Bleak Faith Critique - Failed "Soulslike" Masterpiece

[@j85grim4]

The soundtrack is bad? Were you playing the same game as I was? This has hands down one of the moodiest and immersive soundtracks I've ever heard....

[@krakkentrace6095]

I bought the game five days ago after watching this great review. I just completed the game and I must say that a lot of the negative points from this video have been patched or ironed out: - you can skip ladders animation after the first time you cross them - black knight equivalent have been nerfed (and they are not correlated to how many bosses you kill, but to another spoiler event) - controller is usable now. I beat the whole game using it. - overall all encounters are quite fair (if you upgrade accordingly) - better UI and inventory (still bad tho, but serviceble now) It's still janky and probably not worth most people time and money, but if you like exploration and more than serviceble combat, this game could be worth it for you. It's a rough gem for sure and I hope the developers will be able to polish it with time

[@peterfthagn3646]

The game has many features that don't often appear in others of it's genre, if at all, like: Climbing; climbing on bosses and swiming and diving. Also some bosses, although broken "look" impressive like the giant snake thing. It's fascinating how much it managed to include, but i think it's easy to see how that much stuff worked to it's detriment in development.

[@acetrigger1337]

It seems you are not familiar with games, then. cause those mechanics exist in some games already.

[@peterfthagn3646]

@@acetrigger1337 Yea they do. That's why said i didn't see those mechanics often in games like this. Sekiro has swiming and diving for example, but i dont know of any other soulslike that had the same mechanic. As for the climbing on enemies, while not a soulslike, there's was dragons dogma. Also, really seems that bleak faith took a lot of inspiration from shadow of the colossus, so the mechanics are there, but again, different genre.

[@dryblindvideo]

I agree, they tried so many things, I just wish all the mechanics were fleshed out to not be so finniky.

[@spiderjerusalem8505]

​@@acetrigger1337, it always surprises me to see reading comprehension of others. I can never get used to people fundamentally misunderstand what they read so much

[@drugsmcsnortington]

​@@acetrigger1337and it seems you're not familiar with reading...

[@namesurname1747]

I tried this game in 2023 for 1 hour and dropped it. New try was 2 days ago and well... I played 10 hours per day and finished it. It's kind of masterpiece in 2024. And I know what am I talking about, because I beat all DS series (+all DLC), Elden Ring (+DLC), Sekiro, Lords of the Fallen, Thymesia, Nioh 2 (+DLC), Lies of P, Ashen and The Surge 2. This game is a blast to explore. The location progression is simply one of the best in gaming. And 90% of the downsides that were mentioned in the video have been fixed.

[@christopherlyndsay8611]

Great to here - exploration is by far my favourite part of Souls games, so I should give this one a shot

[@Hierophant11]

Negatively criticizing the soundtrack is ridiculous. It’s possibly the best thing about the game.

[@q306005]

Having played the console version, I'm amazed at how much the game has changed, and how much has been taken out.

[@mandrews6282]

Not sure if it was different back at it’s initial launch, I’ve only played the recent overhauled version, but I’d disagree on the soundtrack being abysmal. It’s one of it’s most standout features along with it’s world and art design themes, I will also say that the first half having great interconnecting level design is also cribbed from DS1 as a criticism of DS1’s world is that the opening half has this and once you get to Anor Londo that aspect falls to the wayside. Truly imitation to it’s fullest. Lol.

[@ismahilinumbganva3767]

19:43 I've had my share of time with Unreal Engine, and I can actually answer why the movement in there is lke that. And it's telling a lot about the devs and their general experience. The engine treats your character as a physical object, and when you move, it calculates your gravity and acceleration (acceletation is tied to fps, so yeah, you were right there). 99% of the time it doesn't really matter, but if you for whatever reason deside to make your character huge, the engine doesn't know what to do with this anymore. So apparently, all scales of objects in this game are way off, and it was too far into the development, before they've notised it. You are a huge giant moving along even more huge models, with all physics multiplied. You can also see it by how slow you are actually falling on 20:59

[@antijoscha1690]

yeah, same with glitching through walls, the collision is jigglying around trying to be realistic but ending up in a nightmare of impossible premonition.

[@acetrigger1337]

Sounds like they don't know what they are doing, and often afraid to start from scratch once issues are found.

[@dryblindvideo]

wow that’s insanely insightful if it’s accurate! I was constantly wondering why the movement system felt so off, perhaps this is the biggest culprit.

[@alexradice8163]

​@@acetrigger1337 sounds like you're just petty

[@Morraak]

So I've played a little over 20 hours of this game as well and I would say that people SHOULD give it a try if they're intrigued. Never know unless you personally try. UI is probably the worst thing to get used to for the game but there's been improvements on it. As far as the empty world spaces my thoughts are that this comes from using BLAME! as heavy inspiration. In it, the world is very empty, oppresive, and there's even an elevator that takes like somewhere around 80 years to reach the desired level.

[@eisstirn2319]

BLAME! Is one of my absolute favorite manga, but there are things that only work in a medium like manga and not in videogames. Like empty spaces, because you waste your time with it in a game. And turning a manga page takes less than 4 minutes like the elevator in Bleak Faith...

[@Morraak]

@@eisstirn2319 I agree, I'm just saying that might be the reason why there is some emptiness in the game. And BLAME! is one of my favorite mangas as well!

