Seventh Angel - Review

Alter.. Yes, I have to use a German word just to express my feelings with this game... God, it's a mess—a mess with potential (And definitely some quality) But simply a mess. Let’s get into it.

You Start The Game For The First Time.

And what do you get greeted by? AN EMPTY SETTINGS MENU, who needs settings right? Want to change your graphics, the audio, or keybindings? Nonono, we don't do that over here. Listen, Timmy, you take your preset settings and enjoy them!

Let's move past that.

"Oh well, let's move past that, I'm sure it gets better," I foolishly thought before attempting to alt+tab to quickly check the time, only to discover that I was now permanently stuck with my mouse visible in the middle of the screen when returning to the game.

Let's Restart

Well, no worries, the infamous alt+tab has killed plenty of games before; let's restart, and ah.. for some reason the game tries to once again launch in SteamVR? (It keeps trying to do this during each launch)

Breath In, Breath Out.

I haven't even started playing and as you can imagine at this point, I'm already feeling a little discouraged. Nevertheless, I'm trying to stay positive, so I start the game, and, uh, it actually looks quite nice at first.

Graphics

The graphics range from okay to ehh. (People models aren't the best, definitely.) To actually really good, like, I was impressed throughout the entire game. Sure, the lightning was a little wonky at times (To even really clunky sometimes), but it looks better than many indie games. I honestly don't know if it's all assets, but it looks nice regardless.

Story

To be honest, I have no idea what the plot is. Yes, the game has a plot, but it kind of feels like your heavily intoxicated uncle babbling on about his failed Egyptian business on Christmas Eve. I had no prior knowledge of the game when I entered, and I left having learned maybe 30% more.

Horror.

Why...why is this listed under horror? It's not scary, and I say that as a complete pussy when it comes to horror games, but the only reason I can think of is that it's because of all the bugs (which make it a horror to play through). In the entire time I played this game, I experienced exactly ZERO moments of fear.

AI

The AI's pathfinding and overall performance are abhorrent. I was chased several times, convinced I would be caught, only to run up some stairs, look behind me, and see the enemy give up halfway there and walk down before realizing I was still there and attempting to run up the stairs before, well, giving up again. effectively locking me upstairs and forcing me to get down and allow them to finally relieve me of my and their suffering.

This in and of itself would be bad enough, but it even came to the point where I had to completely restart the game because the ai was so stuck that it was impossible for it to even attack me as I walked past it, forcing it to run in place on the stairs for all eternity.

Aaand I got stuck.

However, hold off on feeling sorry for the AI just yet. I didn't leave them to suffer in silence; on the contrary, I repeatedly got stuck trying to flee from them myself, including under the by this point dreaded stairs..

Achievements

But luckily.. after all that pain you get rewarded for your suffering, right? No, no you Don't, because the damn Steam achievements don't even work! Playing through the entire game, not a single achievement was achieved... Love it

Play Time vs Price

In spite of the fact that it only lasts for a few hours at most (including the bugs), the game costs 12 euros. While it wouldn't be polite to refer to it as a glorified tech demo because it is an actual game, it is so rampant with bugs that I feel as though I am paying to be an alpha tester for a quick indie game.

The Idea Is There

Okay Okay.. I know i've been really negative so far, but the idea is definitely there. If the developer gets rid of all the bugs and adds some quality-of-life improvements (Although, tbh, an actual settings menu is a lot more important than just a quality-of-life improvement, it's kind of like calling a bathroom a useful addition to a house instead of a necessity), I could see this game being worth playing.

 Conclusion.

You know, normally I might give this game a 5 or 6 out of 10, but right now it just doesn't deserve that. Making your way through this game is a form of torture fit for Guantanamo Bay because it is so filled with bugs. Therefore, I am unable to rate it higher than 1.5 out of 10 at this time.

 (We at NeonLightsMedia (NLM) received a key for this game for free; this, however, hasn't impacted the review in any way.)