Clockwork Ambrosia: Fun Mechanics, Fantastic Campaign

Clockwork Ambrosia is a very fun Metroidvania game that we have played for a while now, thanks to the review code granted to us by the lovely people at Plan of Attack. When everything is taken into consideration, the devs made a game with an interesting world design, a great soundtrack, and fun gameplay mechanics, out of which gun modding particularly stands out. However, this is also a game that’s been in the making for 15 years and, as such, it runs on an ancient custom engine. How bad of a thing is that, if at all, and did it end up damaging our overall experience? This and a lot more after the trailer jump!

Taping Guns Together

The story is as simple as it can get. After being shot down by a mechanical dragon, we crash on an island where the human population is gone and robots are running the show. Since we’re not exactly fans of the metal clankers, we start our mission of destruction with four basic guns. Looking at them at first, you might think it’s a weak and unfulfilling arsenal. After all, how cool can a Pulse Breaker, a missile launcher, a revolver, and a grenade launcher really be? On their own, they’re not that exciting. But then, you’re introduced to modding—and oh boy, is that a game-changer!

We aren’t just finding bigger magazines here. The game gives us over 100 programming rules to play with. For example, you can take the grenade launcher and slap a rule on it that makes the explosion radius tiny but detonates the projectile early to boost damage. And that’s just half the story. You can then add a trigger: every time a projectile detonates, shoot three more. That’s what we like to call a localized cluster bomb that completely lags the screen.

Figuring out these logic puzzles is easily the best part of the game. Every time we discovered a new, satisfying combination, we were giddy with excitement and couldn’t wait to test it out in the world.

As this is also a Metroidvania, there is a huge emphasis on platforming, like wall jumping with super cool gloves that allow us to walk on ceilings. The platforming is fun, but for us, it was mostly just a means to an end. We were running, jumping, and climbing just to reach the next spot where we could continue our weapon experimentation and keep blowing up enemies.

That said, it’s incredibly easy to get lost while exploring the different biomes. The death penalty is also brutal, to the point where we started entertaining the idea of screaming into a sink filled with water. We only get three retries, and each time we return with just a single block of health. Yup. One. If we fully die, we lose all the scrap we just farmed and any map progress made since the last save room. Yeah, that sink sounds pretty good to you too just reading this, doesn’t it?

On one hand, the game encourages wild, creative experimentation. On the other hand, it forces us to play like total cowards.

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A Fourteen-Year Passion Project

Fourteen years is a long time. Nathan Hiemenz started developing this back in 2011 under his studio, Realmsoft, building the entire project from scratch on a custom engine. Eventually, the team expanded, bringing on more talent to help bring the massive vision to life, and they finally got it out the door with the help of publisher OI Games. It feels like a deeply personal project, and we got the inside scoop in our interview with the devs. Read the full conversation here:

Clockwork Ambrosia: Fourteen Years Building A Massive Metroidvania

A Brilliant Sandbox?

Messing with the gun rules is a great time, and the game actively rewards us for finding clever exploits. However, even though the devs are patching things fairly fast, we still ran into game crashes and geometry bugs. It also bothered us slightly that we couldn’t even zoom out on the map. In the end, it feels like brilliant ideas trapped in somewhat shaky software. Still, if you have the patience to overlook a few rough edges, the 15-hour campaign is absolutely worth your time.

ID Card

• Developer: Realmsoft
• Publisher: OI Games
• Platforms: PC (Steam)
• Release Date: May 12, 2026
• Genre: Action Platformer / Metroidvania / 2D Shooter