Author: Jacob Bullard

Exanima is an early access, isometric RPG with a physics based combat system in a low fantasy setting made by Bare Mettle Entertainment. I’m sure you’ve heard of World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings, well those would be considered “High Fantasy” settings with magic and otherworldly creatures being an extremely common occurrence. In Exanima magic is referred to as “thaumaturgy” and has lesser effects on gameplay, while still retaining it’s handiness. This is the first isometric game I am covering so as a quick explanation, it’s the view you have while playing the sims or a total war game. You are viewing your character and surroundings from the top, down. A perspective that you will find is essential to gameplay and gives you a great view of your tiny character getting jumped by 8 barely clothed undead with candlesticks and table legs. Is this Clue? No, this is Exanima. But yes it was the zombie in the soup kitchen with the butter knife who just gutted you while you flailed around and fell over. Speaking of which, that’s the core gameplay!

Exanima has gameplay unlike any other game I’ve ever played. Nothing even comes close! Although that’s not always a good thing. With certain combinations of clicks your character does different swings, and you can whip your mouse in the correct direction to increase the strength and speed of the swing. With that being said, it also makes your character commit much more to the swing, leaving yourself more vulnerable. There is a fairly steep learning curve to the combat system, along with the ranges of weapons, which pieces of clothing and armor to equip and how they layer on top of each other, what kind of damage is best for what type of enemy, and much more! Now this is a fairly decent learning curve where you can go at your own pace and take your time. Until you get past the third level. In Exanima it is your goal to escape, and all you have is a torch, a concussion, a heavy handful of memory loss, and a dream! Even though you want to get OUT the only way is to go DOWN. Once you get past the first three floors the difficulty curve spikes dramatically. We’ll get to that later though, first let’s talk about what makes games difficult! The horribly hungry hostile hags that have a hankering for human haunch! 

As you make your way through this lengthy labyrinth of losers you will first encounter basic undead enemies. Barely clothed, holding working tools they once clutched to in life, roaming the halls and searching for a meal. They are easy to dispatch and leave themselves open giving you plenty of time to strike. Some of them aren’t even inherently hostile until you attack them! As you proceed you will find undead wearing better equipment with better weapons and most of them are automatically hostile. You may even encounter other humans on rare occasions! They wanna kill you too though, so don’t think you’re going to be making any friends down here. Making your way down the levels you can find skeletons in varying armors as well. Eventually though, you will encounter ghouls, a joint creation of Hitler and Satan. This is where the omega difficulty spike begins. I was able to clear out the sewers, and make it fairly far down until I got jumped by 3 ghouls and could do absolutely nothing. Along with regular ghouls, there’s alpha ghouls, and gobblers. Variations of ghouls who are even stronger. If that’s not enough, how about 7ft tall men in full suits of armor with enough body mass to put Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to shame who sprint like Usain Bolt and there’s two or more in every room on one level?  So why play knowing you’re going to get curb stomped semi late in the game? Well, it’s all about the presentation of said curb stomping.

The absolute best part of exanima is the atmosphere. The style, the enemies, even the combat system itself. You feel hopeless, lost, and scared that any enemy can kill you if you make a wrong move. I love the art style, very gritty and decently realistic. Having to swing open every door with the mouse instead of just clicking a button. Picking up and dragging weapons to your inventory instead of just spamming “E”. Being able to layer a shirt, a tunic, a chainmail shirt, and a breastplate. Knowing that if you got dropped into a dark dungeon tomorrow you too would flail around like an idiot since you don’t know how to swing a sword or hold a shield correctly. You are not the main character here. You are an ordinary person who just wants to escape with your life and it shows. Incredibly sparse healing along with a lack of coordination, and a permanent sense of dread as you hear enemies moving around in the other room. I keep replaying the beginning of the game again and again, practicing my moves and trying to commit the sprawling expanse of hallways and tiny rooms to memory. When you finally land a heavy swing with a two handed weapon and absolute ANNIHILATE your enemies now caved in cranium is more satisfying than anything else I’ve experienced in a game. When you actually start to succeed and find good gear you feel such a sense of pride seeing as you winced at every sound and crept around every corner for the past two hours. Exanima is a master at ambiance and mood, even with all that said. I don’t know if I can recommend it.

I have put 33 hours into Exanima and I plan to play more. Even with all the praises I gave I also have to say, if you aren’t ready to learn a whole new combat system that no other games emulate, don’t pick it up. If you don’t like hard games, don’t pick it up. But if you are ready to learn, have the patience, and want to experience a gritty, low fantasy, high stakes adventure the likes of which you will never see in another game, I wholeheartedly recommend Exanima. The game will run you about 15 USD, thankfully that’s a price point even 14 year old me could afford so anyone can give it a try. You could also wait for it to go on sale if you aren’t sure seeing as the devs keep adding more content to the game and making improvements. As far as I can tell this is Bare Bones Entertainment’s first game, but it’s actually a prelude to another game they are working on called “Sui Generis” that I believe will have a similar combat system and top down experience as Exanima. Perhaps Exanima was a proof of concept while Sui Generis will be the full experience? Either way I will make sure to keep an eye on Bare Bones as they continue development of both projects. Also whoever designed the ghouls being able to stunlock you with one wrong move, I am prepared to fight you. Email me at jacob.bullard766@gmail.com and you can pick the game. I’ve got a score to settle.