Info about Nightmare Reaper: Official game description: 🔥 Co-Op Update Now Available, with 50% off for New Players🔥 ============================================================= Nightmare Reaper’s **multiplayer** **campaign co-op update** is now available. Team up with **up to 3 friends** and blast your way through the nightmare together. Experience the full campaign in online co-op while unleashing a massive arsenal of insane weapons and upgrades. Grab your squad and prepare to descend into the nightmare. About the Game ============== A dark and violent meld of retro and modern action games, inspired by the classic 2.5D first person shooters of the 90s, with elements of modern looter shooters and rogue-lites. Intense and addictive gameplay ------------------------------ Tons of enemies are crammed in open-ended levels full of surprises and geysers of blood and treasure. Character progression --------------------- Use the gold you find to purchase tons of character upgrades and new abilities via minigames. Ludicrous weapon variety ------------------------ 80 unique weapons that can drop as loot and can contain a funky mix of over 30 enchantment types. SO much more ------------ * Music and audio by the great **Andrew Hulshult**. * Non-intrusive but mysterious story. * Many game modes. * A mix of manual and random level generation. * Tons of random events and secrets. _You rise to prevent her doom and duke it out with nightmares to reap salvation in blood._ Release date: Mar 28, 2022 Categories: Boomer Shooter, Roguelite, Looter Shooter, First-Person Shooter, Character Progression, Procedural Generation, Cooperative Multiplayer - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: - Community fair range: $15.00 - $20.00 - Reasoning: Multiple reviews explicitly state the game is not worth $25, suggesting the current price is too high. Positive reviews mention value when on sale or at a lower price but do not specify an exact amount. Thus, the community considers a fair price range below $25, likely between $15 and $20 for the base game. - Playtime Metrics: - Game completion: 118.0h - Story completion: 20.0h - Session length: 2.0h - Endgame: 42.0h - Reasoning: Story completion is consistently reported around 20 hours by multiple reviews, with one mentioning 20 hours to the final boss and another stating first playthrough was 20 hours. Game completion (100% achievements) is explicitly stated as 118 hours in one review. Session length is inferred from a review stating the game exhausts the player to play more than 2 hours at a time, suggesting typical sessions of about 2 hours. Endgame is specifically quantified as 42 hours spent grinding the Arena for achievements, as per one review. - Time-to-fun: - Summary: The game is immediately fun, with the first few hours being the most enjoyable. After that, repetitive gameplay and pacing issues cause a decline in fun. - Stance: The game is fun from the start, but the fun is not sustained beyond the first few hours. - Anchor: Start of the game - Time to anchor: N/A - Friction: Repetitive level design; Slow pacing after early game; Tedious ability-upgrade mini-games; Bullet sponge enemies in late game; Boring story; Fetch quests that break pacing - Unlock drivers: Grappling hook; Randomized weapon variety; Co-op mode; New mechanisms in later chapters - Conditions: Early game (first few hours); After the early game; Before unlocking the grappling hook; After unlocking the grappling hook; In the late game; When playing co-op - Player Archetypes: - Boomer Shooter Veteran (buy) - Motivation: Nostalgia and fast-paced action gameplay - Playstyle: Aggressive, high-mobility, nostalgic for retro FPS - Experience: veteran - Purchase stance: buy - Labels: Doom LAN player; old school FPS enthusiast - Reference games: Doom; Quake; Blood; Cultic; Turok - Roguelite Looter Shooter Explorer (buy) - Motivation: Experimentation and progression through randomized loot and roguelite elements - Playstyle: Adaptive, strategic, enjoys randomized loot and weapon variety - Experience: familiar - Purchase stance: buy - Labels: looter-shooter fan; roguelite enjoyer - Reference games: Gunfire Reborn - Grind-Weary Completionist (deep sale) - Motivation: Completionism and achievement hunting, but frustrated by slow pacing and grind - Playstyle: Achievement-focused, but quickly bored by repetitive grind - Experience: veteran - Purchase stance: deep sale - Labels: achievement hunter; completionist - Reference games: N/A - Newcomer to Boomer Shooters (buy) - Motivation: Discovery and excitement of a new genre - Playstyle: Exploratory, enthusiastic, learning the genre - Experience: newcomer - Purchase stance: buy - Labels: new to boomer shooters; genre newcomer - Reference games: Cultic; Dusk; HROT Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Huge weapon variety (weight 0.84): The game offers a vast and diverse arsenal with many weapon types, modifiers, and unique mechanics that keep gameplay fresh. - Minigames upgrade system (weight 0.76): Minigames serve as a core upgrade mechanic, functioning as skill trees that provide permanent buffs and are considered fun and engaging. - Great soundtrack (weight 0.39): The soundtrack, particularly by Andrew Hulshult, is highly praised for its quality and fitting the game’s retro shooter atmosphere. - Excellent