Vessels of Decay

I went into Vessels of Decay genuinely excited. Post-apocalyptic Scandinavia, two sisters chasing a mythical boar to find a shaman who can raise their dead mother, creatures ripped straight from Norse legend stalking through ruins of a civilization that left its milk trucks rusting in overgrown streets. That premise has more personality than most indie pitches I read in a month. The pixel art holds up its end of the bargain too: the handcrafted environments carry real atmosphere, outdoor sections in particular feel like the world is breathing around you, and the synth score leans into the melancholy without overdoing it. The structure runs across 10 linear stages, switching perspective between Freja and Mud as each sibling has her own relationship with the old gods and her own set of abilities. Freja and Mud can execute or absorb certain enemies, and that mechanic connects directly to the story in a way I genuinely appreciated. In combat you have light attacks, heavy attacks, a parry, a dodge, and execution finishers that trigger animated flourishes once an enemy is staggered. There is a skill tree and experience-based level-up system. On paper, the kit is solid. In practice, the execution feels half-cooked. Movement is sluggish even at sprint, the stamina meter managing your dodge and escape options runs dry faster than it should in chaotic moments, and the puzzle design rarely rises above "find object in dark room, place in socket." The skill tree grants incremental damage bumps rather than anything that meaningfully reshapes how a fight plays out, which is a shame when the two-sister dynamic hinted at real build variety. Then there are the bugs. Multiple critics flagged crashes, invisible enemies, sprint bindings that stop responding mid-chase, bosses wandering offscreen, and a controller-detection issue at launch that required a full reconnect dance just to reach the main menu. The checkpoint system compounds the problem: dying does not restore your health, so landing a save at low HP in a dense enemy area can lock you into a punishing loop that only breaks if you have XP banked to level up your health stat. None of these issues are game-ending on their own, but together they sit on top of a combat loop that critics largely called repetitive even when it was working correctly. Steam user reviews at launch sat at roughly 52 percent positive, which tracks with the pattern of "love the vibe, frustrated by the play." The core of what Simon Jakobsson built here is genuinely interesting. The Scandinavian cultural texture, the mother-resurrection quest, the interplay between the two sisters, the boss encounters that ask for pattern recognition and reflex rather than just button mashing: these are the bones of a good game. The flesh needs more time. If the developer continues patching (and the publisher has indicated updates are ongoing), this could reach the level its aesthetic deserves. Right now it is a cautious recommendation for players who can tolerate rough edges in exchange for a setting they will not find anywhere else. Monika, Scout Team