Disappointed to say that I'm not really feeling this one, as I really quite enjoyed the previous one even though I didn't ever fully complete it. The action here just feels kind of anemic and dull, with boring sound effects (but very cool visual effects) and enemies that just walk straight toward the crystal bot (or nearest fabricator). It also feels like, even though the game is playable solo, it's very much meant for co-op and I'm constantly feeling like every situation would've been so much better, more fun and feel more fair if I had other humans with me, since the commands you can give AI NPCs are very limited (you can tell them to stop and guard an area or follow you and that's it). It really feels like the idea is that you're supposed to be three players guarding three fronts with three different specialities (one for each type of enemy) and that juggling all of that alone does work and the game isn't impossible, but it's also not very fun to constantly feel like I'm supposed to have human help and no one I know is interested in this style of game anymore.
Was happy to see that even though this game has metaprogression, it does not do the incredibly played-out and lame thing of making you buy approximately 7000 incremental upgrades that give +0.1% to some stat each. No, this game only offers a few metaprogression unlocks that actually matter, and obtaining them is so easy and fast that it does make you question why the unlocks even needed to be there. The game does also have cool story unlocks, where you find bits and pieces of the story in runs, which felt much better than the aforementioned +0.1%.
I'm also not wild about the more random nature of the levels here compared to the original. In this game, you can get a path to your crystal bot that is just absolute trash as far as tower placement is concerned - too far from the path to hit enough enemies, not enough tower "pads" in the room to cover the whole onslaught, making everything feel even more like the game has to be played co-op to be any fun since things are either extremely manageable if you get good tower placements, and you can basically idle as the game kills everything for you, but then other times you get impossible tower placements and have to haul ass back and forth to kill everything manually, which feels like intense and stressful fun at first but becomes kind of a pain in the ass as you progress.
To be clear, though, this is a very well-made game that runs well and looks good. I still love the mechanic of opening doors to both gain resources and raise the risk of an attack, which allows for some engaging planning of routes where you strategically leave certain doors closed to lead the monsters through your killbox or at least force them to make the long way around to the bot you have to protect. The graphics are great and I will mention the super cool visual effects one more time because they're just that cool (and I especially like how the explosion smoke cloud quickly says "ka-boom" before it dissipates). The metaprogression unlocks are actually helpful and therefore engaging to unlock. That one little space bug character is super cute. The one boss I managed to fight in the few hours I played was stressful but a satisfying win.
I just feel kind of bored with all of it. Just standing there, pumping boring guns into boring enemies, grinding for admittedly comparatively pleasant metaprogression unlocks, going through runs that are far too long (a run is 5 areas and each area takes me about half an hour) and constantly feeling like this really ought to be played in co-op with other humans and more advanced strategy than the NPC system allows. Normally, I'd avoid scoring a game like this since it's clearly not meant for me and my playstyle, but I will rate this game pretty low as a singleplayer experience with the note that it's probably much more engaging and entertaining if you've got a team. Even then, I don't think I would have fun in random matchmaking, if the game even has that, as I wasn't really feeling the shooting and tower placement parts either. I guess this just isn't the sequel I was hoping for, even though Dungeon of the Endless + dualstick shooter sounded like a dunk for me. I'm just not having enough fun to warrant continuing with it.
Was happy to see that even though this game has metaprogression, it does not do the incredibly played-out and lame thing of making you buy approximately 7000 incremental upgrades that give +0.1% to some stat each. No, this game only offers a few metaprogression unlocks that actually matter, and obtaining them is so easy and fast that it does make you question why the unlocks even needed to be there. The game does also have cool story unlocks, where you find bits and pieces of the story in runs, which felt much better than the aforementioned +0.1%.
I'm also not wild about the more random nature of the levels here compared to the original. In this game, you can get a path to your crystal bot that is just absolute trash as far as tower placement is concerned - too far from the path to hit enough enemies, not enough tower "pads" in the room to cover the whole onslaught, making everything feel even more like the game has to be played co-op to be any fun since things are either extremely manageable if you get good tower placements, and you can basically idle as the game kills everything for you, but then other times you get impossible tower placements and have to haul ass back and forth to kill everything manually, which feels like intense and stressful fun at first but becomes kind of a pain in the ass as you progress.
To be clear, though, this is a very well-made game that runs well and looks good. I still love the mechanic of opening doors to both gain resources and raise the risk of an attack, which allows for some engaging planning of routes where you strategically leave certain doors closed to lead the monsters through your killbox or at least force them to make the long way around to the bot you have to protect. The graphics are great and I will mention the super cool visual effects one more time because they're just that cool (and I especially like how the explosion smoke cloud quickly says "ka-boom" before it dissipates). The metaprogression unlocks are actually helpful and therefore engaging to unlock. That one little space bug character is super cute. The one boss I managed to fight in the few hours I played was stressful but a satisfying win.
I just feel kind of bored with all of it. Just standing there, pumping boring guns into boring enemies, grinding for admittedly comparatively pleasant metaprogression unlocks, going through runs that are far too long (a run is 5 areas and each area takes me about half an hour) and constantly feeling like this really ought to be played in co-op with other humans and more advanced strategy than the NPC system allows. Normally, I'd avoid scoring a game like this since it's clearly not meant for me and my playstyle, but I will rate this game pretty low as a singleplayer experience with the note that it's probably much more engaging and entertaining if you've got a team. Even then, I don't think I would have fun in random matchmaking, if the game even has that, as I wasn't really feeling the shooting and tower placement parts either. I guess this just isn't the sequel I was hoping for, even though Dungeon of the Endless + dualstick shooter sounded like a dunk for me. I'm just not having enough fun to warrant continuing with it.