Recent reviews by dacciox

fantastic world building and visual design

To be honest, it currently feels more like an 'early access lite' rather than a fully feature-complete release.
A good platform fighter that just needs a bit more time to address some issues, both in gameplay and UX.
The dev team is very communicative and open to community feedback though, so I have faith that they will be able to resolve the remaining core issues and add more content (as they have planned) over the coming months and, hopefully, years.

A nice little game focusing on a unique gameplay mechanic, that doesn't overstay its welcome.

One of the rare metroidvania-style games that motivated me to collect and solve everything to the best of my ability.

Love the visual presentation. The mostly ambient sound design gives it an eerie feeling, which really helps establish quite a unique vibe. "Beating" the game was a pretty smooth experience, I never truly felt lost or stuck, there was always somewhere I could go and try stuff. The more optional stuff gets trickier and depending on how deep you go, can become quite cryptic. I reached a point where it became too cryptic for me, so I'll leave that to the hardcore wellers.

Easily one of the most polished and thought out metroidvanias I've played, I have pretty much no complains.

Fantastic audio, visual style and atmosphere!

Difficulty-wise it's definitely on the easier side. I did not once come close to dying and never ran out of healing items. Some of the puzzles gave such obvious hints that they practically required no thinking to solve too. Personally, I did not mind the lack of difficulty though.

Progression felt satisfying either way and I enjoyed it more for it's overall presentation and attention to detail.

I love this game. If you enjoy thinking outside the box and coming up with crazy solutions to problems, this is THE game. Due to the hardcore randomness, it might be possible to encounter unsolvable levels, but so far in my 4 hours worth of runs, I managed to complete every single one. Some of the levels required seriously tricky maneuvers and took quite a few attempts, but that just made beating them all the more satisfying.

Just a heads up, don't expect any progression or ending (besides finishing a run), it's really more a sandboxy challenge experience.

fantastic artstyle, sound & music aswell as movement.

the 2 bossfights are honestly not that good and the game could have done without them. Combat in general is very lacking, but there is fortunately very little sections focused on it.

The platforming gameplay on the other hand, which is 95% of the game, feels fantastic.

It's also very easy to get lost, which could be annoying for some, but that is being adressed with a map update currently in the works.

A great retro inspired shooter.
Even has some cool movement mechanics, which is always a plus in my book.

I'm orbin

Presentation:
Peak

Audio/Music:
Peak

Gameplay:
Good fun, but I did find that the gameplay loop became somewhat repetitive in the later levels. As a result, I began to rush through the game more at some point. Additionally, I have mixed feelings about the boss fights in episodes 2 and 3. In general, though, the combat felt solid and satisfying.

Movement:
The movement in general is pretty good, but has some flaws. My main gripe is the lack of methods to maintain momentum/combat speed loss. There is a constant deceleration applied to your speed, causing you to inevitably slow back down, no matter what.
When compared to games like Titanfall, where movement involves a smooth flow of gradually increasing speed and skillful utilization of movement mechanics to sustain it, Sprawl feels a lot more "stop and go" in that aspect, lacking a similar level of smoothness. This doesn't really matter for the combat arena parts, but is definitely noticable to me in the more open traversal outside of them. While I understand that the movement wasn't intended to be an exact replica of Titanfall, considering it likes to call itself "Titanfall-like," I wish it would have taken a bit more inspiration in that regard.

Verdict:
While Sprawl isn't flawless, there is still a lot to like about it. I would still recommend giving it a try.