The Waste Land

Developed by Fledermaus and published by Digital Tribe, The Waste Land is an independent action-adventure that embraces the spirit of classic metroidvania games while weaving in themes inspired by T.S. Eliot's famous poem. Rather than focusing entirely on combat or platforming, the game places equal emphasis on storytelling, exploration, and atmosphere. Its retro presentation is backed by a narrative centered on consequence and redemption, offering a more thoughtful experience than its pixel-art visuals might initially suggest. While it clearly pays homage to the 8-bit era, it also strives to distinguish itself through its literary influences and emotionally driven premise. The story follows King Zyron III, whose reckless mistake during a hunting expedition unleashes corruption across the kingdom. Once-peaceful wildlife transforms into monstrous creatures, and the balance of nature is shattered. Burdened by guilt, the king embarks on a dangerous quest to reverse the catastrophe he inadvertently caused. This setup gives the adventure a strong personal motivation, making the journey feel less like a conventional hero's quest and more like a search for forgiveness. Throughout the campaign, the themes of regret, responsibility, and restoration remain central, adding emotional depth to an otherwise traditional fantasy adventure. Exploration serves as the foundation of the gameplay. The world is divided into seven interconnected continents, each featuring its own distinct environments, hidden routes, and increasingly dangerous enemies. As players acquire new weapons and abilities, previously inaccessible areas gradually become available, encouraging extensive backtracking in the best traditions of the metroidvania genre. Hidden passages, secret upgrades, and optional treasures reward careful observation, making exploration consistently satisfying for players who enjoy uncovering every corner of a sprawling game world. The gradual expansion of accessible locations provides a rewarding sense of progression that keeps curiosity alive throughout the adventure. Combat is straightforward but supported by a healthy variety of equipment. Multiple swords offer different attack styles and strengths, while specialized arrows introduce additional tactical options for handling different enemy encounters. Although the controls remain faithful to old-school action games, the growing arsenal helps combat avoid becoming repetitive. The game's bosses stand out as some of its strongest moments, pitting players against enormous corrupted creatures that demand pattern recognition, timing, and patience. These encounters successfully provide memorable milestones that punctuate the exploration-heavy pacing. Visually, The Waste Land captures the charm of classic 8-bit adventures with colorful pixel art and detailed environments that convey both beauty and decay. Each region possesses its own identity, helping the world feel larger than its technical limitations might suggest. A dynamic day-and-night cycle enhances immersion, subtly changing the atmosphere as players travel across the kingdom. Villages populated by various non-player characters help flesh out the setting, while conversations gradually reveal more about the world's downfall and the people struggling to survive within it. The soundtrack and overall presentation complement the melancholic tone, reinforcing the game's themes without overwhelming the experience. The game's greatest strengths lie in its commitment to exploration and its willingness to combine retro gameplay with an unusually reflective narrative. Players who appreciate searching for hidden upgrades, mastering interconnected maps, and slowly growing stronger will find plenty of content to enjoy, with a campaign capable of lasting well over a dozen hours. However, its dedication to classic design also brings familiar drawbacks. Frequent backtracking, limited modern conveniences, and occasionally repetitive combat can make portions of the adventure feel dated compared to newer entries in the genre. Those seeking fast-paced action or constant guidance may find its deliberate pacing less appealing. Despite these shortcomings, The Waste Land succeeds in delivering a memorable retro adventure that offers more than simple nostalgia. Its combination of meaningful storytelling, rewarding exploration, challenging boss encounters, and atmospheric world-building creates an engaging experience for fans of classic action-platformers. The literary inspiration gives the game an identity that separates it from many other indie metroidvanias, while its carefully designed world encourages players to fully immerse themselves in the journey of repairing a kingdom brought to ruin by a single tragic mistake. Rating: 6/10

Turned trash into bricks that sing opera. My garbage has more soul than my ex. I’d recycle it again.

