Vampire of the Sands

What a very odd little game. I think this would be right at home as a home-brew Amiga game.

It's a strange game. It's difficult, has an old-school art style and claims to be rogue-like with permadeath and random dungeons; all layered and with plenty of enemies. It does all that, but sadly there's little depth to the game. You kill enemies, collect weapons ( as current ones break so easily ), collect souls and try to get your actual soul back. That's it. Usually that's enough for such a game, but it's lacking. The game is difficult for the sake of being difficult, controls are a pain and completely weird. Even if you manage to remap them, there's no coherency in the plot, levels or what you're doing, and despite my best efforts I can't find a way to use my character's left hand to attack. Sure I can use my right, and kick, but the left seems useless. Despite be being able to wield items there. Also as a soulless vampire, how do I not die on the default first map, aka the desert one? Easily overlooked, but it's getting me a tad annoyed. The music is stellar though, nothing fancy; but darn nice. Each level has it's own unique music and I like that touch. Similar to that each area also very a very unique aesthetic and the same goes for the enemies there. The game despite terrible controls, and difficulty has its charms, and I both dislike it and like it. Sadly I lean more towards the former than the latter. I don't think it's worth the current asking price, but I'm sure some old-school rogue-like lovers might get their kicks from the game.