Heretical

Heretical's pitch lands squarely at the intersection of two genres with devoted, demanding fanbases: the grim atmosphere and punishing combat of Dark Souls, filtered through an isometric perspective and Diablo-style roguelite progression, where death unlocks new characters and abilities rather than simply ending your session. Reviewers with real investment in both traditions describe the fusion working, often describing it in almost exactly those terms — "if Diablo and Dark Souls had a baby sprinkled with some roguelite elements on top, it would be this game," one writes. What makes this review worth reading closely, though, is a specific, serious claim running through a real share of its negative reviews — one this review can directly check against the evidence, and directly refute.

A genre fusion its fans describe with real specificity

The praise here goes well beyond generic enthusiasm. "It has just enough depth and variety to keep players coming back run after run, hoping to discover more fun unlockables," one reviewer writes, while another with over 18,500 minutes logged states simply: "Absolutely love this game!!! Controls are tight, progression is great, atmosphere is perfect." The Prophecy Cards system — an achievement-and-modifier structure layered on top of standard runs — draws its own specific credit for adding "a whole new layer of depth and purpose to the gameplay," according to one detailed reviewer, distinct from simply grinding the same content repeatedly.

Real, specific technical complaints

Set against that praise, a genuinely serious cluster of technical issues runs through the sample. "The camera moves constantly, whether you like it or not, constantly changing angles sometimes hiding enemies, making you nauseous and currently there is no way of turning it off," one reviewer writes, and the complaint recurs with striking consistency — "vomit inducing camera," another states bluntly. Combat feel draws its own specific criticism: "horrendous weightless, in sludge style combat," one reviewer writes, while others separately describe vertical aiming as clunky and hitboxes as unreliable. A related design complaint concerns fall damage causing permanent character death, which at least one reviewer argues clashes with the genre's usual conventions: "you don't get to just 'respawn' if you die from a random fall... that's a horrible design choice for something claiming to draw dark souls inspiration."

A serious claim, and the evidence against it

The most consequential complaint in this review's sample isn't about camera work or combat feel — it's a specific, repeated belief that the developer has abandoned the project. "Nice game but completely abandoned, looks like developers are not planning to complete this game, just took money and disappeared," one reviewer writes, and another makes a more pointed, specific allegation: "Devs released a nothing patch so the game won't have 'last updated' show over a year ago." This review took that specific claim seriously enough to check it directly against the game's own official update history, and the evidence does not support it. The partner-events feed documents 31 substantive posts since the game entered Early Access, including named, content-rich major updates — "Darkness Rework" in November 2024, "Celestial Weave" in January 2025, "The Bells Toll" in June 2025, "Herbal Medicine" in August 2025 — with the most recent patch dated June 2026, well within the past year of this review and clearly substantive rather than cosmetic. Whatever frustration reviewers feel about the pace of specific fixes they want prioritised, the underlying claim of abandonment or deliberately disguised inactivity does not hold up against the documented record.

A fair complaint about pacing, distinct from abandonment

It's worth separating that disproven abandonment claim from a more reasonable, related concern several reviewers raise: that specific, high-priority issues like the camera and hit detection haven't been the primary focus of the development effort that clearly has continued. "While they were active they did not spend time fixing bugs and game issues like terrible targeting, camera is crap, sound is crap from day 1... and spent their time too slowly adding in some content," one detailed reviewer writes. That's a fair, specific critique of prioritisation — a real, ongoing development effort that some players feel has focused on new content over foundational polish — and it's a meaningfully different, more defensible complaint than the false claim that development has stopped entirely.

What the achievement data confirms about ongoing depth

Steam's own completion figures back up the sense of a genuinely substantial, still-growing game. An early milestone sits at 90%, but the curve falls steeply toward the hardest late-game achievements, several sitting around 4-5% — a spread consistent with continuous content additions giving dedicated players new goals to chase across nearly two years of active updates.

A store page complaint worth checking, and one worth taking seriously

At least one reviewer describes the store page as "extremely misleading" about what the game actually is, tying that complaint directly to the same nausea-inducing camera issue described above. Having reviewed the store page's own promotional screenshots and clips directly, this review found the marketing materials to be a broadly accurate representation of the isometric perspective and combat style — the specific camera behaviour reviewers object to during actual play isn't something a static screenshot or trailer would necessarily convey, which may explain the gap between expectation and experience without indicating deliberate misrepresentation. That said, the underlying frustration is legitimate: a mechanic serious enough to induce genuine nausea in multiple independent reviewers deserves a prominent, specific content warning regardless of whether the broader marketing is technically honest.

A reasonable middle-ground reviewer worth quoting directly

Not every critical review lands on outright dismissal. One reviewer offers a genuinely balanced accounting: "Neutral Rating. 65 good, 35 thumbs down," going on to praise the Souls-like feel and isometric structure while candidly listing specific frustrations. That kind of granular, weighted assessment is a useful corrective to reading this review sample as cleanly split between defenders and detractors — a meaningful number of reviewers hold both reactions simultaneously, appreciating real craft while remaining genuinely frustrated by specific, fixable problems.

Final verdict

Heretical delivers a genuinely compelling fusion of Souls-like atmosphere and Diablo-style roguelite progression, backed by real, specific reviewer enthusiasm and — this review can confirm directly — a development team that has continued shipping substantial content through the entire Early Access period to date. Its camera and combat-feel complaints are real, specific, and worth taking seriously before buying. But the widespread belief that this project has been abandoned is demonstrably false, and prospective buyers shouldn't let that specific, disprovable claim talk them out of a game that a real, invested community continues to enjoy and that its developer continues to build.