Black Future 88 es uno de estos juegos que en papel deberia atraparme, pero la suma de sus elementos, y la ejecucion de muchos de ellos no consiguen dar ese salto para que quiera dedicarle mas tiempo del que le he dedicado.

Una presentacion super cuidada, con un estilo increiblemente detallado y con un montón de mimo pero que precisamente es su mayor problema, ya que este estilo sobre sustancia (marca de la casa del genero por otro lado), es lo que hace que el gameplay de este juego se sienta peor de lo que deberia, ese estilo hace que todo sea super confuso, que los ataques enemigos no se vean claramente, que pierdas al personaje en pantalla y que distinguir entre armas, mejoras y demas sistemas sea mas complicado de lo que deberia.

Lo mismo con las mejoras, en concepto, muy bien, pero en la practica el pool es relativamente pequeño, igual que las armas, cosa que hace que los runs se parezcan demasiado entre si.

Todo esto, sumado a la mecanica del tiempo, hace que el juego se convierta en un rush constante y que reces por suerte en ciertos momentos para avanzar y ya.

En fin, una lastima, muchisimo potencial perdido.

This game is so pretty and there's real potential underneath the havoc, but I can't really recommend what's there.

The controls are bad, it's a sensory overload, the UI hides your character at critical moments - there are fluff texts that like to appear mid boss battles that completely obscure the bottom screen where you and the boss are likely to be, it's bonkers. There are like 5 mechanics going on at once thatthe game doesn't bother to explain - there's a timer, and there's blood (is it just HP? I dunno) and you accumulate curses but it's sometimes a good thing?

UI is a mess, the menu is noisy and only takes up half the screen? All the text is tiny, there's scaling but it only affects the HUD.

I feel like this wasn't playtested at all and released as very pretty early build.

Really wanted to like it, there are moments where I felt the game this game wanted to be and I really want to play that game.

Very cool graphics, settings and music, even if "the 80s that never was" is kind of played out, but the gameplay is just a bit boring. Runs feel very similar to each other, most guns I found were variations on each other, there's no permanent progression system to keep me hooked and I'm not generally in love with time limits in games as I much prefer to explore the whole floor and trying to find everything I can. I guess, ultimately, this felt like an even more short-lived Neon Abyss that gets boring even faster than that game did.

I pre-ordered this and must say that I wasn't disappointed with the game at all. I wasn't worried about it being a port, as the base game alone is very light on resource requirements. This particular roguelike takes quite a bit of inspiration from Dead Cells, with some key differences. The first key difference is the inclusion of different characters. These essentially act like classes, but as you level up your login on the game you will unlock different characters and each has their own static starting loadout and perks/flaws. The other key difference is that there is a boss at the end of each section/level. The boss is randomized each time as well. The overall presentation is fantastic. I'm a massive cyberpunk fan, so take that opinion with a large grain of salt. There are some really good nods to classic cyberpunk throughout the game as well. My favorite is how the flock of white doves fly out from the door everytime the boss of a level is unlocked. I could go on but the gist is this, if you dig roguelike games and aren't opposed to the cyberpunk setting then check this game out.

I like stylish cyberpunk games. The visual effects in this one are particularly good, one of the coolest looking in games period.

But here are some of my gripes for developers, because my god this game is flawed:

- Never make a gun that teleports you when you fire. You sure are big fans of Nuclear Throne. Is there a gun that teleports you? No, and that's the point.

- You used some of Vlambeer's tricks for impactful action. Explosions, "sleep" frames and so on. But they never told you to make your screen busy with everything. All the effects, flashes, debris are cool for style, but not for gameplay. Make it freakin easier to see where the loot is! Foreground and background are blending together!

- 0-bit visual style of upgrade/curse images just doesn't fit the overall style of the game

- Risk of Rain sure has timer. Risk of Rain is a good game, but games with timers in general are not.

- Stealing the Syndicate's font is not cool