[@fucksusan.fuckcensorship.874]

@@eisstirn2319 ok but manga has literally nothing to do with gaming so im pretty sure you just wanted an excuse to talk about your favorite manga instead of actually contributing to the topic.

[@sirninjaraiden]

@@fucksusan.fuckcensorship.874 He's responding to OP, he mentioned BLAME!.

[@eisstirn2319]

@@fucksusan.fuckcensorship.874 What...

[@whatever1618]

I have the game and I do like it. The devs have made many of the boss fights worse. The dragon now takes flight and spams air attacks like bullets that track or lighting that is close to unavoidable. You can hit it once between those attacks, AOE attacks, and laser attacks. And that handy bow with the whirlwind arrow attack now has a 35 second cooldown.

[@dryblindvideo]

35 seconds!!!! ohh noooo RIP

[@angelogenesantos]

The design is so good especially the weapons and armor. But damn, i saw the gameplay and i was horrified.

[@dryblindvideo]

I know right? Every time I see a game that looks visually impressive- things like this whisper in the back of my mind that the gameplay will be bad.

[@j85grim4]

I was too but thankfully they have patched most of the bugs out and I don't find virtually anything stated in this review to be tethered to reality. Just because it's not a 1:1 complete Dark Souls clone like most other soulslike games are does not make it bad. I would suggest you not listen to this guy and give it a try as I am more immersed in this unique world than I have been in any other game since ds1. And the combat is not bad at all actually either, especially if you play with keyboard and mouse and learn how to parry properly. This game is not so much about the rolls with far more emphasis on parrying and doing the combination mechanic properly.

[@LainIwakura]

@@j85grim4Yeah, no. Gave this game a go today as it was still collecting dust on my wishlist and oh my God, it's still so so bad.

[@j85grim4]

​​@@LainIwakuraIt's not bad at all. I was just playing a minute ago. Felt nearly identical to Dark Souls 3 with a controller. Maybe you just don't have the patience to git gud at it? I noticed, there's something different about the timing verse Fromsoft's. Once I started paying closer attention on the timing after dying like 20 times, I now rarely die and am enjoying it immensely. Have some patience people.

[@LainIwakura]

@@j85grim4 I have quite a lot of patience, just not for games that are plain bad

[@adamflores5724]

This game is beyond a masterpiece.

[@deohere7647]

I'm glad we live in an era where both AAA and indie game devs let consumers do QA.

[@AC-hj9tv]

I miss 90s gaming

[@deohere7647]

@@AC-hj9tv the 90s sucked. A shame they lasted for 30+ years.

[@meb0y494]

Even though this video review is quite outdated despite the upload date. I'm very sorry to see you had a bad experience for your few first day playing Bleak Faith but decided to brute force through and finish it anway, most of the issue you explained about is very true for it first launch day but has been addressed by the dev team, its been almost a month now and a tons of tweak, bug fixes, quality of life have been done to the game. Ladder and elevator is basically the same since day 1, I agreed that they are way too drawn out at time, for long elevator at least you mostly only have to experience them once because there is usually a Mirage (new spawnpoint) after the elevator ride. The weapon attack speed being very slow is easily fixed by doing the combo system properly, but I can't blame you maybe you didn't know to do that because even I thought the Combo Tip at the start was very crappy, all you have to do is 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 and it should be count as a combo (then repeat exactly for next attacks as they get faster, do not spam), it's indicated by the cross-blade Icon (max 5) at the bottom left on top of your FX bar if you timed a combo right. I just stand there and crit the crap out of Belisarius with the Lacerator while sapping back most of the HP, so I can't relate to the difficulty, though I think having a proper build and synergies well with your play style would have helped fighting the bosses (Though the first few release build was quite janky so movement could have hindered you). Worst boss is probably the Abberant Knight since its way too easy, I liked the dragon Silicon Visage the most, I don't mind the bullet hell at all. For the Restorative Flask part, it wasnt a glitch you can only carry a single type that you choose (lesser, normal, greater,...) max 2 at first then it will increase with each recalibration. The big area but empty at times is pretty true, wish there was things too loot as player decide to explore the more obscure part of the area, It's nice too see you didn't lose hope for this game and its potential, hopefully you will return to the game one day have and a more positive experience playing. Dev is hard at work fixing things and NG+ (with actual new content, new area) is planned for middle of May, for now they're implementing achievement and will be available in the next update.

[@rajahava]

