Project Black Sun

Project Black Sun is an Indie Metroidvania for PC, Mac and Linux, made by Starflower Games. You play as a young man who, during his morning Running and Jogging routine, winds up hitting a pitfall, or an unstable piece of ground, or something.

Look, the point is, now you're in a cave full of monsters who want to kill you. You've got a gun with a 10-round capacity, some paper to map out your progress, and a hugeass backpack to store all the collectibles you find. That last thing is particularly important, because you're going to need everything you can get your hands on if you want to survive.

Because, although the game doesn't sell itself from this angle, the first thing you'll discover about this game is that it's Really. Really. Hard.

How hard? Let's break it down:

1: You start off with 2 hit points.

2: You can't shoot diagonally or up.

3: You can't shoot while jumping.

4: The most common enemy you'll be seeing for a while can fly.

5: The platforming segments require pinpoint precision.

6: Save points are few and far between. Cherish them.

This has caused reception of the game to be rather... polarizing, to say the least. While many view a lot of these as crippling design flaws that ruin what could have been a truly awesome game, others find it a refreshing return to true retro Metroidvania gameplay and satisfyingly high difficulty in an industry that doesn't really provide seasoned veterans of gaming a decent challenge anymore.

It's hard to come up with a single complaint about the game that won't be met by fans of the game with the cry of, "That's part of what makes it so great."

The official Starflower Games website can be found here.

The game is on sale for $7.00, and a free demo is also available.

Price at Desura is now 1.49 euros for some reason.