Game: Sundered
Developer: Thunder Lotus
Publisher: Thunder Lotus
Platform: PC/Mac/Linux/PS4/Switch
ESRB Rating: T
Sundered is a metroidvania/rogue-like hybrid game. You take control of the character Eshe, who has been taken hostage in a haunted, Lovecraftian-like world where man and machine meet cosmic horrors. You must traverse this world, accompanied by a mysterious artifact that communicates with you throughout your journey, telling the lore of the land and tempting you to embrace the horrors this mysterious world has to offer. Along on your journey, you collect artifacts called "elder shards" that you can choose to destroy to keep your humanity intact or return them to shrines to enhance your abilities in new ways. These changes are permanent, so choose wisely.
If I was going solely by presentation alone, Sundered would be a 10. The visuals in this game are absolutely stunning. The artwork and animations are all hand drawn, just like in Thunder Lotus' previous venture, Jotun, and they do not disappoint. The animations are silky smooth and flow beautifully. Not to mention the colors are beautiful as well, with them being vibrant yet at the same time evoking an eerie feel to the world around you. The meshing of machine and Lovecraftian horror is also meshed very well too, like two worlds that were never supposed to collide in the first place, as all hell would break loose. The designs of the monsters, especially the bosses, all evoke this eldritchian horror to them that is super otherworldly in its presentation.I'm so glad they released a digital artbook in the newsletter they had, as the artwork is just gorgeous.
Presentation is all well in good, but unfortunately, Sundered's gameplay and mechanics are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of execution. The idea of a metroidvania with randomly generated elements thrown in seems like a neat idea on paper, but in practice in Sundered, it's a bit messy. Sundered's level design is a mix of randomly generated rooms in set boxes on your map screen, along with unchanging spots to sort of act as landmarks for exploration. When you die, the layout of the randomly generated rooms changes. This ultimately makes exploration unnecessarily cumbersome and frustrating at times, especially when you get overrun by a horde of enemies at random.
Speaking of which, enemies sometimes come at you in hordes when a gong sounds in the background. These hordes come in randomly except in certain areas where enemies infinitely spawn, and depending on your current health and resources, can instantly kill an explorative outing you've set on. Dying though is a small setback, outside of the world rearranging itself, and brings you back to the hub where you can get upgrades in your skill tree by spending gems that you obtain by defeating enemies and killing bosses. If you want to survive your outings in Sundered you're going to need to do a lot of grinding for gems, so you'll want to invest a lot of your gems into "luck," which increases the number of gems you obtain from killing enemies.
Combat against your enemies involves a lot of mashing the attack button, making combat slightly mindless, since you are given a bit of leeway when it comes to taking damage at first with your shield that you can upgrade that tanks hits before it breaks, leaving you incredibly vulnerable. Since hordes of enemies come at you in this game, the developers made combat centered around mob control, so your attacks have wide arches and big hitboxes, allowing you to deal with enemies easier. You also get finishers and charge attacks to help deal more damage. When you're in a pinch, you can use your cannon to deal with a large crowd of enemies. One of my gripes is that I wish that there was more enemy variety in the game itself. Each of the 3 areas has roughly 4 or 5 different enemy types that get tougher depending on their color coordination. I'd normally be more forgiving of this, considering there is only 3 areas to explore, but as massive as these areas are, and the fact that the third area rehashes some of the minibosses in area 2 as enemy variants, it's hard for me to ignore.
The scale of boss fights in Sundered is immense. Despite there being 4 boss fights per the direction of the resisting or embracing mechanic (6 in total), these boss fights are big and brutal. I do have some gripes with how repetitive and boring the Hysteria fight is, but the fight against Legion and Salvation is one of my favorites with how much it has you on your toes in the fight. The designs of these bosses are done very well and fit with the art direction the game is going for. I'm also glad they included the ability to refight these bosses to your own discretion.
