Unworthy

Oh hey, it's another game that basically blatantly rips off the core elements of Dark Souls but sticks to an overall simpler and smaller game and a 2D world. It is Unworthy, and it quite reminds me of Salt and Sanctuary, except it's shorter and simpler still. As I've said before, there's nothing inherently bad about copying the design of another game, but by doing so, you put your game at a direct comparison with what you copied. In the case of Dark Souls, there's some pretty big shoes to fill, and if you don't plan to do a better job, then there better be something quite unique about your game.

Sadly, Unworthy stays too close to the formula with not much new and exciting to offer. There's less enemy types, less equipment, less customization, worse lore, the maps are on the bland side... I'd say the biggest flaw however is the lack of choice in general. Too often did I find myself being locked to a path because there was some prerequisite I had to fill, often in the form of defeating a boss, or simply because the world was too linear. Or for example after acquiring a new weapon, a hammer, everything suddenly wanted me to use it to solve some platforming puzzle or break down a wall instead of offering me multiple ways to approach the problem. It may seem like nitpicking, as a lot of games have linearity and singular solutions, but I feel like it's worth highlighting this lack of choice as it's definitely not as good as the alternative that I've come to expect from these kinds of games.
Another big problem I had was with spending my Sin, which acts as a sort of currency for improving my character. As a direct copy of Souls, it was dropped on death, and lost if not picked up before dying again. And, you know, that's fine, but there was an alarming lack of places to spend it. The occasional places that would accept these as payment were so few and far between it was very difficult to not lose the majority of what you had gathered. Worse still, the ones I encountered did not allow using them again, leaving no reason to come back. Considering the lack of teleportation at save points, I feel the journey back to use them would have been a fine price to pay.

Overall, Unworthy is not a bad game. It's just not new nor original, and isn't good enough to not be eclipsed by the games that came before it. As such, I can't recommend it. If you want an experience like this, play Salt and Sanctuary, or even one of the Souls games. Unworthy just... isn't worthy.