Combo system straight up did not work for me until the end game. No matter when i clicked. I tried slow and fast weapons, to no avail. And in the end game I did not need it because I was doing heavy attack build thats 1shotted everything and with bosses you only have 1 attack opening. As for the red knights they were a joke for me. They have literally 1 2-hit attack animation that you can force by getting in proper range, backstep while they do it and run in for the attack. Repeat. With my build (STR, crit, heavy armor, Evolved Halberd, later changed into Titanslayer GS) I did not even to repeat it many times. Nurgei took me 2 tries, Belisarius 3. Most trouble I had on Bird boss (only 2 of his attacks let me hit him), but I cheesed him with the running tactics baiting the attacks that let me hit him (laser and fly/land). Another issue not mentioned here is that several weapon types are straight up unusable because of how slow and narrow the attacks animation are (for example 2h maces). You would think 2handed weapon would have some nice range of motion, but nope. I used only 3 weapons whole game, because of that: 1. the spear you get from 1st boss untill i got Evolved Halberd, but still to kill giants 2. Halberd 3. Titanslayer GS. + any bow to snipe some pesky flyers. I prrobabaly would prefer the Divine Axe over Titanslayer GS, but you get it after you cannot come back to the areas that have the enemies that it has bonus damage for. Only ability I ever used was the Armor thingy. Weapon techniques were meh, very flashy but ineffective comparred to normal weapon swing. Guess they are meant for more mage builds, which i was not. For the big areas i have another insight. There are many routes that suggest there may be something good in there, but they are empty and sadly one way. So you have to die/respawn to get out. The game teaches you to not go there up till Uranopolis Tower Complex level that seem to be awfully small and you have to make a jump for it into very narrow ledge that you actually cannot traverse normally without jump-glitching (or you fall down) and yeah you get accesss to another area with Spiky Skellies from the Desert and lots of goodies to gather (the "end game" area in the video also accesible with the ladder behind pipes)

[@ayuvir]

I'm a believer that a single player story driven game of any kind should come out in a playable state with its core features working on the first day lest the developers want people to brute force a buggy product and then never look back on it again. I did this with FF15, and even though I had the season pass, and all my mates told me the royal edition was absolutely great, I never again looked back on the game and gave it another chance, nor do I ever plan on doing so. I understand being a fan and rooting for your underdog dev, but many streamers were on this game on release and many people got to see a janky, barely playable game. Does it come down to people's curiosity and interest to give this game a chance? definitely, but in the gaming market, with so many better alternatives, people would rather skip this and watch a playthrough than give it another chance, even if it "got fixed" in the meantime.

[@celphalonred1999]

Succeeded to me. As a dark souls vet that started on Dark Souls 1, i love this game even more, the artstyle, the bosses, the music, the game world, the size of the game world, the atmosphere, the game is a "flawed" masterpiece that's an unpolished diamond, the game needs a lot more polishing, but as of right now im lovin the hell out of the game, and it's astonishing that only 3 guys made something of this scale. Alongside patches for performance, bugs, and polishment, they also mentioned the other day that alongside those patches they're working on releasing ng+in a few weeks, more endgame, and more replayability, with huge announcements soon, along with AI improvements It's a great game, that needs a little more work. And the underwater world and exploration is something I've wanted since dark souls 1, but never received. Glad they were ambitious with a game this scale. No i-frames caught me off guard, the first boss had his way with me for a while. but realistically it makes sense, you wouldn't have invisibility while dodging into a sword, and i don't mind, you need to play smarter and have better tactics. Dodging feels better imo. Really makes me wish they had a budget that rivaled Elden rings with a much bigger team than just the 3 of them, could have been much better. I recommend it for everyone, but it definitely needs work, and feels like an early access game only due to how much more polishing some things need. Im 13.4 hours in, only just now lighting my 3rd boss due to how much there is to explore and discover.

[@ryan.1990]

>trust me it's better than DS >13 hours playtime 😂😂😂

[@tingle2958]

​@@ryan.1990He didn't say it's better than dark souls. He said he loves it more than dark souls.

[@TheRisky9]

The "Central Hub" game design dates back to the very earliest FromSoftware games. In Kings Field II (Kings Field in the US) there is an area called "Seth's Fountain" that the game more or less circles back to. Not every area exactly circles back there, but it is close enough. There, you can replenish your flasks (yes, they had a flask system similar to Elden Ring) and traverse into other areas of the island. They would continue with this idea into Kings Field III and really master it in Kings Field: The Ancient City. To my knowledge, it is the only developer that did that in that era. It's a very efficient way to design very vast intricate maps without overwhelming the player. I prefer that method over fast travel. Fast travel is good in small, limiting doses like how it was pulled off in Elder Scrolls III and Dark Souls, but it can make the world feel very disconnected if its allowed to become the primary mode of transportation. Elden Ring got away with it sort of... because they hid the size of the map, but it still didn't feel as connected as Dark Souls did.

[@dryblindvideo]

That’s a really interesting fact about kings field i didn’t know, thanks. I’ve wondered if Elden Ring would be better if They actually didn’t include a map where you could constantly fast travel. It would definitely make traveling more of a mental exercise. But the casual player probably wouldn’t enjoy it much.

[@CSword514]

They should've made a smaller game like Mortal Shell and Thymesia. Dodging having no I-frame is just weird

[@fantomas1770]

yeah, everyone knows that dodging gives you i-frames in real life, right? skill issue, git gud

[@imamdarwin3750]

​@@fantomas1770 well. This is a game actually. For your surprise.

[@fantomas1770]

@@imamdarwin3750 yeah, and every game has its own rules regarding whether dodge gives any i-frames. those rules can vary. for your surprise

[@imamdarwin3750]

@@fantomas1770 I'm not against developers designing their games differently. I just think designing should not be about how realistic it is but how fun it is. And also that was rude what you said.

[@fantomas1770]

@@imamdarwin3750 yeah, but dodges with i-frames are not inherently fun, and you can go for somewhat realistic mechanics and still make them fun too. agreed, i was intentionally rude

[@nicrule4424]

Thank you for bringing this game to my attention. I enjoyed all the souls games, but was always disappointed they moved away from the connected world design. Elevator speed is often a limitation of the player controller. If it goes down to fast, you character will start falling and going up too fast may cause you to clip through the floor. Of course, this is solvable. In a project I am working on, elevators can go 60km/s without issue, but it took a lot of work to make that possible.