boomer shooter (weight 0.37): Players frequently praise the game's boomer shooter style, combining retro FPS mechanics with roguelike elements for an engaging experience. - Minigames optional toggle (weight 0.37): Players appreciate that minigames can be disabled, allowing optional engagement without losing rewards or progression. - Addictive high replayability (weight 0.28): The game is described as addictive with high replayability, encouraging multiple playthroughs through varied content. - Unique retro roguelike (weight 0.28): It successfully fuses old-school arena shooter mechanics with roguelike elements, offering a unique twist on the retro shooter genre. - Satisfying gunplay (weight 0.21): The gunplay is consistently highlighted as satisfying, with responsive controls and impactful sound effects that enhance the shooting experience. - Randomized levels engaging (weight 0.21): Procedurally generated levels with a handcrafted feel provide constantly evolving challenges and high replay value. - Multiplayer added (weight 0.2): The addition of multiplayer has been well received, making the game more exciting and adding cooperative play options. - Excellent game overall (weight 0.18): Overall, the game is considered excellent and fantastic, with many recommending it as a worthwhile experience. - Grappling hook mobility (weight 0.16): The grappling hook adds enhanced mobility and a fun traversal mechanic, often paired with a chainsaw for combat. - Beautiful graphics (weight 0.16): The graphics are commended for their visual appeal and quality, fitting the game’s vibrant retro aesthetic. - Good value price (weight 0.16): Players feel the game offers good value for its price, delivering substantial content and enjoyment. Common complaints: - Game is too long (weight 0.5): The game is excessively long (often 25-30+ hours for 80+ levels) with repetitive content, fetch quests, and pacing issues that make it feel like a drag. - Performance issues and crashes (weight 0.48): Performance issues include FPS drops, crashes, and poor optimization on high-end systems, especially in heavy firefights and arena waves. - Procedural levels feel repetitive (weight 0.45): Procedural generation leads to repetitive levels, confusing layouts, key hunts, and dead ends, making maps feel samey and difficult to navigate. - Late game difficulty is unfair (weight 0.42): Later stages and higher difficulties are unfair and overwhelming, with random difficulty spikes, one-hit kills, and cheap enemy combinations that can break a run. - Progression is slow and unrewarding (weight 0.39): Progression feels slow and unrewarding, with upgrades becoming expensive and grindy, and skills/legendary weapons not making the player feel more powerful. - Story is unclear and boring (weight 0.38): The story is unclear, boring, and minimal, with no payoff or ending cutscene, making it easy to ignore. - Interface is ugly and confusing (weight 0.36): Interface design is ugly and confusing, with pixel art lacking detail, and the game explains almost nothing, leading to confusion. - Enemies are bullet sponges (weight 0.33): Enemies become bullet sponges, especially on higher difficulties where they have inflated HP and deal high damage, leading to cheap and frustrating encounters. - Weapon carry-over is limited (weight 0.31): You are forced to hold onto a single weapon for long periods due to limited carry-over, which becomes boring and repetitive. - Levels are monotonous and empty (weight 0.3): Levels become monotonous mazes, with giant empty rooms, brown and gray corridors, and uninspired cityscape or cave tilesets that lack variety. - Screen clutter is disorienting (weight 0.3): Screen clutter is disorienting due to visual effects, pets, and frozen enemies, making it hard to read the battlefield and avoid damage. - Random events can kill unfairly (weight 0.28): Random events (exploding orbs, floating heads, trap rooms) can kill you with no clear rules, and some events (like red crystal levels) are annoying and can softlock the game. - Multiplayer is buggy and tacked on (weight 0.26): Multiplayer is buggy with desync issues, invisible guns, and feels tacked on, requiring friends to be worthwhile. - No mission select or new game+ (weight 0.25): No mission select or new game+ feature, and save files are not replayable, with progress sometimes lost due to bugs. - Boss fights are poorly designed (weight 0.24): Boss fights are poorly designed, often ending abruptly or being trivial, with little variety (only one unique boss), relying on luck and circle-strafing. - Levels often cramped and tedious (weight 0.24): Many levels are cramped corridors with tight spaces, and platforming sections are frustrating due to poor controls, damaging the fluid combat flow. - Enemies blend with environment (weight 0.23): Enemies are flat sprites that blend into the environment and are hard to hit from above, causing frustration and visual confusion. Gameplay feedback: - Roguelite retro FPS hybrid (weight 0.97): The game is widely described as a roguelite retro first-person shooter (FPS) with boomer shooter elements and looter-shooter mechanics, combining old-school Doom-like aesthetics with roguelike progression and loot systems. - Skill trees via mini-games (weight 0.79): Skills and upgrades are unlocked through a