each run, although some have noted occasional frustrations that may affect their overall experience. Overall, it offers a compelling roguelite experience that encourages repeated playthroughs.
- “With a large variety of enemies and map layouts and never knowing what's going to be coming next truly makes the game replayable over and over again.”
- “Great replayability, amazing enemy AI with massive variety, fantastic perks and ability selections, and phenomenal imagery.”
- “All in all, I enjoyed my time with the game, but after an hour of getting stuck on rocks in empty maps, I knew that replayability for this game wasn't for me.”
- “With a large variety of enemies and map layouts and never knowing what's going to be coming next, truly makes the game replayable over and over again.”
- “With changing ability combinations and randomized worlds each playthrough, this game has some serious replayability in store for it.”
story
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
57%
21%
The game's story has been criticized for being overly simplistic and lacking depth, with many players expressing a desire for a more developed narrative. While some appreciate the potential for future story enhancements, the current storyline primarily revolves around a basic premise involving kids who fell into a pool, leaving players wanting more. Overall, the consensus is that the story feels incomplete and could benefit from further elaboration.
- “Really enjoyed the ability to balance elements to make a stronger team to help progress further in the story.”
- “More feature complete than many other early access games, can't wait to see the storyline once it's implemented.”
- “Seemed ripe for a decent story to be told.”
- “The only downside I would put here is the storyline or lack thereof.”
- “Its story is too basic.”
- “Story is a little lacking as the game only tells about these kids that fell into a pool.”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
33%
33%
The game's optimization is generally considered decent, but it suffers from significant issues, particularly with resolution scaling that offers minimal performance improvement while degrading visual quality. Users have reported high GPU usage even in the main menu, indicating a need for better scaling options like DLSS or FSR to enhance performance without compromising graphics.
- “It's also quite good looking and decently optimized.”
- “It almost burned out my GPU in the main menu with the FPS locked at 60 and the 'resolution scaling' at 30%. It needs proper scaling options like DLSS or FSR; your resolution scaling just makes the game look terrible for almost no performance gain.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is consistently described as mysterious and intriguing, enhanced by well-suited music that complements the overall experience.
- “The music is on point for the atmosphere as well.”
- “Mysterious and intriguing atmosphere.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been criticized for its significant stability issues, including frequent bugs and poor audio quality. Additionally, players find the permanent progression system and roguelike choices to be unengaging and repetitive.
- “Buggy mess, terrible audio, permanent progression is boring, roguelike choices in run are boring.”
- “Buggy mess, terrible audio, permanent progression is boring, roguelike choices in run are boring.”