Gloomveil (Demo) ★★★★☆

Gloomveil, it’s really not as gloomy as the title suggests.

Gloomveil and every other video linked to it can be seen on our Patreon, and if you’re wanting to know what other games we’ve played and have posts for, here’s our list of current games.

Where can you buy?

Pros:

  • You can harass the bugs
  • Gorgeous environments
  • If you die, you can collect your items
  • Interesting menu setup

Cons:

  • It’s not wise to harass the bugs
  • There’s a spider section

All links below this section may not pertain to the game itself, and don’t need to be clicked. They are affiliate links that take you to random products that I think are interesting.

Explanation to Negative Feedback

It’s not wise to harass the bugs

Remember, just because you’re having a good time, doesn’t mean someone else is. That someone else is both the bugs you’re toying around with and the forest itself, which is kind of an awesome concept and makes sense.

In fact, when text on the screen came up suggesting something was watching me, I kind of got a sense of dread and stopped for a time.

But later I went on a bullying tangent and found out you have a kind of bounty meter on the bottom left of your screen, and the higher it is, the more the forest and its inhabitants don’t like you.

It’ll eventually fade if you let your mama hug you, or leave everything alone or eat supplies you might have, but yeah.

There’s repercussions for being a jerk in this forest.

There’s a spider section

Yep, and they’re just as gross to look at as spiders in the real world, and I won’t apologize for saying it. The good thing is, if you’re placid to the forest, they don’t outright attack you, only if you linger near them.

The bad news is there’s a mama spider somewhere.

But you won’t have to worry about her.

Explanation to Positive Feedback

You can harass the bugs

This takes me back to Zelda games where you could attack the chickens. And I wasn’t really attacking these bugs, I was just running into them over and over again because they bounced and made funny noises along the way.

Although, just like certain Zelda games, them animals don’t take kindly to being bullied after a while.

Still, it’s kinda fun at the start.

Gorgeous environments

The absolute best part of this game, I think, are the environments and the lighting and all the life they put into the forest around you.

You’ve got flowers opening up along the trees as you walk by them, there are bugs hidden in the foliage that sort of pop their head out to watch you stroll by, the caves you enter, although dark, have this atmospheric lighting that allows you to see just enough.

Ugh.

Even when you make the forest angry it almost becomes more alive by the wind flowing through the trees at a more brisk pace than before.

If you die, you can collect your items

While I was rolling around with one heart left, because I played the jerk in this game, I struck one of the hard-shelled bugs and died. I figured I was just going to get a game over and that was fine for me, but when I started back at a save point of plants, I guess, I was able to go back to where I died and grab my pack of supplies.

So dying in this game doesn’t mean you lose everything.

At least, it doesn’t as long as you go back to collect your stuff.

Interesting menu setup

Yeah, you know I kind of like it, but I can see how it might be a design flaw.

Basically, you press a button for your menu and the quests you have are there, as well as the items, as well as your weapons, and you scroll down I think for settings and to exit. There’s no actual sections to everything.

You just scroll up and down through it all.

On one hand, it’s all right there, but seeing as this is a demo, I don’t know how many items we’ll be able to obtain through the world, or quests, and so I don’t know how cluttered this kind of menu is going to get for someone looking for a specific thing and having to scroll through it all.

It could be good for now, but it could be bad down the road.