Severed

It's rare to discover a developer that has established such a signature style that with a single glance can be immediately identified. Drinkbox’s unique approach to style fills the world of Severed with a style rarely seen in other titles. Vibrant colors mark each zone with its own particular style while somber, darker tones accentuate the environments with a color palette all too familiar to those that donned a luchador persona in Guacamelee.

Sony’s handheld system hasn’t seen many notable exclusives recently, but DrinkBox Studios has finally given players a new reason to pick up their Vitas with Severed. The developer (of Guacamelee fame) ties together rewarding touchscreen combat, enjoyable first-person exploration and puzzles, and a fulfilling upgrade system into one exciting package that no Vita owner should miss.

A fantastically strange and unique first person adventure that manages to make touchscreen controls seem fresh and interesting again.

Utilizing the Wii U gamepad’s touchscreen controls, Severed serves up a fantastic adventure with plenty of engaging swordplay and a healthy dose of monstrous bodily dismemberment. The beautiful art style and a subtly-told melancholy story keeps players absorbed in the bizarre world in between bloody battles and the clever, Zelda-style dungeon puzzles.

The game’s sound fits the visuals perfectly. Sombre themes softly play in the background as you find your way through each dungeon and forest, adding an extra layer of melancholy to the game’s mood. Even the sounds that the game’s enemies and few characters make emit a certain type of creepiness, which suits their designs well.

Truly unique first-person dungeon crawlers are hard to come by yet this new portable title is quite promising. Get your finger ready for some furious swiping and let's see if Severed is worth accidentally scratching up your Vita screen.

Severed is at its best when it features short, tactical fights in its eerily beautiful dungeons, but those battles largely lose their appeal by the second half. Combat becomes tedious due to boring buffs instead of introducing new ideas in order to make battles more challenging. That blow to the combat’s longevity wouldn’t have felt so bad if exploring the bizarre world weren’t so tedious.

It’s a fun, simple, good looking game with a surprisingly deep combat system. That said, there isn’t much more to the game besides the occasional dungeon puzzles so if you’re hungry for more, this game might not be for you. If you have the patience for repeated battles while dungeon crawling, then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to find yourself burning hours just swiping at your screen.