[@Neostrius]

For what it's worth. It is rare that a game can pull me in with it's world design so much that I stubbornly feel like I still want to play it despite it being apparent that it's just not very well put together at all. It really is a shame. I hope the devs can learn from the experience at least.

[@InfernalMonsoon]

This game seems like a similar case to another ambitious indie game called Industria, a really talented team coming up with a really great idea for a game that somehow ran out of time and money to properly work on their game, which in turn forced them to release it well before it was finished. That game was released in an early beta form it was that much of an unfinished mess, and that seems to be the case for Bleak Faith also, everything it needs is clearly there but it's still in dire need of more time in the oven to polish it up. Kudos to the devs for keeping on top of Bleak Faith, it's clearly a passion project for the 3 people who worked on it, but if it had to release then they should have gone through the proper channels and processes in early access.

[@AJDraws]

The soundtrack really isn't that bad. It has a pretty cool track here and there. The straight on elevators, stairs, and tunnels are really badly designed though. It's too straight and has almost no variability. They could have at least added in some props to make it look less video-gamy. I really like some of the architecture though. It's well designed visually and has a unique construct as opposed to other games that all seem to draw from bland and overused designs.

[@herooftime6941]

Hey thank you for giving some praise to this game ! Everyone seemed to hate it, but thanks to your advice I bought it , can't wait to play it !

[@RagnaRantz]

Oh and Bro, I’ve GOTTA disagree on “soundtrack” On that one…are you nuts?! 😂 just messing; again, people & opinions But dude, the soundtrack of this game is really AWESOME. It strongly meshes w/the sinister & daunting vibe of this twisted world, this “reality” that is perverse & distorted in the Omnistructure …now 2b fair, this review was done during Bleak Faith’s launch, which I know was abysmal. But side, as of NOW??? I am TRULY enjoying this game! No, no it isn’t some AAA Fromsoft mega hit. But for a dev team of THREE people?! & what they’ve done to perfect it…the game is so much better now!

[@blindearth3290]

Now after the patches this game is a masterpiece!!!

[@antijoscha1690]

Thanks for teaching me that there was actually a climbing system in the Game! And yes the Tomato Knights made me stop playing the Game, when i encountered one in the deep Darkness after hours of jiggly platform jumping when i did not understand the setting of a new spawn point. And yes the huge size of the maps and some visuals are the best part of the game. Like touching the big maps of Kenshin in first person, but it takes all the bad parts of every RPG, most of DS2 like you said the mob mechanics. But the biggest mindfuck was the dogde and hitting system. Theres none. You can roll but its like suicide running into the blade. And every Boss felt like, oh no not again. Is there anywhere another way? Thx for the vid Ps: ah yes and the tutorial videos did not even work by my playthrough

[@dryblindvideo]

There’s some other discourse about the dodging system in the comments, but I agree I didn’t like it. What’s the point of dodging if you still get clapped with a blade?

[@Lexsed]

29:40 I agree with this sentiment SO MUCH. I had so much fun stumbling into new cool areas, seeing new cool enemies, but every time I had to fight anything it was such a disappointment. I'm a combat and mechanics first person and in most games I will ignore the story and world for the mechanics and interactions that game brings, but here I found two bosses after the first "tutorial" one, fought each for about 2 hours and just stopped to explore more, because that was just more fun. Really wish an "exploration" game was made out of this. Sure let there be bosses but just make them puzzle bosses or something, like you mentioned - some Zelda-style "use the right thing" but actually intentional this time.

[@AdamantPetra]

You should give NaissanceE a try, its a free on Steam 4-5 hour first person puzzle game with a big emphasis on exploration, there's no tools, mostly running and occasional parkour, but the architecture you find in it is grandiose and honestly awe-inspiring, it is aesthetically a bit different from Bleak Faith, but far as I know, that game is the closest you can get to a exploration focused game with Bleak Faith esque world design so far

[@dryblindvideo]

@@AdamantPetrai’ll def look that one up! it sounds really cool, thx for the reccomend

[@Lirka_906]

You should give the game another shot. The devs have continued updating the game all year, and just released another major update. It actually feels good to play now in my opinion, and I had a great time with it compared to the major disappointment I had all those months ago.

[@minecraftgravityguy]

Bro there is a lot to hate about the game, but the artstyle, atmosphere and the soundtrack are masterpieces, you are completely delusional if you think otherwise. Rest is mostly pretty on point though.

