I played LET IT DIE for 6+ hours
Fumbling around with Twitch, eventually I got around to playing LET IT DIE and even though Twitch didn't save my replay as I thought it would, I still had a blast (and I learned how to get Twitch to save me replays after I had stopped broadcasting).
I've been playing LET IT DIE every night for at least three days, and last night, I found my way into a new area. Thinking it would be a good way to show off new areas, I decided to stream my game to Twitch, but I'm still learning, so I hope you'll forgive me for messing up with the replay thing. I'll get there!
In the meantime, let's talk about what I've learned: LET IT DIE is more than a dungeon crawler, and it's more than an MMO or Dark Souls clone. LET IT DIE is (and this is the best way I can describe it, but my terminology seems to be evolving every day): a Persistent shared-world dungeon crawler. That's the best I can put it, at least for now. LET IT DIE is such a different game that I can't pin down any specific genre, I've never played anything like it before, and that's a good thing. As such, I may change that term later.
Still LET IT DIE manages to surprise me every time I play it, and every time I stop, I want to get back to it. There's something about the allure of going ever higher into the mysterious Tower of Barbs, the game's primary draw, that keeps me coming back, so it's clearly doing its job. Like any good dungeon crawler, the major lure is loot. More loot, greater loot, on every floor. But with limited bag space, I had to be picky with what I kept and what I disposed of. It's an interesting game of micro-management that draws me ever further, but I fear it will stop some players in their tracks.
LET IT DIE may also be part Metroidvania. After defeating a "Mid-Boss" a previously locked valve unlocked, allowing me to turn it to open a gate which lead to a completely different sections of the Tower floors I had already been to. These new sections threw tougher enemies at me, including more and more player ghost characters, known in this game as "Haters," who each had their own tactics, some of which were too much for me.
Death in LET IT DIE, much like Dark Souls, is not the end though. It simply means I have to be smarter about how I approach that enemy later. That is, assuming I make it back to that enemy. Dying means my corpse is reanimated as my own "Hater" and has to be defeated to be returned to me, minus whatever loot s/he may have been carrying.
Defeating Haters is more difficult than standard enemies, but the trouble is usually well worth it as every Hater releases a blue flame upon death, which I have not learned the secret behind. It was likely told to me through a email, LET IT DIE's tutorial guidebook of sorts, but I don't remember.
I will certainly be playing it more and more as the week goes on. Trudging my way up more and more floors of the Tower has enticed me more than I expected it to. Thus far, well done Grasshopper Manufacture, well done.