Driven Out is a very difficult 2D sword-fightery game, requiring precise timing and a lot of patience. I heard about this a week ago, and I loved the dev's previous game (A Bastard's Tale) so I had to pick this up on day 1. It feels very much like a sequel to Bastard's Tale; the dev has taken those game unique gameplay elements and improved on them.

There's basically no story or tutorial, you're dropped right into the action as this farmer/peasant girl who finds a sword. The game has no difficulty settings: 3 hits and you're dead, no upgrades, no special moves and limited checkpoints. You explore this world, moving either left or right and fighting against enemies and bosses. Each enemy has slightly different behaviour, timing and weaknesses. I guess you could say it's a bit like Sekiro: you watch carefully and then try to time a perfect parry, then you counter attack. You can block high, mid or low; so in other ways it feels like a rhythm game. The enemies can feint attacks and employ other devious tricks; some bosses have many phases. This game had me smashing alt-F4 in rage-filled disbelief more than once. At times it feels particularly cruel, unfair or impossible. But that's one life lesson you can learn from gaming: if you stubbornly grind away at a task for long enough you will eventually triumph.

The pixel art is really beautiful. Something about the whole aesthetic and animations reminds me of Flashback for the Sega Genesis. This game is really tough, and towards the end it definitely felt more frustrating than fun. And yet, for some reason, I kept finding myself drawn back to it. The game has 20 bosses, each more devious and difficult than the last; and generally two smaller enemies between each boss. The environments and enemies are a treat for the eyes. You explore all sorts of strange realms from this spooky castle horrorscape, lush fields, a forest, mountains, and stranger areas in the late game.

I definitely felt a big sigh of relief when I finally beat the damn thing. There's a free demo available on Steam if you're interested in checking this out; I thought it was fantastic but it's hard to recommend: you have to be a little bit mad to enjoy something like this.