[@gerardlecrabe]

I liked the first part of the video, but the second part I just can't relate. Like, too many enemies? I don't recall that, if you don't run pas them and aggro all the lvl, you can deal with them in pack of 1 to 3, and less if you use your bow/ranged option to deal with them. And if you really struggle, there is spells/skills(Idon't remember the name, you have 2 slots and can buy them with points you find in the world) you can take to stagger/damage crowds. For the boss fight, I aggree they aren't good. But mostly because the game/gameplay isn't well tuned/balanced. Also, upgrading the right armor/gems stat is more important than your personal skill (since you kinda can't dodge/block to avoid damage constistently, at least if you are like me...) You see, if you alocate too much health, you don't do enougth damage and don't become really that tanky. But upgrade your strength? You can destroy almost anything in 1/2 hit with a greatsword, or have a dual weapons/lifesteal blender that does a lot of damage and win the dps race against yours and the boss health. Like, with my greatsword, I drank 2 damage buff potions and killed the final boss(es) in 5/6 hit while ignoring their attacks (and I was really unlucky with my 30/40% crit chances =/). kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIfQZoupZbyIhpI Problem is, more than half the talents that you gain by killing the limited bosses are either trash or doesn't work. So, if you picked a talent that seemed cool on paper, but suck when you tried it, that's a talent point AND one of the 3 talent slot that is wasted for the rest of your playthrough. And the fact that upgrade equipement and gem slot aren't really an instinctive and well explained power up mechanic suck too. This game is close to be a good game, but it failed on a lot of aspects and is really frustrating. At least it was an interesting experience.

[@dryblindvideo]

I think you hit the mail on the head with some of your points, and i disagree with others. Im not sure which version of the game you’re playing, but the base version does such a terrible job at communicating these important RPG elements such as the skill selection menu. I played through my entire first game w:o knowing there were perks you could pick. It isn’t fun if you want to try out new perks with your former build. ai definitely see where you were coming from about just strngthing up the boss and one shorting it. but I wasn’t able to do it due to lack of communication to the player if that makes sens. Thx for watching!

[@gerardlecrabe]

@@dryblindvideo oh yeah the game just don't explain or not clearly enough. Like I didn't understood the fact you can place a respawn point(homonculis) where you want, the tutorial was not clear and didn't show the right input I think (or something like that). I played some days after the relase, so some jank was already patched, I think. (Still had bugs, like not being able to hit/be hit by enemies)

[@YeOldeMachine]

Another "souls-like" that has a really good interconnected world is Surge 2. I was constantly surprised that I kept popping back up in the starting city

[@hafaball]

thanks for making me make up my mind about this game. I recently played Hellpoint which I enjoyed, but a lot of the problems here were in that as well and the bugs just made me give up halfway through the DLC and I wouldn't want to go through that again. entertaining video as well.

[@shegon111]

Watched your video before checking the channel, It was a surprise it's only 254 subscribers, thought it would be a big channel. Liked, subscribed, would be good to listen more about games I'll never play myself (cause I like more to listen then to play it). Flying creatures in this game are fascinating, judging by your footage.

[@antijoscha1690]

There are many Problems with the Game which are not easy to fix: - Hitbox and dodging is inacurate -> nothing is more frustrating than to die without a reason, not only that there are no invincible frames what the game would need by this combat system - Collision and Physics are buggy -> Glitching through walls and Elevators, Actors pushing away and Sonic like acceleration letting you fly - Animations are switching in splitseconds or are not working - makes predicting attacks impossible - obscure Leveling, Item, Magic, Skill, functions, ??? -> you never know how to do it right and it does feel wrong, some tutorials are to vague or missing, the use is not described, the menue is the worst, or you are fighting and simply skip the tipps in a second in accident clicking like a madman. My personal opinion is that i like to discover mechanics, but they are so impractical and strange that finding them by accident is silly. The Enemy balance is broken, wether too easy with some patterns, or impossible and frustrating. And the healing mechanic is terrible too - i don't want to know if they have fixed the potion issue anymore.

[@chucknorris8995]

This game is absolutely crazy good! I like it a lot!....NOW after a bunch of patches. 😅

[@ElectricGrunt37]

- They updated most elevators and ladders - Only one healing item is intentional - the adds for the Inquisitor boss are only invulnerable when on the surface

[@ladycenobia5147]

I got Bleak Faith when it came out but to be honest I'm only slightly passed the Konrad boss. I was so hyped for this game and I knew it would be hard but the fighting feels more fustraiting than fair. I love the Souls series and while I would't say I'm great at them I atleast feel competent in the combat. I also tried using a controller then instantly went nope. Exploration is my fav thing about the game so far. I deff think if they make a sequal it could lean closer to a zelda like game. I also think something along the lines of Shadow of the Colossus could work too. Thank you for the great video!

[@Icon-oclast]

This game has come a long way since launch. I played through a few weeks ago and had an amazing experience with literally no issues.

[@acetrigger1337]

Sounds legit...

[@dryblindvideo]

That’s great that the devs have updated things since launch! It is still fair to critique the release state of the game because they chose to not do early access for some reason.

[@prototypelq8574]

I have an addiction to good art direction and visual design, and my jank tolerance is pretty high - This game is a Masterpiece for me. The combat is not as bad as people think, I actually really like having a parry and dodge and jumps as valid evasive options, plus the weapon variety is impressing, especially given the weapon switching mechanic - it makes battles pretty good even. But man, the art, architecture, style and music are the main reasons to play this, they really sell the game, and are totally worth the rougher edges for me.

[@acetrigger1337]

"It looks great, but plays horribly." Modern Gaming in a nutshell.

[@sonwig5186]

Looks great I'm going to try it out. Exploring is my favourite part of games.

[@LorenTR]

Thank you for a good review. Who releases a souls like without good controller support. This game is so pre alpha demo. A messy one that is.

[@dryblindvideo]

hope you enjoyed, I agree!

