Betrayer

In the end, Betrayer is still $20 well spent.

For the price of £15 you get a game that rewards you with story and atmosphere, albeit a slight lacklustre combat experience and a game that is in need of updates adding more enemies and areas. Is it worth looking at this game? For certain. For me at least there are a number of unanswered questions that I need to resolve.

Betrayer in no way is a bad game, but also it is not what one would expect from developers with such experience. If you are interested in a remarkable horror/adventure/FPS with heavy exploration and mystery, then it is worth your attention, otherwise check somewhere else.

Despite its ups and downs, it's easy to turn a blind eye to Betrayer's faults thanks to its good atmosphere.

Conceptually interesting, visually stunning, but ultimately feels hollow in the gameplay department. [May 2014, p.62]

Betrayer is certainly an atypical FPS both in visual style and in the environment, both in gameplay that mixes exploration, combat, and search for clues in a particular way.

It's not a perfect game and has its fair share of defects, but Betrayer knows how take advantage of its strong points: a great setting and hybrid playability.

It could have done with being ten dollars cheaper and two hours shorter, but Betrayer is a beautiful looking title with a compelling atmosphere and enjoyably tense combat.

A lot of riddles are solved by the end of the game, yet even as the final curtain falls, many more questions are left unanswered.

Betrayer is a hugely atmospheric and unique game, with a cool exploration/survival thrust that never gets frustrating thanks to some excellent sound and visual design, but it's really let down by these two major flaws. It desperately wants to be scary but never manages it, but most importantly it gets way too repetitive way too fast.

Betrayer is a very interesting first person adventure, with several hardcore elements but also a lot of annoying things to deal with.

Blackpowder Games' debut is a thrilling experience, which sometimes is able to scare the player. With its creepy atmosphere, you won't get bored, but the concept sometimes is clumsy and recurring. Even with its flaws, it's a delightful horror game.

Betrayer is rougher around the edges than its stylish exterior may suggest, but it's never less than fascinating.

There are definitely some areas that could use a little polish - inventory and shop system, the save/load points, but those things aside, the game is fun to play.

Navigating the environment is both refreshingly unguided and frustratingly obtuse. [June 2014, p.79]

An interesting experiment that’s only partly successful. Betrayer has its moments but in the long run becomes too repetitive. [06/2014, p.51]

We appreciate the attempt of doing something original, but not all gameplay mechanics are well implemented, creating an experience that some times becomes way too confusing. Still, if you like the idea behind and you understand what pieces don't fit as they should, it deserves a try.

It starts promising and gets better in the final act, but the bulk of Betrayer's journey is let down by inconsistent quality, repeat enemies, and investigative drudgery.

A solid stealth game that fails as an action adventure. While the aesthetics are interesting, the story quickly becomes a bore. [Issue#241]

Betrayer absolutely excels at offering a mysterious and atmospheric world to explore, which is supported with a fantastic monochromatic art direction and strong ambient sounds. It’s just a shame that the combat, AI and structure of the game can become monotonous; losing its magic that it hit you full on at the start of the game.

It truly is wonderful to see a company try something creative and succeed in at least some areas. The art, the mechanics and the atmosphere all work and come together very well. The downfall, however, is that Betrayer wants to be mysterious, but the inscrutable objectives become too perplexing due to a couple of factors, and as a result the game becomes one big enigma in itself.

A narrative with no juices and no firm hand is the reason you lose your interest in a few hours playing the game, which is definitely a pity. But you see, stealth and tactical combats in the woods are both fun and thrilling, and they use a background that is stylish and functional at the same time.

Betrayer faces interesting dilemmas. It has an intriguing story built from a great mystery and good gameplay to back it up, but feels unnecessarily punishing.

Betrayer is like a decaying old mansion. Inside there is leaky roof, holes in the floor and walls… Yet the beautiful black-and-white façade still looks amazing.

This mix of ideas just never properly congeals. Uncovering mysteries and vanquishing foes while building up your repertoire and knowledge should be fun, but wandering this world is often little better than performing listless chores.

Its mechanics and narrative grew routine. I appreciated those aesthetics only from a distance it wouldn’t give me. It’s hard to criticize a game for being good-looking, but it’s hard not to when its ambitions so clearly lay beyond that.

Quotation forthcoming.

A poor payoff for hours spent trudging through this black-and-white world. [Issue#147, p.120]

These contrived, familiar mechanics rob Betrayer of its initial promise: taut stealth against monstrous creatures and mystery.

Betrayer’s unique setting, style, and grim stories that pepper the journey all make this a game that’s eye-catching at first glance and briefly emotional. But the things you actually do in this world rarely come across as anything other than uninspired.

Stylistically and in terms of storytelling Betrayer is very interesting. But in the long run neither mechanics nor game direction can deliver.

Betrayer is an FPS where the shooting is lackluster and the enemies annoying.

Unfortunately, Betrayer falls apart quickly, and it can’t afford to do this given how short it is.