We were able to get our hands on Profane, let's find out in this review if the mix between bullet hell and the twin stick shooter worked properly
Nowadays, triple A videogame products follow a very specific trend. Each large production pursues the goal of to be able to do everything with the aim of keeping the player glued to the title as many hours as possible in a chase to the biggest open world of all. Typically you are looking for a quantity of content that is at the expense of quality. Indie productions go against the tide, looking for an idea to develop into a product with one contained but well structured frame. Profane follows precisely this direction trying to give the player an essential but satisfying experience.
What is Profane?
The title is developed by OverPowered Team, a small Spanish studio made up of only 5 developers, and published by Alternative Software. Profane is proposed as a Twin Stick Shooter with strong influences from Bullet Hell. The game is a great Boss Rush, so the adventure will only consist of boss fights (in total there are 9, plus one that is proposed as a tutorial).
The plot of the game is just a pretext to enter the gameplay after a few minutes. The player plays the role of Vaccines, the last of the seven masks of the Heralds, who will have to fight his fellow men in order to absorb their powers and break the cycle. The tale gives a reason why Boss Rush is faced and allows the developers to give immediate context to the game mechanics and nothing more.
It is possible to play the Story mode, which is the main one of the game, in addition to the Daily Challenges that allow you to take on a boss with a predetermined set of skills in a single attempt. Finally there is the Challenge Mode which increases the longevity of the game for those who want to perfect their skills.
Time at the center of everything - Profane Review
The main game mechanics are based on the Time. The capital letter is no coincidence, in fact this concept will be the basis of every aspect of the game. Bosses must be defeated within a time limit when it expires we will be extremely vulnerable and one hit will be enough to lose the game and have to start the boss all over again. Furthermore, our protagonist has no health level. Whatever blow is inflicted on us, we will lose precious seconds that will inexorably lead us to defeat.
To complicate matters is added the possibility of having 4 passive skills and 4 active skills. They will unlock as the powers of defeated enemies are absorbed. We will be able to freely make use of passive skills, while active ones will cost time if they are equipped. It is up to the player to manage in the best way the insertion of active skills by deciding whether it is worth having an extra power or having more time against the enemy to face.
Fight, Lose, Try Again - Profane Review
Proper time management is essential to progress in the game. However, we would like to tell you that you can feel free to use all the skills you want. In fact, those 15 or 30 seconds less will not change your life. Indeed the heart of the game is in learning boss attack patterns in order to understand how to avoid their blows. The bosses are varied and each has different peculiarities making each battle unique.
The difficulty curve is calibrated upwards, even the first boss of the tutorial is quite challenging. Defeat will be the order of the day and may seem frustrating to some. Indeed, profane does not forgive the slightest distraction and will punish every single mistake. But if you are looking for a hardcore experience this is the title for you. With each defeat you will feel that you have learned something new and after a few (maybe many) attempts you will be able to overcome the obstacle. The satisfaction when you win is remarkable, the “try and repeat” mechanism is similar to the one that is triggered with the bosses of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Boss patterns are always extremely legible in order to facilitate learning. Almost all of the blows are avoidable if you are precise with the movements, a shame only for some rare situation in which the attack cannot be avoided except with a specific skill. However, there is talk of truly sporadic occasions.
A fluctuating progression - Profane Review
If the difficulty is always high, there are points where the progression begins to falter. The title of OverPowered Team takes us into a loop in which with each defeat you improve your skills, to the point where you defeat the boss and are rewarded with new skills to fight increasingly powerful enemies.
However, this simple but effective mechanism breaks down towards the end of the game. Indeed the latest bosses seem the least inspired in terms of attack patterns, sometimes abandoning the Bullet Hell style. One gets the impression that it is no longer necessary to make millimeter movements to avoid the blows but it is enough to hit the enemy for upload skills to use without any mercy. In fact, some combinations of powers are really devastating and trivialize a bit the gameplay component that makes Profane more interesting.
An excellent debut
The OverPowered Team guys do a good debut on the scene, in fact Profane is their first product to be marketed. The password is essentiality. The team is small and the budget will probably have been small as well. However, the developers were not afraid to overshadow aspects such as the plot or the sound sector to offer a well thought out and done gameplay.
We would like to recommend Profane if you are looking for a hardcore experience that will put you to the test right away. Longevity is highly variable depending on your skills and replay value is very high if you intend to perfect yourself against each boss.
Recall that Profane is available now on Steam at a cost of 16 euros. The game is also fully translated into Spanish in all texts. Stay connected on techigames for other reviews and to stay up to date on the gaming world and beyond!
7.5 Ideal for hardcore gamersPoints in favor
- Simple but fun gameplay
- Suitable for lovers of challenges
- Varied bosses
Points against
- Poorly balanced skills
- Second part of the game less inspired
