Cloud Island

I have been playing this game on and off since I bought it. Since there is no neutral recommendation, I give this game a positive recommendation. I have encountered several glitches in the game: floating in air from the falling rocks you have to jump on, placement of the character in awkward places, and fighting a character after he could not reach me as I was on a wooden plank (was not able to attack me). Despite those glitches (so far), I have enjoyed the game. As a noob to PC play, it has made me a better keyboard/mouse player. The design/graphics of the game is why I bought the game. Some of the sound elements need to be adjusted (especially when you die: extremely loud). Anyhow, given the price currently (as it is on sale) is worth it. Thanks!

I got interested in Bjorn becausde of the art style, which truly looks great.
However, the gameplay, especially the combat, is severely lacking.

Bjorn (FKA "Cloud Island," which I found to be a much more appealing name) is a 2.5D side-scrolling action RPG with a unique visual style and fairly simplistic mechanics. Unfortunately, in its current state, Bjorn is riddled with technical, mechanical, and design issues which make it more frustrating than fun.

To put it succinctly, I would describe Bjorn as a game in which the art direction far exceeds the technical output. It has a very striking appearance, with low-poly models, fantastic lighting, and a tilt-shifted lens effect which gives everything an interesting miniaturized look.

The technical issues are many, however:
- The game seems to launch with the volume at 0%
- Various display resolutions don't seem to display correctly - on my 4K monitor, 4K and 1080p worked correctly, but 1440p did not. Additionally, the resolution picker box would sometimes render empty
- Numerous issues with audio playback, primarily sound effects instantly playing multiple times, each overlapping the previous effect
- Hitboxes and collision are all over the place, making attacking a specific target very difficult and unclear, and hits would often register numerous times even within a single strike
- Copy and dialogue is riddled with errors - I get the sensation the developer may not be a native English-speaker
- Key and mouse presses often seem not to register - this is especially problematic when it comes to attacks, as the combo system doesn't seem to work consistently
- UI could be made dramatically more clear - switch the health value to a bar, move other values to lower priority, add backgrounds on subtitles and change text to white or a similar neutral color, add mouseover effects to menu options, etc.
- Gravity settings seem to be a bit off - the player character will leave the ground even upon walking over a bridge

The game's mechanics also require some refinement:

- Combat needs to flow more smoothly - as it is, it's unclear to me how it's intended to flow. Enemies come at you in groups and will attack relentlessly, and this plus your slow-to-register hits means you almost never have an opportunity to strike back without getting hit
- Attack registration and combos need to be much more clear - I couldn't tell how to begin a combo, when a combo ends, if there's some sort of cooldown between swings, etc.
- Level design is fairly unimaginative - a series of floating platforms which you traverse left-to-right. The only obstacles generally seem to be gaps or trees, both of which are oddly-placed and trivial to overcome
- Story could be delivered in a clearer, more coherent way - right now, it's fairly obtuse

Truth be told, it's a bit difficult to assess the mechanics while there are so many technical issues.

Assuming the developer patches up some of these issues, I'll be happy to revisit and reassess my rating. As for now, Bjorn is a beautiful game with a lot of issues, so I probably wouldn't recommend it at its current price.

Find more reviews and recommendations on my Steam Curator page, Indie Infinitesimal:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41769714/

Bjorn, a game that promises a dramatic and interesting story about a brother kidnapping your wife. Sounds good, but the gameplay quality just doesn't feel good enough to bother to play even for the story. The world being 2.5d just makes it more difficult to control than if it was just 2d and doesn't really bring anything more to the game. Even just the tutorial is currently slightly lacking, it tells things you can do, but not necessarily how to do them.

The visual look of the game is what made me buy it, but the gameplay was so lacking, it made even the visuals more bothersome than beautiful.