MAZEBOUND: Hunt, Gather, Run!

Great fun with friends...absolutely brutal alone

The game is neither good nor bad. I feel like it is not quite there yet though. - The atmosphere is great at first, but does over time fall off when the scare factor is traded for grind. - There is little grind in this game, but all major enemies are so awkward to combat that it snowballs to either side quickly and often ends with just two barbarians dogpiling each other or more realistically abusing loading zones to beat what cannot properly be evaded nor sustained. Also very unfun to keep dying and walking back, only to end up being forced to wayyy overprep or straight up cheese to have a "fair" fight... Armor slowing the player makes them take more damage instead of less, a debatable concept xD. - Most items in the game (including cart upgrades) add very little fun or improvement from the basic starting tools, there aren't many to begin with, but skipping most feels better than using them, that's not a good sign. - There is no real way to build anything like lights or path markers or even a storage at base, drastically limiting longterm appeal (which might be intended but considering this looks inspired by the forest, that difference feels really lacking). - Most items drop on death or kill, but some disappear into the ground or sky, never to be seen again. This HURTS new players massively in case of "rare" main weapons, while also causing a lot of "trash" items to accumulate and clutter over time, with no way to keep the forest and base clean, and your pc's memory to avoid lagging and crashing eventually. It wasn't a major concern while playing, but sure enough I've had the game crash after looking at our hundreds of recovered starting axe's on a multiplayer server, and looking for new items turned into an easter egg game of actual new stuff in between dozens of dropped tools and junk. ---Speaking of items, seeing them is the first issue, but picking them up is insane. Most items can only be carried like 1 at a time, peaking at maybe 6 feathers, that's a chore to play (same issue with ammunition on players, wayy too clunky). Also these items are so small you literally have to crouch down and channel your inner vacuum cleaner to get the hitbox to accept it - and chests/barrels often only have one direction that lets you loot the item, one at a time ofc, which is even more impractical and absurd. ---Cart ragdolling: Finally, if you managed to pick up an item, you will be slowed like crazy, you have to carry them back to the cart because base is too far, but the cart can and will flip itself if you touch almost anything just a little too closely, and you will be forced to spend the next 10 minutes debugging the thing and grabbing the item spill all over again. That isn't fun the first time and not fun the 100th time. You're in a hostile environment, you want to focus on that and can't keep doing this nonsense. -Lastly, achievements. They are aight, except the hardcore challenge. I've also seen the chair easter egg but did not find any info on how to reach it yet, it might just be impossible. Now the hardcore mode itself is quite fun. Being forced to respect hunger and the threat of new?! and old enemies makes the game feel way better to play than just taking the L of being one shot and running it down again. But here is where it is a bad design. Not allowing saves means no pauses and no back-ups. Not every player can afford the time or has the pc-specs to do this in one sitting without interrupts, and enforcing it is just bad. A game without saves is inferior to stuff devs managed in the 90s. I get the sentiment, hardcore - no cheesing safe files,.. yet this approach is not very practical and is just gating players from even trying. The game really isn't that hard and there is still notably intentional? cheese spots all over the game, so this choice makes little sense. It's even funnier that the game menu does not stop the time even in normal solo, meaning one can literally starve to death when taking a snack or bathroom break. -oddly, the game also has a weird random autosave that may just absolutely fk up your current save if you were i na terrible spot you did not intent to load again, or you come back confused how you got where you are - there are A LOT of areas at spawn where the player instantly dies without warning, which is stupid one might say - there are a few graphic glitches near see-through walls, which breaks the immersion, but I don't mind it, it's such a common glitch in gaming Issues aside, it is fun to scavenge and hoard materials and food, even if they don't translate to anything meaningful down the line. Exploring for the first time is also a good journey, after that it is pretty much the same generation in mildly different order/spots, so replay is limited. The content is totally worth the price of 10 bucks, it's just making me crave more of the good old forest though for the same price and lots more freedom and QoL.~

Playing this game alone is SO creepy. I absolutely love the mechanics.. it’s honestly so much fun. I really thought I’d be able to find my way through the maze without a compass or anything, but I spent most of my time completely lost and getting chased and killed by weird creatures. The survival elements are awesome too. You can craft stuff, gather resources, and the randomly generated terrain makes every run feel different. I can already tell I’d have even more fun playing this with a friend, because I was way too scared playing alone lol.

