RoguedexPart 1 (Sep 2023) · #27 of 35 in that tierWatch the moment (2:43:13)
Sundered®: Eldritch Edition
- Developed by
- Thunder Lotus
- Published by
- Thunder Lotus
$19.99
Sundered is a chaotic hand-drawn metroidvania where you resist or embrace ancient eldritch powers, a challenging and unique take on a classic genre from the creators of Jotun, now with local co-op!
Consensus
C68.8/100
Steam players81.7% positiveVery Positive5,179 reviews
Metacritic ↗74/100Users: 7.1/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈191K copies · ≈$2.2M gross
What creators say
What players say
A hand-drawn Lovecraftian Metroidvania from Thunder Lotus (Jotun) with procedurally assembled maps, endless enemy horde rooms, and a corruption-based power system.
Sundered is well liked overall: Steam shows Very Positive (about 82%, roughly 5,200 reviews), and Metacritic sits at a Mixed-or-Average 74 from 39 critics, with user score 7.1. Nearly everyone praises the hand-drawn art, animation, atmosphere, boss designs and the fluid movement and abilities. The split is over the core design: the endless horde spawns, semi-procedural maps and stat-driven progression delight some players and feel repetitive and tedious to others. It is a finished 2017 release (Eldritch Edition added the free Magnate of the Gong update with new areas and local co-op); it is not early access. Some recent Steam reviewers mention a dip in recent ratings, and the top positive reviews push back on it.
Players love
- Gorgeous hand-drawn art and fluid animation, the most universally praised element (Thunder Lotus signature, compared with Jotun and Spiritfarer)
- Large, memorable boss fights that reward learning patterns
- Movement and traversal feel great, and new abilities (especially corrupted versions via eldritch shards) make you feel powerful
- Atmospheric Lovecraftian world, soundtrack and sparse, evocative lore with a narrator voice and multiple endings
- Sprawling central skill tree and build variety give a real sense of progression after each death
- Procedural layout keeps exploration fresh and makes a blend of Metroidvania and roguelite that some call the most meaningful one they have played
- Non-linear exploration and currency collection, plus difficulty options and easy 100% achievements for completionists
Common complaints
- Endless horde rooms and waves of weak, repeated enemy types (palette swaps) feel overwhelming, spammy and screen-covering
- Combat is described as button mashing or dodging, with little depth outside bosses
- Long stretches of empty or samey rooms; the map is not very helpful and the start is confusing with little explanation
- Some boss fights are considered poorly designed (either trivial with the right build or slow and tanky)
- Local co-op is widely called a letdown: the second player cannot die, collect items or meaningfully interact
- Keyboard play suffers, notably the grappling hook section (works far better on a gamepad)
- Story is told obliquely and is easy to miss or forget; it is also short (roughly 10 to 20 hours)
Can feel tedious
- Endless enemy respawns that force you to stop and fight while chipping away at your health, then chase you back through rooms
- Grinding perks and shards; guides reportedly recommend AFK or boss farming for money, which players read as a flawed progression loop
- Three endings requiring separate playthroughs, repeating the same path and looting
- Running through many empty rooms to get from A to B
- Overly complex skill tree with few exciting unlocks for some players
- Early game frustration before upgrades arrive
What's unique
- Resist or Embrace system: corrupt abilities with eldritch shards for power at the cost of humanity, leading to different endings
- Procedurally assembled Metroidvania map with handcrafted elements rather than a fixed hand-built world
- Horde-based combat where huge numbers of enemies spawn continuously in some rooms
- Roguelite-style permanent upgrades via a central skill tree that let you come back stronger after death
- Lovecraftian setting in an abandoned underground military base with huge boss sprites
Players want
- Clearer onboarding and tutorials, including explaining shard destruction and corruption mechanics
- More enemy variety and less reliance on palette-swapped stronger variants
- Better map and navigation clarity in a procedurally assembled world
- A meaningful co-op design where player two has health and can interact with the world
- More flexible save slots, since players say the three slots limit getting all endings without replaying
- Clearer storytelling and more content or length
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
RoguevaniaMetroidvaniaLovecraftianAction RoguelikeIndiePlatformerHand-drawn2DFemale ProtagonistAction
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Sundered is a Metroidvania with roguelike elements bolted on. He thinks the visuals, world and story make a great Metroidvania, but the roguelike layer feels like a last-second addition that hurts it. Build randomization is stripped out, leaving only randomized map portions and enemies. He would recommend it to some people for the visuals, but says it would be much better if it were not a roguelike. He places it in low B.
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