[@detromaniac]

Hellpoint is a flawed gem. There's areas where it's lacking, for sure, but the map design on that one is excellent. They go very much for a 'rat in a maze' style. Combat is a little weak, but the lore setting and sound are all pretty good, the map is excellent, tons of secrets, some of them surprisingly massive. It bounces around between a 7 and an 8 most of the time, but it goes on sale for about $10 pretty often, and for that price it's absolutely worth it. Just don't go in expecting a masterpiece. It's super ambitious for a small team project, but they mostly stick the landing.

[@dryblindvideo]

I’ll definitely look it up, I really like these style of exploration games. Thanks!

[@cold0514]

im seeing an unpleasant number of asset rips from other games present in the weapons just from this video. alot of code vein weapons just painted all black and sometimes given a longer handle. wouldn't be surprised if there were more.

[@Lexsed]

The devs have addressed this. All the assets are store bought from Epic's store. If the seller stole the assets from somewhere there really isn't any way for either the dev to know (apart from knowing every inch of every soulslike), but them contacting Epic just resulted in a "we can't regulate that :)" response so they seem to be trying to swap the major offenders.

[@OrphanMartian]

There are lots more, mostly stolen animations from souls games. They also threw in a Lance of Longinus from Evangelion in the climax cutscene. The devs claim they didn't know they stole anything, but it's total BS. There's an enemy that uses the entire Abyss Watcher moveset, and they even had the balls to make him LOOK like an Abyss Watcher. They 100% knew what they were doing. These devs are not only thieves but really bad liars to boot. It makes me sad that so many gullible people fell for it.

[@nothingisawesome]

i often wondered if its possible to mention Bleak Faith without the caveat of "its made by 3 devs" within the first 3 mins so good job

[@jesustyronechrist2330]

Basically: Bleak Faith has potential, just needs a full studio to work on it. Because isn't it made by like 3 people?

[@sirninjaraiden]

That's the problem they bit off more than they can chew

[@aramislucas3281]

Realisticaly it makes sense that you can't use the potions that are on your backpack during a fight.. even tough realism is not something we usualy have in medieval fantasy videogames lol

[@dryblindvideo]

That’s a good point and I would be fine with that if there weren’t so many BS moves and straight up glitched enemies. There needs to be a percentage of error allowed due to either the player or devs mistakes. I felt like that was uneven in Bleak Faith.

[@aramislucas3281]

@@dryblindvideo True. There are games or projects that as far as I know didn't even came up, that tried to realize some gamers biggest fantasy: a hardcore survival, full loot, pvp sandbox. Somehow that's realistic. If you kill an enemy, you would have acess to everything he had with him, if you are killed, it would be game over for you, you wouldn't simply respawn somewhere with all your health, level, skills and equips. But what hapens when they start a server like that? Some group of players make a party and go on a killing spree on everyone else att the server, sometime even at spawn points, giving litteraly NO chance to other players, that would need at least some minutes in game after spawn to collect their first resources ad make their first weapons to fight back. And that ends on the death of the server. The ones that are out of the dominant party get frustrated and go to other server/game, and eventually even the killing spree party members get bored because there's noone else for them to kill. Some sorts of realism in games can even spoil it.

[@mage0534]

Side note, it is clear the devs are warhammer 40k fans and cannot come up with original names. From this review I noticed the names of bosses you showed. Inquisitor Bellasarius, Bellasarius Cawl Knight Kenrad, Konrad Kurze Nurgei, Nurgle A third of the bosses with names eerily similar to major characters in wh 40k? I would honestly doubt it's a coincidence

[@sprc155]

The game is on much better state now. Officially my second favourite "other-company" soulslike for me.

[@realcuondaotherside]

The game is actually pretty alright now. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. It looks nothing like it did a year ago.

[@effive7817]

You must of had a truly, terribly buggy experience if you genuinely thought the game was just deleting items out of your inventory. Cool video, i like your style

[@NathanaNobody]

Mortal SHell does a really good job of interweaving areas in its own game its just very short , Hellpoint and The Surge Series arent bad either

[@rbelljr29]

Thank you for making this review. I don't play on PC, but now I know, that ok the off chance this ever makes it console....to stay very, very, VERY far away from it. I'm not even someone that swears by other opinions on games....but the gameplay looked horrendous. So I have no reason to doubt you. Lol.

[@walterekurtz2630]

This was really interesting, really appreciate it

[@jacobsouls]

This honestly just makes me want to play it more 😂. Also many of the issues you addressed have been fixed, this video is outdated

[@dryblindvideo]

go play it, you may enjoy it more than i did.

[@johnskelington]

Such a shame, when I first saw C4G's first video on this game, it seemed like it was actually going to be something other than a souls like.

[@J3f3R20n]

Bought this game on release, and the only thing that kept me going was the level design and the soundtrack. Scratched that itchy for a game based on BLAME!

[@Ms._Crimson]

I don't want to defend this game, it has a good chunk of problems, but a good part of the combat mimimi sounds like skill issues.

[@venepskeuten9206]

couldnt beat the second boss (bird i believe) and decided there were other things i could better spend my time on during a recent period of pondering. The game is klunky af, but the art-direction isnt. Damn does it look good and feel opressive in all the right ways.

[@insightfacts540]

I really hope they fix the movement later on.

