CARNEDGE makes a strong first impression. The visual style is striking, the art direction is confident, and the soundtrack, while limited to a single track, is genuinely good. Unfortunately, it’s also very short, and the loop isn’t handled cleanly, which makes it start to feel awkward rather than atmospheric after a while.

The opening levels are enjoyable, but the difficulty curve takes a sudden and brutal spike. Progress grinds to a halt as you’re forced to replay the same stages repeatedly just to move forward. That might be partially down to build choices, but even so, the jump feels unintentional rather than challenging in a satisfying way.

Itemization initially seems fine, but cracks start to show the longer you play and overall feels undercooked and inconsistent. The crafting system doesn’t help much either, feeling shallow and oddly implemented. Rather than encouraging experimentation or meaningful build decisions, it comes across as a largely inconsequential feature.

Gameplay starts off serviceable, but it doesn’t evolve much beyond that. Before long, it becomes repetitive, and it’s hard to imagine this being the kind of roguelite players sink dozens of hours into experimenting with different builds. That’s especially disappointing because the game’s aesthetic and theme are doing a lot of heavy lifting.

There are also some rough technical edges that further undermine the experience. Enemy waves sometimes spawn directly on top of each other, seemingly at random, which can turn already difficult encounters into frustrating ones. Combined with the uneven balance and progression, these moments make the game feel less polished than its presentation suggests.

Overall, the concept and presentation are excellent, but the execution lacks depth, meaningful interaction, and replayability. There’s a solid foundation here, but it needs significantly more refinement to live up to its potential.

Too short, already done. This game has better features and game mechanics, but the time hurts the value severely.

Very fun concept! I sincerely enjoyed the 4 hours I got. Unfortunately you do not get much more than the demo offers as of now. I really hope there is more content to come.