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Corgi Warlock – An Indie Game Review

corgi warlock screenshot golem
Corgi Warlock – An Indie Game Review
1.5

Platforms: Windows PC, Steam

Game Name: Corgi Warlock

Publisher: Xander's Corgi Arcade

Developer: Xander's Corgi Arcade

Genre: Action, Adventure

Release Date: December 3rd, 2015

Corgi Warlock – What We Think

Corgi Warlock is a game with a lot of heart, but it lacks in mechanical quality. As much as I wanted to like it for its derpy dog mascot, the game itself is a snore, a slog – loose in a bad way. The character art and animation are fine, appealing even, but that can’t help save it from the other things that drag it down.

corgi warlock screenshot dragon
Corgi Warlock: Screenshot courtesy of Steam

Run to the right and spam fireballs. Many to most attacks are MS Paint spell effects, and on larger enemies they scale up in size comically, turning what was a passable effect on a common small enemy to a glaring eyesore on a screen-filling boss. These effects cover up what is otherwise very charming character art, and it’s a crying shame. Nearly all the characters are decently animated, and they all have a nice design that I very much enjoyed, enemies and allies alike.

Mash Rash

Run right and button mash. Mash a button. Sometimes press a different button. It just feels like lazy level design. A little later there is some mild platforming, but it’s not enough to break up the monotony. An enemy at a time, run right, press the button. A string of enemies sometimes comes instead of a single, press a different button. With the exception of the character art, I feel like I could throw a similar experience together in a weekend.

corgi warlock screenshot golem
Corgi Warlock: Screenshot courtesy of Steam

To make matters worse, the hit detection for projectiles feels off. The occasional times where I did need to jump over a projectile, I’d often get hit, as the hit box for either the character or the bolt extended too far outside of its sprite. At least this scenario does not happen often enough to make you lose a level – though in that case, at least the gameplay would have a bit more to it – and the damage taken was usually insignificant enough that these unfair-feeling hits did not amount to anything.

Bad Dog

Overall it feels like a hot sloppy mess. The character art is great, but it can’t save the game. If, however, the opposite were the case, it’d be an amazing game. There have been many games in the past that looked bad but played great. But here it might be better to salvage these characters for a game with more thought put into it. On the other hand, it could be well received by a younger audience, for sure.

Corgi Warlock is available on Steam.

[xrr rating=”1.5/5″]

Watch the trailer for Corgi Warlock below: