Review: Songbringer

The main character Songbringer - Rock Epimetheos, party fan and musician, plowing the galaxy along with a robot named Djib. He was born and lives aboard the huge ship Songbringer, which has become a refuge for such cosmic pirates and hermits. In search of green planets, to which the galactic police had not yet reached, Songbringer once stopped in the orbit of the planet Exeter, and Rock set out on his cosmic bike to explore the surface. But the landing was hard - because of the lightning strike, he just crashed to the ground and now can not just fly back. In the nearest cave, Rock finds a strange nano-sword, grabs it and awakens an ancient evil. Now the planet, as usual, is in danger, but we have to correct our mistakes and save it. However, this heroic pathos is served under an ironic sauce. Rock after some time meets a strange man with horns, and he reads up to the smile a standard text: say, you are chosen, you have an important mission, cultivate, develop, and everything will turn out. And then he learns meditation to periodically restore health without assistance. "Party lover and musician" reacts to this predictably - with shouts of "Krutyak, I like it!". He cheerfully talks with the robot Djib, seeks alcohol for local hunters to exchange it for food, eats cacti (after them not only health and strength is added, but the screen begins to blur and flow in different colors), and Jib's questions about meditation are answered in spirit "This dude taught me to sit cross-legged!".

However, in numerous dungeons, where we now and then have to go down, it becomes not to laugh. There are full of dangers - a variety of traps, monsters, skeletons, demons and giant "bosses". We are fighting, we are looking for access keys, we are activating some pedestals, and after the stripping of the catacombs new dungeons are opened and the story moves on. Rock fights basically with the help of its nanometa (it simply dashing them in real time, there are no blocks and no ditches), but also can use bombs, mines, skills like teleportation a few steps forward. Yes, and Jib is sometimes useful - especially if he has a proton shield that can cast off and stun enemies. And a shield, and bombs, and alcohol, restoring health, and other useful objects like drones scanning a card, you can either find, or get a reward, or buy at some points on the map for the diamonds that we collect all the way. Also after the victories over the "bosses" we find alien artifacts, which need to be combined to create new weapons. That's right, through the search and creation of useful items, and realized the progress of the player in Songbringer . As in The Legend of Zelda , the role system in the usual sense is not here. "Pumping" is allowed only the maximum amount of health - for this you must again look for items, namely the special teeth of the dragon.

In other respects similarities with the games in the style of The Legend of Zelda are also obvious - we freely explore the environment, we fight, we overcome traps, we search for keys, we meet strange characters and some quaint constructions, huge balls, pedestals. And sometimes we solve unpretentious puzzles, when, for example, you need to eat a cactus to see a secret passage or some kind of hint. But, as the author promised, all this is flavored with elements of "bagel" - Songbringer has a permanent death mode, and every time a new game is procedurally generated a new world. More precisely, this way: we enter a six-letter meaning and get this new world, but nobody prevents you from returning to the old one, if, of course, you did not completely die there. You are even allowed to invite a friend into it and play together in a local cooperative - the comrade will take on the role of the robot Djiba. Or you can compete with other players for the speed of the same world (for this even the rating of the fastest "speedrunners" is implemented).

One developer, "pixels", procedural generation, "kraft", dungeon cleaning - these are typical components of the average indie living in its own ghetto on the open spaces of Steam. However, the author Songbringer , who worked on the project for three years, managed to make from this set a very interesting and in many respects unusual game with beautiful, albeit simple, graphics and a smart old school soundtrack. As a result, the leading game media write about Songbringer with enthusiasm. And we have nothing to do but to join them.