Unity - The Bindmancer [Build 2024-06-14] [Caroo]

Review of the June 2024 version of the game.

As another reviewer mentioned, it essentially plays a bit like the Crypt of the Necromancer series, but it is furry and bondage-themed.

Gameplay:

It's a solid remake of the Crypt of the Necrodancer games. Current stages don't make us of the rhythm per se. You and the enemies can move outside beats of the rhythm.

Generally, the enemies might have a bit too much HP, but otherwise, I have no real complaints.

There are a few minor bugs here and there where the game freezes, but nothing game-breaking.

Adult content:

It's very vanilla, strictly bondage, with a few tentacles here and there. The art is very good, but if you're looking for adult content, it's a bit lacking currently. Hopefully, the next levels might show a bit more, but considering that the first release was almost three years ago, that's quite a bit of time.

Overall, solid game. Keeping an eye out for this one.

A fine game. The idea is sexy, the gameplay is fun while it lasts, the art is unique and good, and the villain has voice. It's also shown some polish over the year or so since I played it last, both in marginal improvements to gameplay and more scenes.

It unfortunately runs out of content far too soon - each of the five levels are the same as the last, just with pieces re-arranged and a sprinkling of lore. It took maybe an hour to see everything the game had to offer. There's a lot of promise that goes unfulfilled: Why introduce Gold as a mechanic when there's literally nothing to spend it on? Why make a big deal about the MC's friends if we only hear about one, and never see them?

If this game ever expands into its potential, it'd be great. It's worth a try as is just to see the great effort that's been put into the art, but don't expect depth.

[Review of 2021-12-10 build as of 2/17/2022]

Dungeon of the Necrodancer, but with a furry bondage fetish. It's very strictly bondage, toys, and tickling in this game, so don't expect anything else as of this build. It doesn't really strike my fancy because of this limited set of scene possibilities, but I can't ignore that it's an actual game rather than another Ren'Py, RPGM, or HTML game.

It plays rather like a Flash game from the Newgrounds heyday, with a bit of animation tweening here and there to boot. Perhaps if I were younger and more impressionable, this might have awoken something in me, but I'm afraid tis ground well tread at this point. I've seen much better animation by now, and my wank material tastes are unfortunately too refined for this rather milquetoast outing. Still, the artwork deserves praise for being fairly competent, and it can hardly be said that the game doesn't have some creative charm in enemy and level design.

Since it plays like a Flash game, I'm afraid that the graphics quality needs to be turned down in order to assure that you'll hit your button presses on rhythm to the song. Not a huge loss, honestly, but it's also not a guarantee, and some measure of skill is still required to play this, although not as much as the game it shamelessly pulls inspiration from.

It's not bad, is what I'm getting at, but if you're looking for a wank, you might try elsewhere, especially if you're left handed like myself. Appallingly, there's no single-hand mode for lefties like myself -- the game appears to play exclusively in WASD+Spacebar, unless I missed something in the options menu.

Well, whatever, best of luck to the dev in rounding this one out. It's not for me, but it'll certainly please some folks.

Review for build 2021-12-10

This game has a ton of potential so I didn't want to be too negative, but 3/5 really is the max I can give it right now.

This concept is great is you like bdsm content. You basically go through a dungeon, defeat enemies, deal with traps and free prisoners. It is short right now, but has enough in place to try it out.

Pros:
1. The art is very good.
2. Music is good so far. (Only one song I think?)

Cons:
1. There is no story.
2. There are no instructions. The UI does make it fairly obvious that you want to free prisoners and capture cultists, but some more information would be helpful.
3. Art seems to be mostly happen when you lose. Now this is arguable, especially with how short the game is, but I did notice it, so I'm gonna mention it. There is art of prisoners and cultists, but the main full art seems to happen when you lose. Some people might be okay with that, but as losing also resets the level, I think it's pretty annoying design. It's a bit early to call though, they could easily move in a different direction on this one.
4. The combat is incredibly basic and clunky. I had a number of issues with the combat that really made the experience annoying.
You have to press a button for every step/attack, you can't hold down the button. The steps (and to a lesser extent the attacks) are slow, which makes it feel clunky.
The enemy attack indicators aren't the best, the cultists seem to warn you with yellow and then keep damaging you when it turns red? It really wasn't clear enough in my opinion (this may sound like I'm stupid, but I think if you see it, you'll get what I mean).
When defeating a cultists, you have to make a choice that seems to stops you from moving. When fighting multiple enemies at once, this means the other enemies get free hits on you, which can be a dead sentence.
Finally, I also didn't find any way to heal, which I feel is a bit harsh, but that's just personal preference.

So overall:
It's really short right now, so if you like the concept give it a try. The game has good potential, but has a number of issues it will need to fix to really realize that potential. Make the combat less clunky and make the players goals (and how to accomplish them) more clear. If they can achieve that, they already have a solid base for the game.

A really good start to a game I am excited to see completed!

Art: 5/5
Unique style that is well executed with good variety and detail. Needs a gallery since the game itself takes too much concentration to enjoy the art properly, but that will almost certainly come in time.

Gameplay: 4/5
Effectively a lewd crypt of the necrodancer with a far more forgiving difficulty curve (e.g. you can heal and have more than three HP). Combat is a little too simple and slow at the moment and could stand to be a bit faster paced. Honestly, taking inspiration from some of the necrodancer design choices for enemy/weapon/buff design would be a good move.

Music: 4/5
For a game like this, this is critical. Only one level soundtrack in place for the demo but it is a bopper! Hopefully quality will only improve from here.

Story: Don't worry about it / 5

As of the first playable demo, the game is already showing tons of potential. The art is high quality, the concept it done nicely and the animations are quite good. Its still missing a several components like player defeat screens, something to do with the money we collect and a bit more instruction on how to play. But overall, its definitely a good game and worth checking out if you're into tentacles, bdsm, dungeon crawlers or furries.