J'ai personnellement pris plaisir à parcourir ces terres désolées, chercher des coeurs pour augmenter sa vie max (yo Link) ainsi que de nouvelles weapons (re yo), vaincre des boss (5 au total) sur une OST travaillé bien que répétitive, comme dans tout ces p'tit jeux old school. Je ne l'ai pas trouvé spécialement difficile, peut-être un peu au début mais il y a un système de checkpoint plutôt bien réparti sur la map. En somme un jeu fort sympatoche qui n'est pas sans rappeler d'autres classiques du genre des 80's/90's. Par contre niveau scénar'... vous partez à la chasse et comme un con vous tuez une bête sacrée, sauf que apparemment cette bête sacrée protégeais ces terres. S'en suit tout un ramdam sans nom où un vieux fou vous somme de trouver la source du mal nouvellement apparu

The Wasteland is an interesting concept, and to the game's credit the prologue raised my hopes higher than proved deserved. For what I paid (like a dollar, on sale?) I suppose I should be grateful, nonetheless, for the few intrigued hours I spent getting past the first two bosses. The use of color, low pixels, checkpoint-based refills of a simple health bar with no consumables or other flim flam allows for a smooth gaming experience. The complete noninvolvement of "leveling up" or "experience points" eliminates grinding; you become stronger by finding better swords and bows, can endure later-game damage levels by finding what are essentially heart tanks in a Metroidvania style collectibles system, and are largely rewarded in combat for maintaining defensive footing and being observant. That being said, there are a tiny number of enemy types and there is no way to traverse the (admittedly impressively large and contiguous) map quickly. When you're not sure how to advance, you can spend like half an hour walking from the south side of one map region to the north side of the map region just north of it. There are a decent number of regions, like 6-9; wonderful variation in the backgrounds, but not so much so on the combat side. I played on the hardest difficulty setting and for the life of me couldn't see any difference besides taking more damage per hit and giving less. With practice, you can avoid fighting half of the game's enemies without penalty, and it's easiest to pick the rest off one at a time with ranged attacks, drawing your sword if they close distance. Many of the cutscenes are extremely glitchy, and the game's text is translated poorly to English. When after like 5 deaths against a sea boss you finally prevail before losing your footing and getting instakilled, only to stand still for the better part of 20 seconds, then run left, find nothing....then run right, glitching yourself back onto land...the magic, to say the least, is broken. Ultimately, I think they'd have been better off using RPG maker and making a lot of the visual content by hand, rather than crafting a game engine of their own that doesn't, in the end, produce a game that is fun for nearly as long as it takes to experience. I found the first bow, the second sword, some heart containers and I took out two bosses. Taking out that boss didn't make me stronger and going east landed me somewhere that felt a hair too tough, while going west was easy until RIGHT BEFORE the part where local one-line NPCs have led me to believe I will find the THIRD sword. I could go north and east, and probably find that second bow and third boss somewhere, but it would take a couple hours and I can't honestly say I care enough. This does not feel ironic or deliberate, as I suspect is the case in "Punch Club." Rather, the game plays like something a painter or an admirer of literature made who was not particularly into video game design. If the source material interests you, then playing this game is perhaps a way to meditate on certain elements of that artist's premise. I try not to be hard on independent games, since they are the life blood of the medium, but in this case more attention could have been paid to the user experience. If they weren't going to make the game experience smoother, it would have been wiser to use a preexisting/stable/familiar independent game engine to craft and deliver their content. I hope to see better games from these guys and respect this effort, but can't ultimately say you'd be missing out on much.

Казалось-бы как можно испортить кастл клон?! Ответ банален на моем джое в игре не работает вверх!! и это меня печалет(

It would be good, but it has so many issues not to mention feels very slow for it's pace or lacking in variety. I thought this would be good due to it's style of metroidvaniaish gameplay. Well thats what I thought at first however I got turned off from pretty much certain aspects of the game. For example not knowing where to go and ending up at deadends where I didn't have double jump yet. Which you have to get at a tower which requires pixel perfect jumping. If the game requires perfect pixel jumping that is kinda of an issue specially with bats that home in on you when aggroed. I wouldn't mind the bats, but when you need pixel perfect jumps to get somewhere that is a problem. Not to mention once I got to the top of the tower I jumped down from the very top and died instantly from fall damage which I didn't know could happen, forcing me to get back up again to get the item. The music doesn't change alot which can get extremely annoying when scrolling around the game looking for where to go first. Kills the mood really fast after walking through the woods or going into towns. Even the sound and animation with the main character's attack if off. I would give this a 5/10 It's ok, but not great specially for how long it takes to get one item which you wouldn't know unless you found that one npc to give you the hint or sumble upon it by accident. Curse of Issyros is actually better than this. Also the price for this game is kinda much due to it's quailty I know it had work put into it, but needs patching and fixes.

Dreadful

It was ok...