#113 (Patreon)

Pure Onyx By Eromancer

[Summary]

Pure Onyx is a classic beat ‘em up with RPG elements.

It follows heroine Onyx as she brawls her way through the dystopian streets of New Babylon, where she’ll encounter gangs, crime syndicates, a corrupt police force, and the bio-engineered horrors of the insidious Babel Corporation.

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Review:

For the entire time this blog existed, I don't think I was ever so torn apart about my opinion on a game I reviewed as much as this one.

There are number of reasons for either side to like or dislike this project.
Lets first start with a brief introduction then:

Pure Onyx, as the summary already said - is a beat 'em up game.
You control Onyx, select a level to start from, and beat up the enemies that are themed around it.
Unlike the classic formula of advancing from one stage to another in an arcade style (e.g Double Dragon, Battletoads), here you fight waves of enemies, until you reach the final boss of the area, all while finding different items and gear to help you progress.

The controls are simple: WASD movement, jump, punch, kick, block, and dash.
So far everything is seemingly by-the-book beat 'em up standard concept, until you start playing...

Lets start with the bad, so you can have something good to look forward to later:

Combat is very basic, and I mean VERY! You can't throw quick combo mix-ups such as kicks into punches and vice-versa.
Running attack doesn't exist, and all attacks lag after being executed, so you have to commit to each punch and kick.

Dodge button doesn't really work, so you end up strategizing (if you can call it that way) around positioning where enemies can't reach you but you can reach them.
Still doesn't help when you get pummeled into submission because well... you can't really dodge more than moving up and down.

Don't even get me started on maggots that you cannot damage unless you punch them as they are right in your face.

So yeah, saying the combat isn't the greatest would be an understatement.
Not gonna say I haven't seen worse performances in other titles, because there are certainly some questionable projects out there that I wouldn't mind stripping off all gameplay aspects and leave just the lewds.

However, when your brand earns you no less than $17k/mo (yes, you've read correctly) as of writing these lines just from one source of income, then you gotta wonder how did we end up in this state of gameplay? How come that's all there is to it?

And here's the plus, the BIG plus if you want: The art direction and the animations are DROP DEAD GORGEOUS!
I wouldn't be surprised if you even clicked "Continue Reading" because of the beautiful thumbnails I provided.

You know, usually I take my time to look for the most interesting and beautiful parts of a game I'm covering to add as screenshots, but here? every damn screen can easily sell the game. Even the bloody main menu!

Eromancer and co. sure know how to sculpt stunning female models, but what they impress with even more, are the insanely smooth, fluid, and near-flawless H animations.
Often in H games, 3D animations tend to have clipping of models, or very basic back and forth motion to call it a day.
Here we get a full scene, with full interaction between each touching part (not just a long polygon entering a solid texture).

The models feel very much alive, and daresay are the most solid and main reason this game managed to continue its development for 4 years (and going). 

On one hand we get a very mediocre gaming experience that cannot justify its development process.
On the other hand we get some of the highest grade 3D H animations ever known to mankind in a video game, in a beautiful '90s cyberpunk setting.

Look, I think that at the end of the day you must remember that no matter how amazing an H game's gameplay is - eventually you came for the spicy content.
Gameplay is very important to me when recommending games, but every once in a while I come across a conflict between very high quality adult content, to a poor gaming experience.

Will Pure Onyx ever get finished? probably not.
Does it offer adult content that justifies its price? probably yes.
Do I recommend it as an H game? Yes. For gameplay? No.

There's no definite answer here, which means if you like what you see, then feel more than free to support Eromancer on their Patreon and gain access to other related content besides the game itself. (guaranteed better value than purchasing the game directly)

You can also follow Eromancer's Twitter to find more posts and media related to their projects!

Many H games are far from perfect, but as long as they manage to deliver what they originally came to do with a respectful amount of effort, then it would be hypocritical of me to disregard them as failures.

❤️ For relevant H content of this title you may contact me in DM for referrals.