Sundered is one of those games I truly wanted to be love at first trailer watch, but after having a hands-on experience with the game itself, I can't say I was fully enthralled with it. Exploration in this game can be a chore at times and the game itself can be a bit of a grind, plus the combat is a little mindless, but the boss fights are fun and the art direction is absolutely stunning. I overall did enjoy my time with Sundered and I am currently doing a full resist playthrough on and off right now. As flawed this game is at times, I consider Sundered to be one of the more underrated games of 2017. Give it a whirl if you haven't already.
Final Verdict: 7/10
If I was going solely by presentation alone, Sundered would be a 10. The visuals in this game are absolutely stunning. The artwork and animations are all hand drawn, just like in Thunder Lotus' previous venture, Jotun, and they do not disappoint. The animations are silky smooth and flow beautifully. Not to mention the colors are beautiful as well, with them being vibrant yet at the same time evoking an eerie feel to the world around you. The meshing of machine and Lovecraftian horror is also meshed very well too, like two worlds that were never supposed to collide in the first place, as all hell would break loose. The designs of the monsters, especially the bosses, all evoke this eldritchian horror to them that is super otherworldly in its presentation.I'm so glad they released a digital artbook in the newsletter they had, as the artwork is just gorgeous.
Presentation is all well in good, but unfortunately, Sundered's gameplay and mechanics are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of execution. The idea of a metroidvania with randomly generated elements thrown in seems like a neat idea on paper, but in practice in Sundered, it's a bit messy. Sundered's level design is a mix of randomly generated rooms in set boxes on your map screen, along with unchanging spots to sort of act as landmarks for exploration. When you die, the layout of the randomly generated rooms changes. This ultimately makes exploration unnecessarily cumbersome and frustrating at times, especially when you get overrun by a horde of enemies at random.
Speaking of which, enemies sometimes come at you in hordes when a gong sounds in the background. These hordes come in randomly except in certain areas where enemies infinitely spawn, and depending on your current health and resources, can instantly kill an explorative outing you've set on. Dying though is a small setback, outside of the world rearranging itself, and brings you back to the hub where you can get upgrades in your skill tree by spending gems that you obtain by defeating enemies and killing bosses. If you want to survive your outings in Sundered you're going to need to do a lot of grinding for gems, so you'll want to invest a lot of your gems into "luck," which increases the number of gems you obtain from killing enemies.
Combat against your enemies involves a lot of mashing the attack button, making combat slightly mindless, since you are given a bit of leeway when it comes to taking damage at first with your shield that you can upgrade that tanks hits before it breaks, leaving you incredibly vulnerable. Since hordes of enemies come at you in this game, the developers made combat centered around mob control, so your attacks have wide arches and big hitboxes, allowing you to deal with enemies easier. You also get finishers and charge attacks to help deal more damage. When you're in a pinch, you can use your cannon to deal with a large crowd of enemies. One of my gripes is that I wish that there was more enemy variety in the game itself. Each of the 3 areas has roughly 4 or 5 different enemy types that get tougher depending on their color coordination. I'd normally be more forgiving of this, considering there is only 3 areas to explore, but as massive as these areas are, and the fact that the third area rehashes some of the minibosses in area 2 as enemy variants, it's hard for me to ignore.
The scale of boss fights in Sundered is immense. Despite there being 4 boss fights per the direction of the resisting or embracing mechanic (6 in total), these boss fights are big and brutal. I do have some gripes with how repetitive and boring the Hysteria fight is, but the fight against Legion and Salvation is one of my favorites with how much it has you on your toes in the fight. The designs of these bosses are done very well and fit with the art direction the game is going for. I'm also glad they included the ability to refight these bosses to your own discretion.
Sundered is one of those games I truly wanted to be love at first trailer watch, but after having a hands-on experience with the game itself, I can't say I was fully enthralled with it. Exploration in this game can be a chore at times and the game itself can be a bit of a grind, plus the combat is a little mindless, but the boss fights are fun and the art direction is absolutely stunning. I overall did enjoy my time with Sundered and I am currently doing a full resist playthrough on and off right now. As flawed this game is at times, I consider Sundered to be one of the more underrated games of 2017. Give it a whirl if you haven't already.
Final Verdict: 7/10
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