I don't get the hype. It's not bad, but has big problems that really drag it down.
The difficulty and weapon balance are the main ones.
There are 4 or so difficulty settings, and Murder Machine, the highest, is the only one that tries to give any semblance of challenge. It really goes about it in the wrong way though.
See, this is a movement shooter, so you're expected to always be on the move to dodge enemy attacks. Problem is, the highest difficulty makes enemy projectiles faster, meaning you almost can't engage in normal close range combat. Even if you can, staying back is infinitely more effective, but also way less fun.
The weapon balance is also disappointing.
With a wide roster of guns to use, you'd expect the game to give you incentives to do so, but there's only one enemy type that has a major weakness tied to a weapon, you almost never run out of ammo, and most weapons are totally viable to use exclusively for most situations. There are also no synergies between weapons like in Ultrakill.
The enemies also generally have really small health pools, meaning most less elaborate fights can be ended with two AOE attacks or so, and you either die instantly if you get caught off guard, or you kill everything around you nearly instantly if you know/can guess what's coming.
There's also the lack of polish.
Getting stuck in walls isn't uncommon.
Most of the time I found an interesting nook to platform to, it was not a secret and just an empty part of the level that wasn't blocked off. Imagine a metroidvania where destroying fake walls leads to empty corridors 80% of the time - it takes all the fun out of searching for secrets.
Enemy attacks are almost all silent, meaning you can't tell when you're getting shot at until it's too late (most enemies kill you nearly instantly on Murder Machine difficulty).
There's an enemy type that just pops out of existence when killed. There are gore effects that appear, sure, but without any sound effect it just looks weak and means they're not fun to kill.
There's an option to enable enemy highlighting if you have trouble spotting them (I did). However, the highlight colour is red, and half the game's environments are also red.
The movement mechanics are a little iffy too. Instead of preserving absolute momentum, your speed is relative to the camera, meaning you can't hook shot to launch yourself up and shoot at enemies below - you'll fly straight down towards them instead.
The levels don't seem to have been designed with the actual movement system in mind. Half the platforming can be skipped, and a lot of spots look like secrets because they weren't made with the awareness that they can be reached.
There are good things about the game too of course - like I said, it's still a decent time.
There's quite a few weapons with some cool alternate fire modes and extra mechanics.
You can do animation cancels by changing weapons too, which is completely busted (it's way too fast) but kind of liberating.
The movement is super fast and the chainsaw slide is fun to use.
You can also chain double jumps, dodges, slides (they work mid-air) and grapples (they renew your jumps) to get some crazy airtime and control.
The enemy designs are solid.
Nothing crazy deep, but they're varied and different enemy combinations really change how encounters play out.
There's melee and ranged fodder, stronger enemies with different types of projectiles, bigger monsters that require some extra effort to kill and avoid their attacks, and some extra novelty enemies.
There are also a few bosses in the game, but I didn't find them very engaging, and many of them also suffer from the "kill them extremely quickly or not at all" problem. However, I generally dislike bosses in shooters, so I'm probably more critical of them than most.
The levels are big, use lock and key mechanics to make the path feel less linear, and they're mostly pretty open, which works well with the exceptionally fast movement.
They also often involve different themes (like having a central hub you return to or being set on a train, so switching between corridors and jumping between smaller platforms) and gimmicks (like different vehicles).
Overall it's a decently fun power trip game, just not as tightly designed as the landmark titles it's being compared to.
The difficulty and weapon balance are the main ones.
There are 4 or so difficulty settings, and Murder Machine, the highest, is the only one that tries to give any semblance of challenge. It really goes about it in the wrong way though.
See, this is a movement shooter, so you're expected to always be on the move to dodge enemy attacks. Problem is, the highest difficulty makes enemy projectiles faster, meaning you almost can't engage in normal close range combat. Even if you can, staying back is infinitely more effective, but also way less fun.
The weapon balance is also disappointing.
With a wide roster of guns to use, you'd expect the game to give you incentives to do so, but there's only one enemy type that has a major weakness tied to a weapon, you almost never run out of ammo, and most weapons are totally viable to use exclusively for most situations. There are also no synergies between weapons like in Ultrakill.
The enemies also generally have really small health pools, meaning most less elaborate fights can be ended with two AOE attacks or so, and you either die instantly if you get caught off guard, or you kill everything around you nearly instantly if you know/can guess what's coming.
There's also the lack of polish.
Getting stuck in walls isn't uncommon.
Most of the time I found an interesting nook to platform to, it was not a secret and just an empty part of the level that wasn't blocked off. Imagine a metroidvania where destroying fake walls leads to empty corridors 80% of the time - it takes all the fun out of searching for secrets.
Enemy attacks are almost all silent, meaning you can't tell when you're getting shot at until it's too late (most enemies kill you nearly instantly on Murder Machine difficulty).
There's an enemy type that just pops out of existence when killed. There are gore effects that appear, sure, but without any sound effect it just looks weak and means they're not fun to kill.
There's an option to enable enemy highlighting if you have trouble spotting them (I did). However, the highlight colour is red, and half the game's environments are also red.
The movement mechanics are a little iffy too. Instead of preserving absolute momentum, your speed is relative to the camera, meaning you can't hook shot to launch yourself up and shoot at enemies below - you'll fly straight down towards them instead.
The levels don't seem to have been designed with the actual movement system in mind. Half the platforming can be skipped, and a lot of spots look like secrets because they weren't made with the awareness that they can be reached.
There are good things about the game too of course - like I said, it's still a decent time.
There's quite a few weapons with some cool alternate fire modes and extra mechanics.
You can do animation cancels by changing weapons too, which is completely busted (it's way too fast) but kind of liberating.
The movement is super fast and the chainsaw slide is fun to use.
You can also chain double jumps, dodges, slides (they work mid-air) and grapples (they renew your jumps) to get some crazy airtime and control.
The enemy designs are solid.
Nothing crazy deep, but they're varied and different enemy combinations really change how encounters play out.
There's melee and ranged fodder, stronger enemies with different types of projectiles, bigger monsters that require some extra effort to kill and avoid their attacks, and some extra novelty enemies.
There are also a few bosses in the game, but I didn't find them very engaging, and many of them also suffer from the "kill them extremely quickly or not at all" problem. However, I generally dislike bosses in shooters, so I'm probably more critical of them than most.
The levels are big, use lock and key mechanics to make the path feel less linear, and they're mostly pretty open, which works well with the exceptionally fast movement.
They also often involve different themes (like having a central hub you return to or being set on a train, so switching between corridors and jumping between smaller platforms) and gimmicks (like different vehicles).
Overall it's a decently fun power trip game, just not as tightly designed as the landmark titles it's being compared to.