It has been years since I played a game that was really challenging in single player. DiscStorm is literally a hardcore game. I had to delay this review one more day because of that fact. However there were essential mistakes made in the development of this game. So there it is fellas, the review of DiscStorm.
A Storm of Discs
The name of the game sums its game-play, there are discs, but you have no idea where they are, or where they are going. They might even not be your discs. Yet you have to catch them if you want to fight, for thy disc is the only weapon. Game-play is simple; dash, block, throw and grab but as you can imagine, it is hard to master. By its graphics, game-play and soundtracks, it is a true retro game.
The first thing I said as a comment to this game was “Hardcore”. The game is hard from its regular minions, to its bosses. In fact, Boss fights are the most challenging ones I have ever seen since I played Dark Souls. All of them have their own attacks and patterns, and you die numerous times to figure a strategy out. This is truly something to appreciate, as the current games fail to make their bosses this challenging. Even the mini bosses make you sweat. This is a retro dark souls game. Seriously. Prepare to die. Also the single-player game length its about 2.5 hours for regular players ,(if 15 minutes is spent per level) which is actually a normal length for an indie game like this.
Small Offline Battle Arena (SOBA)
“…So you like challenging multiplayer games. It would be shame, if we made a good fast-paced arena combat game that would make you crave for its multiplayer mode while playing its single-player for the first time…without online multiplayer…” -What I Understood from XMPT Games
I was truly disappointed when I saw that the multiplayer was only to LAN as online multiplayer is vital to this type of game. It is an arena game. They are literally made for their multiplayer section. Yes, the single player of this game is truly a masterpiece , but would not it be better if there was a co-op mode for it too? In short words, the multiplayer of this game was a waste of its potential. I fear that someone else may copy this game to a Multiplayer Game and get the applause instead of XMPT Games, like Trove did to CubeWorld. XMPT Games, please, please, add online multiplayer … you owe it to this epic game.
The game is an arena combat game, but as I continued to play the game, I felt that the map size was small and it had to be bigger for maximum fun. Also similar with the mobs and the disc counts, they could have been more to give us a bigger challenge. That way the game could shift from a grab the disc game, as I used up most of my time gathering them. Also, even though it is not something missing, if there was an arena design mode that we could share with our friends online(!), it would be something that would increase the quality of this game.
I am confused now, should I buy it?
If you are looking for a retro game that is challenging to play only in single player (and with a controller of course) I would recommend it. Please keep in mind that I am talking about its PC version, as the game would go really well in platforms like PS Vita. If you can buy it for console, then I recommend it. If it will have an update that adds online multiplayer in future, I will highly recommend the game. The game has so much potential but it feels like they used it up on making a perfect single player instead of focusing on other properties of the game. Therefore I again, advise the developers to continue adding new features, including new levels, instead of developing new games.