[@edokk]

One year later, what do you think about this game ? I really enjoy it on stem deck ❤

[@nawnomadnan9874]

Awesome review!

[@impalerofwallachia2924]

its game feels like some cursed file from darkweb that will kill you, but man that world heavily reminding me of manga Blame!, elevators that take 3 min to achieve your destination point add to world absurd giantism, weird game but i like it

[@Omega77232]

this is a type of game that i will play a year later like i did with hellpoint

[@Kahlimer0]

they should have made it early access, not release as "complete" in the state it was, they keep working on improving, polishing and fixing it, only played till past first boss so far, decided to wait couple more updates to give it another shot.

[@dryblindvideo]

I absolutely agree great point

[@PngReaver]

You can't really connect an open world to a hub lmao so that argument kinda falls apart. Dark souls are all very linear

[@gameurai5701]

Nostalgia googles. Interconnected worlds aren't inherently better, especially since From Software has come a long way since then. Playing any FS game before BB isn't as magic as it was 10 years ago to me. Going from Elden Ring to Demon's Souls or DS 1-2 just feels really rough nowadays. Stormveil Castle to me is a much bigger and better version of Undead Burg for example, Volcano Manor laughs at Izalith and I can go on for similar areas between these two games. If Elden Ring had Dark Souls 1 level-design, it would have been my disappointment of the year. The "good old times" argument only works with stagnating or degrading video game companies and I don't think From Software fall into that category. To me, they're aging like fine wine, getting better and better on average with each release. I wouldn't be surprised if their next Souls-game is even better than Elden Ring.

[@PngReaver]

@@gameurai5701 nostalgia goggles..? Bruh it’s not even that old or even considered a classic. I’m referring to ds3 though aswell

[@newdivide9882]

Real disappointing to hear the combat sucks because the world is incredible. I’d heard the devs were inspired by Blame! but I can’t say I expected them to nail the look THIS much while still doing their own thing. You said it would’ve been better to make it all about exploration instead and I immediately thought, “Make it a Metroidvania, huh?” I like that idea a lot actually. I don’t think there are many 3D Metroidvanias to my knowledge and Blame! X Dark Souls turned into one sounds amazing

[@zadig08]

I feel like you're really trying to get me to buy this game /j

[@dryblindvideo]

yep! /s

[@intruefaith7612]

Elden Ring felt like a purposefully disconnected world. Each location seemed like a fragment of what was once a glorious whole. Like there was once a magnificent circular object that had, I dunno... Been shattered?

[@Naruxos07]

"First Soulslike masterpiece not made by Fromsoftware" It already exists. It's called Nioh and Nioh 2.

[@dryblindvideo]

You’d say nioh 2 is a masterpiece on par w/ the best of the souls games? dang i need to play it i guess- i’ve always heard mixed reviews. Thx for watching!

[@danieladamczyk4024]

Nioh is diablo with stamina.

[@gameurai5701]

@@danieladamczyk4024 Agreed, very different from Souls games aside from the bonfire aka shrine and amrita. Liked Nioh 1, but Nioh 2 was more of the same and by that point I got bored...same as with Diablo hack and slash games or looter shooters like Borderlands. Those games get boring very quick and aside from Nioh 1, I haven't finished any of them. Looking through the menu half the game is just not fun for me.

[@EricStellar]

@@dryblindvideo nioh 2 is fking great

[@Naruxos07]

@@dryblindvideo Nioh 2 for sure especially with its combat. Nioh 1 suffers from first game syndrome. Its level design is pretty bad, and it doesn't offer much in terms of enemy variety. And thanks for making this review of Bleak Faith!

[@jdfelkel]

This is the most fair and honest review I've seen in a long time. Great Video good sir

[@nopurposeposting1548]

souls like should always be on controller? *stares in keyboard and mouse*

[@dryblindvideo]

you’re a freak of nature and you have to admit it 😂

[@explosivesexplode]

Did you ever click "Primary Off Hand" when trying to equip the shield instead of "Secondary Off Hand"?

[@thrashhhhh]

I gave this game a chance, but I refunded it after an hour. While the atmosphere and worldbuilding might be good, the plain truth is that the combat and movement are abysmal. It’s just not fun to play. Simply moving around the world is a chore.

[@OdysseyHome-Gaming]

Oh cool didn't know this was out.

[@dryblindvideo]

Give it a few months and it might be worth it then

[@bladechild2449]

I never gave the game the time of day after it came out they straight up lifted their boss fight designs. Like, if you can't even be bothered to be organic with the core parts of your game, no, you're doing it wrong.

[@FERNPretendsToDraw]

What do you mean by this?

[@FERNPretendsToDraw]

I mean did they steal the boss designs/fights from somewhere?

[@kooglekgs9961]

Lol for those who think the ladder or the elevators take too long, You guys clearly haven't played the Ladder part of Metal gear solid 3

[@dryblindvideo]

i haven’t lol it sounds tedious from what i understand

[@Taylor_Lindise]

The first Soulslike masterpiece not made by FromSoft is Nioh 2

[@froxmorphidrel8578]

great video

[@dryblindvideo]

Hope you enjoyed!

[@gustavosantos106]

It's an awesome game. I've never played soulslikes games, but I love Blame and Metroidvanias and this one delivers perfectly.

[@EricStellar]

Great video.

