A fantastic core gunplay mechanic weighed down by so many counterintuitive roguelike elements. Gameplay wise, my main issue was the ever present lack of information found throughout. Weapons are pretty straightforward to figure out but items and abilities have sparse descriptions that provide little to no indication as to what they actually do. This wouldn't be a problem, as you can simply pick up the item and figure out for yourself, but the game limits you to only one item of each type (head, boots, shield, armor) per slot, meaning if you find something new on a good run, you'll be discouraged from taking anything new once you know what you're comfortable with. This theme extends to the modifiers found on higher difficulties, some of which seem wildly out of place in any roguelike, such as entire stages not spawning loot or items due to a random modifier, which of course is barely relayed to the player with no explanation. Even the selectable characters have no indication of their significant differences on the selection screen. On top of all of this, the game is obnoxiously painted, with each stage being essentially monochrome. While this is likely in the interest of player visibility, it succeeds in making the randomized dungeons entirely boring to look at on repeat runs.

I had a blast for my first few hours, and won twice in one sitting, on easy and hard mode respectively. As I attempted further runs, I only got more fed up with the game and found it difficult to appreciate the core mechanic in light of all the smaller annoyances built around it.

Reviewed on Jan 05, 2024


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