Reviewed on: PC
Usurper could be just another “Metroidvania” game like the ones we see around from time to time, but it does something a little different: it mixes some horror traits into the game, together with “speedruns” and the best of “Dark Souls“. We received the game with much appreciation from Pugware, and it fell to Savepoint to test it.
The Story
Usurper is set in an alternate world based on 19th-century London, which finds itself attacked by terrible creatures from the Citadel, an immense structure that fell upon the city, causing despair and terror among its inhabitants.
The game puts us in control of Saragat, a knight of Britannia’s angelic forces, who died in battle but is resurrected by a strange creature from another world to fight evil and recover information about the Navigator, the one behind the fall of the Citadel on the city of London, who commands the army of fearsome creatures.
The Gameplay
Like all games that drink from the Metroidvania well, Usurper is a Side-Scrolling game, which for those who don’t know are games with 2D visuals where the player must walk sideways to advance through the scenery, in the best Mega Man or Super Mario World style.
The settings mix 2D art with 3D details to compose the immense structure of the Citadel, with dungeons, sewers, libraries and everything you’d expect, forming a true ecosystem within the structure. Something interesting to mention in this review is the inspiration and references of Usurper’s developers in creating the settings. You can notice many, really many, references to the works of H.P. Lovecraft amid the game’s various settings. In fact, some of the game’s bosses are clearly references to the master’s works, such as the creature Shoggoth. (Pay close attention to the NPC’s name in the following image)
The game gives you various weapons, from Katanas to Hammers, Axes and Bow and Arrows, plus a Familiar system, very similar to the one in the classic Castlevania games, that helps you in the scenery and can be leveled up so they become more useful during the adventure.
Besides the different weapons, the game gives you a “deflector shield”, which is a VERY IMPORTANT element in the game: by activating it, at the cost of a little stamina, you can reflect any attack, including those from bosses, back at whoever fired them. Seriously, mastering the use of your shield makes up 75% of the skill needed to keep moving forward in the game.
Each different map comes with a fairly honest variety of enemies, followed by a Boss, who always clear the barriers from the path so that you can advance in the game. However, Usurper also gives you the possibility of making your own way, so you don’t necessarily have to start from a particular location.
Dark Souls again? Is that bad?
The game implements several ideas that became famous thanks to the famous game Dark Souls, such as a very similar leveling system, where you use your “souls” to buy new levels, buy items, and for various other things within the game. And as the classic game also does, when you die, you lose ALL your “souls”, and unless you recover them without dying, you lose everything you managed to save during your adventure.
Despite having various stats that can be raised during gameplay, such as Strength, Magic, HP, Stamina and the like, Usurper has a quite high difficulty, sometimes making you want to throw the controller at the wall, and makes it seem like the many levels you painfully raised were of no use at all. To give you a small idea, if you get the timing wrong when raising your shield, it is the easiest thing in the world to find yourself at 1 HP.. and that happens almost all the time,
As if the game didn’t already bring enough elements from Dark Souls, Usurper has checkpoints, like the Bonfires, which save your game, and have some residents nearby, NPCs who serve to improve your familiars, buy items, sell items or learn spells, for example. OK, let’s face it, any game of the style has these elements, but Usurper goes a bit over the line of “using references” from a game, and at times you see more of the other game than Usurper itself.
Graphics and Soundtrack
As is to be expected from a game of the genre, Usurper uses 2D graphics to take you into the world of Citadel. I played the Early Access, and I can say the game differs a lot from the final version we tested here at Savepoint, and the team deserves congratulations for the graphical improvements the game has had since then.
The soundtrack is also very good, bringing those classic orchestral tunes in the best cathedral style, mixing organ, piano and suspense. However, I missed voiced dialogue in the game, which would bring much more emotion, especially during battles against Bosses and the like. The game doesn’t even have pain reactions or sounds when the hero performs an attack move. It seems simple, but this takes away a bit of the shine the game could have had.
Is it worth it?
Usurper is a game that will certainly please any lover of the Metroidvania genre, but it is important to make clear that it is not a game for everyone. Its difficulty is relatively high, and it can irritate a lot anyone not used to losing hours of gameplay because of some silly slip.
The game has some bugs, and unresponsive commands at some moments, plus unfriendly menus, although functional. You simply can’t go “back” through the menu tabs, you can only press the button to advance to the right when you want to go from the map to your equipment.
There are also some game modes added to give the game more challenge (and is that necessary?), such as 1 HP mode, where you will always have 1 HP, Speedrun mode, where the game adds a timer to track your playtime, No Leveling Mode, which doesn’t let the player make upgrades, and finally, Permadeath mode. Self-explanatory.
Usurper is a good game, recommended for those who like good challenges and getting a little angry on Sunday night. It is worth noting that Usurper is the sequel to another game called Shrouded in Sanity, which is also worth playing, although the two games are not related in terms of story.
Like Metroidvania? Like Dark Souls? Like getting angry? Then Usurper is your game, but don’t say later that I didn’t warn you.
Max Xavier
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