[@dryblindvideo]

thanks eric stellar!

[@PhilieBlunt666]

But there's nothing quite like some good ol' weightless whizzin

[@chainsawvsgod384]

Great video, really enjoyed it. I bought this game as soon as it released on Steam and it made a terrible first impression with the shitty controller support. I've got no interested in playing a game like this on M&K, and it looked janky as fuck, so just refunded it. I've got a big problem with games which make it difficult for me to even play them. I shouldn't have to spend time setting shit up on your game I payed good money for.

[@dryblindvideo]

Thanks so much for watching! yeah hopefully more people can realize the truth about bleak faith so they aren’t mislead in their purchases. it sucks because we all WANT it to be good ya know?

[@detromaniac]

The open world aspect of Elden Ring was it's weakest aspect. I get why From did it though, they wanted to really convey a sense of scale, and they did that masterfully. For what they were going for it was great, but in terms of a map design convention: what they've done in the past was overall stronger. Though they still kept that element as a part of the game. Leyndell and how that connects to the sewers, catacombs, and deeproot, is perhaps the best designed area in any of their games, and dare I say one of the five best "levels" of all time. Hell, that section of the game, on it's own, is an entire games' worth of content. You keep thinking "surely, this is it" and it just keeps giving.

[@dryblindvideo]

I agree man, I also think the stromveil castle is one of their best traditional dungeons. It’s disappointing how much open space was inbetween the highlights like you said

[@kurotori8030]

The game is cool

[@Mr_.G]

Developers NEED TO STOP trying to copy other existing game titles. Is does them absolutely no favours at all. Especially when their game ends up being a very wet turd.

[@Hierophant11]

“Decrapidated”? Pretty sure that’s not a word.

[@Todestelzer]

I don’t like Elden Ring as much as Dark souls 3. The open world isn’t fitting for a dark souls in my opinion.

[@AC-hj9tv]

200th sub!!

[@absupinhere]

It’s a great game and has been worth my money

[@absupinhere]

And you’re right that there’s no excuse for being unable to slide down the ladders.

[@waleedbinalim]

It's disappointing to hear the game review. I had been following the developers for a long time and just like you thought it was going to be the better soulslike not by FROMSOFT. All trailers and dev updates showed potential, they could've taken more time to polish the game before launch. Not sure why they decided to go this route

[@dryblindvideo]

they should’ve released in Early access and polished it up towards a proper “full release”. It’s disappointing yeah, but maybe the future will yield better games for these devs

[@luwfu7467]

attempt of dark soul combined with shadow of colossus

[@edhen683]

Regarding the "annoying" boss encounter you mentioned, you clearly didn't understand the concept of that boss. I know it is not explained, and it is clunky, but that "zone" allows you to hit and destroy the statues. The projectiles are not hard to dodge, and the boss goes down in a few hits. Either you're not adjusted to the clunkyness or is just straight up a skill issue.

[@dryblindvideo]

I think they’ve nerfed him since release and buffed weapon damage. I’m judging the release state of the game because they put the game out then as a “full and finished” product.

[@edhen683]

@@dryblindvideo I understand, but I was referring to the release version since that's the one I've played. I finished the game without any problem before the first patch. But the clunkyness didn't bother me since I've played a lot of games like that in the past, and to my surprise, I got no crashes and few bugs that were not game breaking.

[@Arionid]

jokes on you I love desolate grey wastelands with high rises that obscure the land with fog 💀 jk jokes on me for still waiting for the ps4 release honestly being able to explore without reward is underrated, every game nowadays has fairly redundant collectibles everywhere that youre tempted to pick up or detour for at some point, but then since you picked up a few then you may as well pick up all of them right? I'm sick of that fomo/completionist bait making me clear the 200 sidequest markers off a single map just to not feel any more rewarded after, and regretting the time spent procrastinating the actual main story for pointless filler content, whether you want to do them or not tho most games wont even let you filter certain markers off the maps to reduce clutter at the very least 💀

[@somethingclever4563]

You should have way more subs

[@Pathstalker]

Made by three people

[@njdarda]

i applaud your dedication

[@VoidReplicant]

The ps5 version is a masterpiece.

[@arrestedsolidyhe77sp]

I am forced to dislike the video. Bleak Faith, while nowhere near perfect, to me is unique, it’s no “abyssmal by gaming standards” as you claim, and certainly not in many of the elements you criticise such as the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, the game has a long way to go and it can be a glitchy mess at worst, but it has soul, passion is evident in the product, and it offers an experience unlike any in the current gaming market. It is a mistake to treat it as a “Dark Souls clone” or a Soulslike, when it really isn’t. To me, Bleak Faith evokes feelings more akin to Shadow of the Colossus. It is worth experiencing if you are able to put up with some jankyness.

[@FERNPretendsToDraw]

Yes I like it, this is a good video.

[@dryblindvideo]

thank you!

[@joe_ferreira]

this should have been early access. they jumped the gun.

[@dryblindvideo]

so true, idk why they didn’t choose this. I would have been wAaay more forgiving.

[@cutiko]

I google "bleak faith cant equip shield" it is a bug, you are not the only one, LOL

[@dryblindvideo]

it was so frustrating right?

[@cutiko]

@@dryblindvideo just did the search out of curiosity, but for what I read people is pushing throught the game rather than playing it, xD ty for the video