Ex Natura: Nature Corrupted

My first thought when I started digging into Ex Natura was not about the combat loop or the level design - it was about origin. The project's creator recorded a black metal album in 2016, themed around corrupted nature and a mythic prehistory, and years later turned that whole sonic universe into a game. That kind of obsessive, inside-out worldbuilding is rare, and it shows in the lore. You play as Elrih, the God of Air, in a pre-human age when the Primogenitus still walked the earth, the World Tree was young, and two divine forces - Elrih and the destructive Gul - were locked in a war over whether nature survives at all. That backstory is not window dressing. It threads through everything, from the enemy design to the vertical layout of the world, which literally takes you from underground dungeons up to the sky. The combat is the souls-lite foundation you would expect: melee strikes, magic attacks, a dash, a wall jump, and a central Enrage mechanic that adds a risk/reward spike to fights. The team cites Prince of Persia 2008 and Dark Souls as direct inspirations, and you can feel both. When the movement clicks - wall jumps chaining into a teleport dash, a boss telegraphing an opening - the game has a pleasing, slightly untamed energy. Platforming sections break up the combat rhythm, and scattered puzzles slow things down further in a way that feels deliberate rather than padded. Herb crafting feeds into potion preparation before tougher encounters, nudging you toward tactical thinking rather than pure reflexes. The skill tree lets you shape Elrih toward straight melee aggression or magic-heavy builds, which adds some replay texture for a game of this scale. Boss fights are the clear highlight; the team poured obvious care into making each encounter feel distinct. Where the game is less polished is in moment-to-moment movement. Some players in the community have flagged the character getting snagged on geometry during wall climbs, and a save file corruption bug has appeared in forum discussions. These are the kinds of rough spots you find in a first-time studio's debut, and Blackburne Games has stayed active with updates since launch. The Steam community rating sits in Mostly Positive territory, which is honestly fair - this is a game that rewards patience with its oddities, not one that disguises them. For the indie-curious who like their action RPGs with genuine mythological weight and a slightly handmade atmosphere, Ex Natura does something that the genre's bigger entries rarely attempt: it feels like it came from a specific mind with a specific obsession. That specificity is its most valuable quality. The Enrage mechanic alone is worth seeing in a boss fight context. If you need a mechanically flawless experience, look elsewhere. If you want to feel the texture of a small team swinging for something genuinely strange, this deserves the time.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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