Muro Studios introduces yet another great fast-paced Metroidvania with DOOMBLADE.
From Muro Studios, the creators of the award-winning game Shadow Bug, comes DOOMBLADE, a fast-paced Metroidvania. The studio is based in Helsinki, Finland. They are a three-man team who created Shadow Bug as a thesis for their masters. With Juha Ylimäki on art, Kim Valori as their lead programmer, and Veli Laamanen bringing in the sound that pulls the game together, it’s easy to see how this studio was able to impress when it came to their previous title, Shadow Bug…
Although, only Juha Ylimäki and Kim Valori worked on DOOMBLADE. Of course, they brought in a highly skilled music producer and composer, Brian Skeel. The Publisher of DOOMBLADE is Iceberg Interactive, an independent game publisher that was founded in 2009. They are known for publishing games like Killing Floor 2, King of Retail and Chivalry 2.
Metroidvania is a subgenre of action-adventure games as well as platformers that usually focus on a non-linear as well as ability-gated and/or utility-gated exploration and progression. Metroidvania games have been around since the ’80s. This sub-genre name is a combination of the names of two games. Metroid, which was released in 1986, and Castlevania debuted in the same year with its sequel Castlevania II which was published a year later in 1987.
There is a lot a game needs to meet to fit the Metroidvania genre to a tee and, at the same time, knock it out of the park. One of those is a non-linear story with a rather large map to explore. DOOMBLADE brings that in when you awaken as Gloom Girl, a little Gloomling who discovers and frees a sentient weapon named DOOMBLADE.
This team of Doom and Gloom work together to bring down the Dread Lords; both desire revenge for different reasons. Although it isn’t clear at first where you need to go, after a little exploration and getting your tentacle on a map, you can easily navigate around the different areas.
As you progress through biomes, you will learn more about the inhabitants, both friendly and unfriendly, from the Darksprouts within the Mouldy Mines to the Wilderkeeps within New Wildwood. Every Race and every biome you visit has its own lore to them, making it easy to get lost in searching for all these little pieces of information.
However, most stories aren’t complete without antagonists. This is where the Dread Lords come in, three powerful beings who have domain over what had once been the home of the Gloomlings before they all but wiped them out and stripping DOOMBLADE of his abilities and sealing him away.
Finding the abilities you need to progress into new areas isn’t that hard, but to get to them, you usually have to face a challenge room or a boss room. Of course, there is a save right before the boss fights, so if you die, you can try again just from your last save. The game is highly forgiving when it comes to death, as sometimes, to get past a boss, you’ll need to learn their pattern of attack to allow for an easier takedown.
Saving points are a saving grace in any case and are scattered few and far between all over the map. Unfortunately, some of the ways you heal are either to kill a beastie and try to get them to drop a heart or reach a save point and save. Otherwise, you will just have to play through a section of the game with less health. You will start out with five hearts, and as you travel through the different biomes, you pick up heart fragments, or you can buy them with the bones of your enemies. Gather enough fragments, and obviously, you will gain another heart.
Although that isn’t the only item, you will pick up on your travels. Items such as The Dread Commandments can be brought before The Faceless Waste. Bring him enough, and he will reward you with various items like heart fragments. You will also pick up power rune shards and, just like the heart fragment, gather enough of them, and they will give you a boost to your attack.
It isn’t all just hack n’ slash your way to your goal. You will encounter puzzles in many different locations. Most of them will hold items that will help you progress forward such as a key. However, you may need certain abilities to get through the puzzles. For example – at least two of the puzzles make use of the onion ability.
This ability, while quirky, is highly useful. When the onion you throw lands on a patch of land lit up by a green glow, it will create a flower. By moving your mouse over the flower, you can attack it and essentially fly Gloom Girl up to the area where the onion flower had been. This is highly useful, especially in places with a lack of beasties for you to grapple towards.
Another really great ability that you unlock allows you to go through walls. This makes it easier to get to different levels of the biome you are in. Unfortunately, you will need to watch out for wall spikes or even lasers, as they can completely halt your progress and cause you to lose your health.
With such a big map in DOOMBLADE, it can get annoying to go from one side to the other while avoiding the various creatures and traps located on the routes you take. Luckily there is a sort of fast travel system set up, if you can call it that. You will find Void portals located at key locations all over the map.
Once you free a creature that belongs to the Void from the Dread Locksmith, it will be easier to get around the map as they will appear next to where you pop up in the void and take you to other void portals as long as they are interconnected. So it’s not usable all the time in some cases.
The Lore is highly addictive to follow as every little scrap of information is well-written and incredibly immersive, especially when talking to the natives of the many different races or when reading about the biome you’re in, in the Atlas Pages. When Juha Ylimäki and Kim Valori really got into creating the lore of the game, they had part of the lore done.
But as they say in their Steam blog post “The core of our story was solid, but the rest of our lore package was a mess.” They brought in a writer by the name of Andrew Adams. He’s incredibly talented, having worked on many different projects, including an Indie Film that he wrote, directed and produced.
The overall visuals of DOOMBLADE are gorgeous; while most 2D Side Scroller games will lean towards a slightly pixelated look, this game does not. With beautifully drawn backgrounds to go hand in hand with each new biome you step into, it’s easy to get lost in exploring for hours on end. The designs for each of the creatures as well as for the Races that live within the DOOMBLADE world, are tastefully done and fit the incredibly quirky world setting.
The sound behind DOOMBLADE is incredible. While it can be light and not really fast-paced in many areas, as soon as you hit anything combat-related, you’re treated to a beautiful mix of electric guitar, drums, and bass to get your heart racing as you face off against hordes of beasties or bosses.
The music was created by Brian Skeel, who is a highly skilled music composer and producer. Of course, the music is in no way a supportive element that sits in the background; it instead seems to lead you from area to area. That’s not to say all non-combat areas feature a more relaxed sound when entering it, as some like the Power Sector constantly have a really intense beat to it.
The sound effects are also done well. They tie into the music and visuals of the game pretty well. While there isn’t any voice acting for any of the characters, they do have their own unique sounds to them. This can sometimes be overdone in games, and that usually makes it more annoying to go through dialogues. However, it has not been overdone in DOOMBLADE and really brings the characters to life.
Overall, DOOMBLADE is a fast-paced quirky Metroidvania game that nails any and all expectations set for it and, at the same time, blows them away. From an amazing soundtrack to incredible lore and easy-to-use controls, DOOMBLADE is definitely a hit worth playing, even if you do have to battle the same boss multiple times due to dying every time.