skill tree that includes mini-games such as 2D platformers, Pokemon-like RPGs, and space shooters, which are optional and can be turned off. - Randomized weapon drops and modifiers (weight 0.47): Weapons drop randomly with randomized stats, modifiers (attachments, firing modes), rarity, and enchantments, similar to a looter-shooter system. - Over 80 unique weapons (weight 0.39): The game features over 80 unique weapons with secondary fire modes and varying usefulness, offering a wide variety of playstyles. - Keep one weapon per level (weight 0.26): Players can save or carry only one weapon between levels, adding a strategic element to weapon selection and inventory management. - Tight Doom-like gunplay (weight 0.18): The first-person shooter gameplay is described as tight and similar to Doom, with looter-shooter mechanics influencing weapon behavior. - High replay value (weight 0.12): The combination of procedural levels, random weapon drops, and roguelite elements creates high replayability, though enthusiasm is tempered by limited map variation. - Random positive and negative events (weight 0.11): Random events, both positive and negative, occur during gameplay, affecting the run dynamically. - Grappling hook chainsaw (weight 0.11): A grappling hook attachment for the chainsaw is included, offering a mobility tool that adds verticality and traversal options. - Three skill trees across episodes (weight 0.11): The game features three skill trees (Jade and Topaz mentioned) tied to three episodes, with permanent power-ups. - Mobility upgrades available (weight 0.11): Unlockable upgrades include mobility enhancements such as dash, double jump, and grappling hook, improving movement fluidity. - Over 70 levels with sub-levels (weight 0.11): The game offers over 70 to 80 levels, each with multiple sub-levels, providing substantial content. Performance notes: - FPS drops on high-end rigs (weight 0.26): Players with high-end hardware report FPS drops, especially in chaotic scenes with many enemies and effects. This suggests optimization issues that affect even powerful systems. - Game crashes frequently (weight 0.26): Multiple players report crashes during the main campaign and in arena modes, with some experiencing numerous crashes. This indicates stability issues that need addressing. - Performance issues in chaotic scenes (weight 0.21): Players experience FPS drops and stuttering in scenes with many enemies, AoE attacks, or pixel chaos. This suggests the game struggles with high particle effects and randomization. - High GPU usage with specific weapons (weight 0.12): Using alt-fire on explosive weapons or powerful weapons spikes GPU usage and causes performance drops. This indicates unoptimized weapon effects. - Performance okay but not great (weight 0.11): Some players find performance acceptable but not impressive, with occasional drops and stuttering even on decent hardware. - High settings require high-end hardware (weight 0.11): The game is taxing on higher video quality settings, and high-end hardware is recommended for smooth performance at high settings. - G-Sync causes performance issues (weight 0.07): G-Sync monitors experience performance drops to 50-70fps, suggesting compatibility problems with the game's rendering. - SSD recommended for performance (weight 0.07): The game requires an SSD for good performance, indicating heavy asset streaming that can cause stuttering on HDDs. - Dynamic shadows tax GPU (weight 0.07): Dynamic shadows cause high GPU usage on mid-range cards like the RX 570, requiring medium settings for stable performance. - Low settings run smoothly (weight 0.06): On low graphics settings, the game is light and stable, providing a playable experience for lower-end systems. - Some players have no issues (weight 0.05): A few players report the game runs fantastic with no performance problems, suggesting variability based on hardware or settings. Recommendations: - Great for retro shooter fans (weight 0.89): The game is repeatedly recommended for fans of retro shooters (like Doom), boomer shooters, roguelites, looter shooters, and fast-paced action. Many reviews highlight the combination of old-school FPS gameplay with roguelike randomness and loot mechanics. - Generally recommended by players (weight 0.48): Many reviews provide a general endorsement, calling the game 'recommended' or 'highly recommended' without specific qualifiers. These are broad positive statements that appeal to a wide audience. - Good value for the price (weight 0.31): Reviews frequently mention that the game offers good value for its price, with some specifically saying it is worth $20 or $25. The price-to-content ratio is seen as favorable, though one reviewer felt it was not worth $25. - Try the demo first (weight 0.26): Several reviews suggest players try the demo first or note that the game can be refunded if not liked. This indicates a low-risk entry point for potential buyers. - Some negative or conditional feedback (weight 0.23): A minority of reviews express negative or conditional recommendations, citing issues like a poor third act, unfinished state, monotony, or not meeting expectations. These are dissenting voices that may inform cautious buyers. - Must-play endorsement given (weight 0.23): Some reviews strongly urge players to play the game, using