Remedium: Sentinels – Review

Every now and then a game releases with an incredible gameplay concept that is an instant hit, inspiring people to copy this formula and give their own spin to it. The most popular examples are probably Soulslikes and Metroidvanias. Now it seems that Vampire Survivors, with its addicting gameplay loop of upgrading your heroes against hordes of enemies, is the next in line to deliver a slew of clones. Remedium: Sentinels is one of these clones that puts you against an army of mutant monsters.

Story

In Remedium: Sentinels you take on the role of a golem, known as a Sentinel, to fight the horde of mutants created by the Grey Plague. Since these monsters have been around for more than a hundred years, it’s pretty clear there isn’t a cure, so the Sentinels are humanity’s last hope.

This is all the story you’re going to get, and it is mostly found in the game’s description before you boot it up. During the game itself, there are no things like cutscenes or dialogue to further expand the characters or the world. The only thing present is a bestiary that delivers a bit of information on the mutants. Since the game is purely focused on gameplay, the lack of narrative isn’t that big of a deal. It’s made to just boot up the game and slay some monsters, no questions asked.

Graphics

Being a pretty cheap indie game by a small developer, the expectations for Remedium: Sentinels’ graphics aren’t that high, and they deliver exactly what you would expect. The levels look really bland and a lot like each other, just like the enemy designs. Most of the mutants fall into a handful of categories with just different colors or bigger versions of the same models. The different golems, however, vary in design enough to make them feel unique.

Sound

Remedium: Sentinels’ sound design is there to accompany the gameplay, and it doesn’t do anything more than that. The soundtrack has an ominous aura about it, which fits the setting and levels perfectly but it also doesn’t do anything to stand out from the crowd. The same can be said about the weapons and monsters, as they sound exactly like you would expect them to sound. All of this comes together to deliver a pretty bland presentation. Don’t get us wrong, it does its job but it makes for a very generic experience.

Gameplay

Remedium: Sentinels is a rogue-lite auto-shooter, which is a genre that has risen in popularity over the past year with the release of a few successful games. In this type of game, you take on hordes of enemies, while constantly upgrading yourself and unlocking new weapons until you die and do it all over again to eventually unlock permanent upgrades and beat your high score.

This is a formula Remedium: Sentinels follows to the letter. You select a stage where you’ll begin fighting monsters with just your basic weapon. When defeating these enemies, they’ll drop experience orbs that will help you level up, which lets you choose between three random upgrades. These can range from new weapons, like a minigun or a wasp that attacks enemies, to health upgrades or damage buffs. These are necessary upgrades since the enemies will keep getting stronger and stronger until you inevitably die and have to start over again. You don’t completely reset, however, since you can collect gold to buy permanent upgrades to make each run easier than the previous one.

To mix up the gameplay a bit there is the inclusion of a few different stages. When you survive for fifteen minutes, you will unlock the next one. The problem with these stages is that they don’t offer a lot of variety. Each has a bit of a unique aesthetic, going from the ruins of a castle to a cemetery, and most of the enemies are just reskins. Another unlock is an endless mode of the stage you just beat, which can be used to further grind out some coins. An additional element that switches up the gameplay a bit is the different Sentinels that can be unlocked. Each of these has a unique starting weapon and a different set of upgrades to buy.

While all of these elements and mechanics work well, Remedium: Sentinels has one big drawback: its repetitiveness. While this is a big part of this type of game, the way it normally keeps players engaged is with a constant feeling of progression and new exciting things. This is where the game fails since the currency to unlock these permanent upgrades is given in way too small doses, making you replay the same levels over and over for just a small boost in stats. The same goes for the unlockable stages and Sentinels, as they offer too little variety for the insane amount of work you have to do. All of this makes for a game that can be enjoyed in small doses but feels tiring when played too often.

Conclusion

Remedium: Sentinels is a Vampire Survivor clone and nothing more. The game works and delivers a fun gameplay experience in small doses with a pretty bland presentation. The problem however is that these small doses have to be really small since the slow upgrades make longer sessions feel tedious. The game can be enjoyed, but you won’t be playing it for days on end unless you’re looking for a big grinding experience

Wirotaboto

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