The combat is what made me quit the game There is no way to prevent damage other than glitching the pathfinding of the ai by running in circles into a obstacle having to use the ogre to reliably kill bosses feels cheesy

Vamos lá, após ter finalizado o jogo (apenas no multiplayer) e me divertido MUITO, gostaria de deixar minha análise sobre esse jogo que me surpreendeu muito positivamente, queria destacar alguns pontos que creio que sejam importantes de se deixar registrado: Pontos positivos: 1- O jogo foge completamente do comum do gênero, você consegue ver cada detalhe de gameplay presente por puro amor dos devs ao jogo, não é um survival padrão feito de forma rushada pra vender, realmente é um jogo que tem alma e personalidade. 2- O jogo possui muitas mecânicas que faltam em outros jogos do gênero, cada desafio, forma de se jogar e coisas específicas que você pode fazer dão um quentinho no coração. 3- A progressão do início ao fim é bem livre, você não é obrigado a seguir um padrão linear para completar o jogo, óbvio que existem rotas mais precisas para seus objetivos específicos porém cabe a você decidir qual caminho seguir. 4- O modo multiplayer é MUITO divertido, pra jogadores como eu que preferem diversão acima de platinar e tryhardar, é perfeito, o jogo é bom, é engraçado e de certa forma, incansável. 5- O jogo não falha em te surpreender, existem muitas coisas e mecânicas não obvias para nós que estamos acostumados com o padrão, e essas coisas não inclusas no tutorial são muito divertidas de se descobrir jogando. Pontos negativos: 1- Excesso de bug em colisões e em coisas específicas (como por exemplo no modo multiplayer, ao dropar a arma, o jogador que não é host perde todas as balas já carregadas nele, ou em um caso que estávamos jogando e o jogo não nos deixou salvar a partida, causando o fim do save). Porém, como ainda é um jogo novo e independente, é possível relevar tudo isso. 2- Falta de organização para itens. Adoraria ter um sistema melhor para poder armazenar os itens, sem ter que ser forçado a jogar eles em algum canto da ilha e constantemente perde-los, apoio totalmente o fato de não existir um inventário para armazena-los como em outros jogos do gênero, porém depender do carrinho que constantemente buga e joga todos os itens para fora é muito ruim, creio que uma simples adição de baús ou barrís craftáveis já resolveria tal problema (mantendo o sistema atual de coleta e drop de itens, sem inventário). 3- Falta de liberdade no quesito sandbox. Já aproveitando o último tópico, seria muito bom ter como craftar coisas mais tangíveis como baús, estruturas separadas como fogueiras e etc, entendo que o foco do jogo seja a sobrevivência e fugir da ilha, mas seria maravilhoso poder construir uma "base" perto de um portal no meio do labirinto para poder se organizar e preparar melhor, por exemplo. Claro que temos a disposição a casa da ilha, mas poder ter um acampamento separado no meio do labirinto ia ser incrível. 4- Seguindo o ultimo tópico, muitos itens perdem utilidade de form muito rápido após o early game, sendo apenas utilizados para completar a jangada e nada mais, a sugestão de mais crafts resolveria isso, dando mais uso as coisas que sempre sobram de forma genuína, sendo com crafts relacionados ao sandbox ou mais ferramentas e novas mecânicas para se jogar. 5- [SPOILER] Não que seja tão negativo, mas o final me deixa um pouco a desejar, espero que no futuro a gente tenha mais clareza mental sobre o que realmente está acontecendo na ilha, labirinto e com o personagem, acabei me apegando muito ao universo e não ter tão explicado nada da lore me deixa um pouco incomodada, mas realmente não que seja um problema, mas adoraria saber mais sobre o universo do jogo. (devs podem por favor adicionar ovo no jogo? Queria comer ovo frito :( ) Até o momento da análise: 8,5/10. Meu jogo favorito no momento.

Not going to lie, I came into this game not expecting much. But after playing it for 9 hours and completing it I actually thoroughly enjoyed playing it, it was made by two people and is better made than most games these days. Try it out and see for yourself.

needs a longer cutscene at the end especially after 10 hours of bs but otherwise its a good game