![]() ![]() While the bosses are laughably easy in the first two stages (you can literally be done with a boss in 10 seconds flat), the bosses in stages 3 and 4 definitely offer a good bullet-hell type challenge, which I enjoy immensely. So there are 5 stages in the game, each with an increasing number of levels with each having a boss fight at the end. Grabber, for example, picks up coins for you and the resemblance to a certain President ( cough, Trump, cough) made me chuckle. They won’t stay forever though, they have limited health so they die eventually. ![]() Some of them can be more of a bother than a help though – Jack comes to mind, that annoying rapscallion, as well as the cat that messes with heart pick-ups (cat lovers will have a morally destructive dilemma here). These pets shoot enemies, throw bombs, pick up health for you, etc., and level up over time too. You occasionally find eggs lying around in rooms or in chests, which you can pick up and they have a chance of hatching into a pet. The other big draw of the game is the pet system. Kudos to the map design, as it helpfully provides info about what items are left to collect in each room. The bigger rooms have a teleporter that’s basically a fast-travel system to rapidly explore the level, which is great. Some chests may just contain another same-sized chest in them, don’t ask me how or why for I cannot comprehend. They may also contain purple crystals that are used for a multitude of things. Chests contain hearts or shields which allow you to take more damage, or keys or grenades. Rooms contain enemies, coins, hearts, chests, and so on. This is basically one of the main draws of roguelites – the unpredictability factor because you never know what’s behind each door. Since it’s a roguelite, you’re presented with a unique dungeon in each run, as the layout is procedurally generated. Yes, we have Enter the Gungeon for twin-stick shooting and we have Dead Cells for 2D platforming, but Neon Abyss combines these elements to provide for a niche that hasn’t really been addressed. Neon Abyss is a twin-stick shooter-platformer roguelite game (you read that right). It’s the ‘Woah’ moments like these that make the game worth playing Speaking of, let’s get to what really matters, the gameplay. but there doesn’t seem to be anything like that.Īnyway, despite all of this, the game does admittedly set itself apart in the genre thanks to its cool (and definitely trendy) neon theme, electronic music, and the twin-stick element. In that same vein, I would’ve liked the inclusion of an encyclopedia like the one in Enter the Gungeon, detailing all the currently unlocked weapons, items, the monsters encountered, etc. Which is fair, not every game needs to be lore-rich, but it is worth mentioning all the same. ![]() ![]() There doesn’t necessarily seem to be a coherent lore behind the game, more like the devs just put in whatever they thought was cool. The neon style is cool and visually arresting, but what even is the Abyss exactly? And the enemy variety is confusing as well – there are flying laser octopi, one-eyed bats, laser bears, walking grenades, jumping blobs, rock creatures… And there’s no narrative-based explanation for this either, as like I said, there is pretty much no narrative in the first place.Įven Greek gods gotta keep up with the timesĪlso, the lore seems to be all over the place. However, for some reason, they don’t seem to follow through with it because the main bosses of the last three stages are not New Gods and are instead well-known Greek ones. The idea of defeating the New Gods is an intriguing and fun concept – the bosses are themed after modern obsessions, for example, there’s one called Tok, the God of Mobile Videos (I wonder why that name), and others are designed around fast food, pills, screens, etc., all modern addictions which can definitely be interpreted as new religions. Sadly, none of these characters have an ounce of personality to them outside of their appearance and description on the character select screen. There are also two extra DLC characters – a katana-wielding anime girl and a flying monk – that you can get for free if you purchase the game within a week of its release, and these are insidiously more fun than any of the others, and it feels slightly sinister to have them as DLC. You only have the choice of playing as either Wade or Anna at first, and there are 6 more characters to unlock, each with their own perks (hypothetically – I only managed to unlock 2 in 25+ hours). ![]()
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