Inayah Life After Gods Review
Summary: In Conclusion Inayah: Life after Gods has all the makings of a great Metroidvania game, there are definitely areas where the game could be improved and frightened up. The UI could be a lot less clunky to use and Inayah could do with an off switch for her quips; But overall the artstyle and controls make this game well worth playing and I would be keen to try any other games that this studio produces.
3.8
Expansive Metroidvania
Inayah: Life after gods is a metroidvania styled action platformer, in which you play the title character Inayah, an orphaned outcast on her journey to find her lost tribe. Along the way she is helped by the deceased vision of her mentor (Very Star Wars like). As she explores a post-apocalyptic overgrown tech-based world.
As is tradition with metroidvania style games Inayah must traverse a labyrinth map filled with enemies and dead ends and areas you will have to return to later once you have the tools to deal with the myriad of unreachable zones. To help Inayah she finds her father’s old gauntlet which gives her the ability to punch; the remaining two weapons are found as runes around the map. Each weapon unlocking the ability to access previously blocked areas. Weapons are able to be switched to on the fly without having to access a menu keeping movement and combat fluid.
I did find the game really lent heavily on using the weapons as part of a progression stopper; it would have been nice for them to maybe add more environmental based puzzles and be less reliant on weapons. Weapons can be upgraded with a skill tree unique to each weapon, this is one area I feel the game is let down and adds many needless options that end up feeling wasteful and unnecessary. The Map at times can feel too expansive, even though this is a Metroidvania game there are times where the areas feel big just for the sake of being big and do not give the player any real reward for finding the secret areas bar some nanites used for upgrades.
The normal enemies in this game whilst numerous do not really give much of a challenge and seem to be there more to knock you off a platform onto spikes than to really kill the player by damage. (Imagine the enemies from the original NES Ninja Gaiden games).
The game features around 20 different bosses each requiring a different tactic and playstyle, do expect to die and need to restart the fights especially nearing the end as the difficulty spikes up. The game leans heavily for repetition to pad its game time out.
The game boasts hand-drawn 2D visuals, bringing its post-apocalyptic world to life with multiple biomes and well-defined set details. Each environment is visually immersive and gives the player an experience that stands out.
The original music score by composer Alex Kestner complements the game’s atmosphere, while the voice acting was very well done. I did find Inayah to become annoying with her continual quips, and I feel it takes away from the desolate atmosphere.
There were a few hiccups when the game was first released that did tarnish the game, one which meant I had to restart from the beginning, thankfully we have had a few hotfixes which have resolved most of the issues.
In Conclusion Inayah: Life after Gods has all the makings of a great Metroidvania game, there are definitely areas where the game could be improved and frightened up. The UI could be a lot less clunky to use and Inayah could do with an off switch for her quips; But overall, the art style and controls make this game well worth playing and I would be keen to try any other games that this studio produces.
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