phrases like 'must play' or 'play this game'. These are enthusiastic endorsements without specific details. - Chaotic and fun action (weight 0.15): Reviews mention the game offers chaotic, mindless fun with blowing up enemies and using funny weapons. It appeals to those seeking pure action and chaos. - Good break from other shooters (weight 0.1): Some reviews recommend the game for players coming from other shooters or as a break from multiplayer FPS. It is seen as a good alternative or complement to other shooters. Other player notes: No miscpoints Emotions: - Frustration (weight 0.16): Players are frustrated by the game's length, tedious grind, and repetitive level design with dull corridors. Unfair difficulty spikes, cheap deaths from random events, and punishing platforming sections detract from the shooter experience. Technical issues like crashes and performance problems further compound the frustration. - Excitement (weight 0.14): Excitement stems from the game's intense, fast-paced combat, huge variety of weapons, and satisfying gore effects. The roguelite elements and nostalgic boomer shooter feel create addictive flow states. Players are hyped for the content, updates, and the way the game ramps up from calm to chaotic. - Satisfaction (weight 0.12): Satisfaction comes from tight, responsive gunplay, rewarding progression systems, and a polished overall experience. The metal soundtrack and well-designed levels contribute to a fulfilling loop that makes even less skilled players feel progress. The game successfully fills a niche for fans of Doom-like looter-shooters. - Enjoyment (weight 0.11): Enjoyment is driven by addictive shooting mechanics, creative weapon variety, and smooth gameplay that never gets old. The arena mode and community interaction add replayability, while the chaotic action and excellent soundtrack keep players engaged. The game's fast movement and weapon switching are highlights. - Disappointment (weight 0.06): Disappointment arises from procedural generation preventing attachment and repetitive level designs with uninspired bosses. The 1.0 update nerfed weapons, and the game fails to deliver promised tactical tension. Non-replayable save files and lack of minigame replayability also disappoint. - Annoyance (weight 0.05): Annoyance is caused by complex jump puzzles, a weapon system that forces one weapon per level, and tedious minigames with low rewards. Random events like wind tunnel traps and poor map clarity add to the irritation. The skill tree's grindy nature and key puzzles are particularly frustrating. - Love (weight 0.04): Love is expressed for the game's addictive loop, spectacular music and shooting, and the horror-tinged story. The grappling hook in urban environments is a standout feature, and the RNG is seen as enjoyable rather than punishing. Players appreciate the genre blend and visual style. - Addiction (weight 0.03): Addiction is fueled by the game's highly addictive nature, creating a 'one more level' syndrome. Players find it hard to stop playing due to the compelling loop and constant desire for progression. Many describe it as one of the most addicting games they have played. - Admiration (weight 0.03): Admiration comes from the game being hailed as the best retro-shooter, with excellent execution of an interesting premise. Attention to detail and the fact it was developed by a solo dev are highly praised. Players respect the craftsmanship and vision. - Amusement (weight 0.03): Amusement is derived from quirky and humorous game elements, such as killing bunnies that spawn Doomguys. The game's chaotic descriptions and unexpected moments provide comic relief. Players enjoy the absurdity and playful tone. - Fun (weight 0.03): Fun is found in the fast-paced, easy-to-learn gameplay and the upgrade system. The game is praised for being enjoyable in the Doom brutal-like genre. Quick access to action and satisfying mechanics make it a blast to play. - Boredom (weight 0.02): Boredom sets in due to repetitive levels that feel the same, especially when forced to use the same weapon for long periods. The over 80 levels lack variety, and scavenger hunt gameplay becomes tedious. Slow skill tree access exacerbates the monotony. - Appreciation (weight 0.02): Appreciation is shown for the solo developer's active updates and community engagement. The inclusion of Andrew Hulshult's music and the pixel art style that evokes classic games are valued. Players admire the indie effort and level of detail. - Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation comes from looking forward to finishing the main narrative and exploring New Game Plus. Players are excited about post-story content and future updates. The game's depth promises more engaging experiences ahead. - Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise is expressed at the game being surprisingly addictive and turning out very fun despite an initially off-putting art style. Players are caught off guard by how engaging and enjoyable the experience becomes. The game exceeded low expectations. - Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is directed at the boss fights, which are described as terrible and trash. The poorly designed encounters ruin the overall experience for some players. This specific aspect generates strong negative feelings.}