Devour
2016
A roguelike that oozes the toxic philosophy of game design and Gamer(tm) Culture of "git gud", a baffling design for a genre that is known for random builds and overpowered items. This creates a sort of reverse difficulty curve, one that requires players to love its underlying gameplay so much to look past its underwhelmingly sparse use of the roguelike genre. For some that will be enough. But if you're like me, you will see it as a shallow game outshined by its competitors.
Let's start with that difficulty curve. The hardest part in Enter the Gungeon isn't getting through the last treacherous areas, beating a hard late game boss, or even doing the challenge runs once you "beat" a few runs. The hardest part is getting to the point where you can reliably get past the first two floors with a starter weapon without taking much damage.
That's it.
Once you have banged your head enough at the base mechanics, you have unlocked the "rogue" part of the game, where you are allowed to actually experiment with builds or reliably get a weapon that does more damage against bosses than your starter weapons.
But not much. The splitting of loot pools between guns, active items, and passive bonuses generally leaves you with an abundance of one and a dearth of others. You can roll 9 semi-useless guns, sell most of them off, and not be given the opportunity to buy anything other than more semi-useless guns (of which there is a LOT in this game). It makes opening a chest or unlocking a shop rarely feel satisfying.
And why should it? The whole game is built to be beat by the base weapons, so if you have no luck getting good guns or passive bonuses you can still, kinda, make your way through the game if you "git gud". But this means that the ramp up in difficulty between floors and bosses isn't that large, so when you do get good items and weapons, the game doesn't feel designed for that sort of power in mind.
Combined with the truly awful system of room based loot drops (oh great another Glass Guon Stone...) that make the Rogue side of things very disappointing, you have to really, Really, REALLLY love the barebones twin-stick-esque shooting to get anything from this game.
If you do, enjoy the game! It was made for you in mind. But if you don't absolutely love it, then move on. You're not missing much.
Excellent theme song tho
Let's start with that difficulty curve. The hardest part in Enter the Gungeon isn't getting through the last treacherous areas, beating a hard late game boss, or even doing the challenge runs once you "beat" a few runs. The hardest part is getting to the point where you can reliably get past the first two floors with a starter weapon without taking much damage.
That's it.
Once you have banged your head enough at the base mechanics, you have unlocked the "rogue" part of the game, where you are allowed to actually experiment with builds or reliably get a weapon that does more damage against bosses than your starter weapons.
But not much. The splitting of loot pools between guns, active items, and passive bonuses generally leaves you with an abundance of one and a dearth of others. You can roll 9 semi-useless guns, sell most of them off, and not be given the opportunity to buy anything other than more semi-useless guns (of which there is a LOT in this game). It makes opening a chest or unlocking a shop rarely feel satisfying.
And why should it? The whole game is built to be beat by the base weapons, so if you have no luck getting good guns or passive bonuses you can still, kinda, make your way through the game if you "git gud". But this means that the ramp up in difficulty between floors and bosses isn't that large, so when you do get good items and weapons, the game doesn't feel designed for that sort of power in mind.
Combined with the truly awful system of room based loot drops (oh great another Glass Guon Stone...) that make the Rogue side of things very disappointing, you have to really, Really, REALLLY love the barebones twin-stick-esque shooting to get anything from this game.
If you do, enjoy the game! It was made for you in mind. But if you don't absolutely love it, then move on. You're not missing much.
Excellent theme song tho
2022
Rest in Peace you sweet ugly beautiful mess, you.
A Battle Royale game like no other that centred around fighting game fundamentals. An absolute blast to play solo and in teams.
A Battle Royale game like no other that centred around fighting game fundamentals. An absolute blast to play solo and in teams.
2020
While not all of the tech demo-y gameplay elements translated to fun gameplay mechanics, it is still an incredibly charming experience that clearly has a lot of love for Playstation's history.
I did not jive with what this game was trying to pull off, either as a puzzle game or as a roguelike.
Cute artwork though.
Cute artwork though.
2021
An RPG simulator with rogue elements where the goal is not to get the perfect run to best a challenge, but to slowly devise a strategy and stack the deck so heavily in your favour that you become inevitable.
And then have nothing left to do.
And then have nothing left to do.
2016
An entirely serviceable action platformer with a story that almost makes me nostalgic for just how blatant and awkward it is trying to match the beats of its tie-in movie, even if the story holds no substance.