Info about Gatekeeper:

Official game description:
Development Roadmap
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About the Game
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The Heart of the Universe has been stolen by powerful forces. You must head to an unknown galaxy, find the heart and reclaim it. But your mission isn’t that simple: the Heart was hidden in a quantum cage, the keys to which are kept by the ancient giants, the Sirens. Experience the unexpected thrills of this action rogue-like!
Choose your Hero
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Several playable characters with unique abilities to suit your playstyle.
Limitless Skill Combinations
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Gain experience to upgrade the characters’ skills, and utilize the abilities of found artifacts.
Team up with your friends
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Invite your friends to take the role of a Universe defender and join you in this epic rogue-like adventure!
Unique Totems system
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Complete all the challenges to defend the Totems and open the path to new locations!
Find and Obtain 100+ Collectibles
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There are over a hundred different items and each of those collectibles changes the gameplay and makes every run a unique adventure.
Dozen of unique Planets, enemies and Bosses
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Otherworldly and breathtaking locations with various enemies and bosses for you to explore, shoot and fight!

Release date: 13 May, 2024

Categories: Roguelike, Cooperative Multiplayer, Build Crafting, Character Progression, Real-time Combat, Exploration, Wave-based Survival, Single-player


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


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:
- Highly enjoyable and polished gameplay (weight 1): Players overwhelmingly praise the game's fun factor, engaging gameplay, and overall enjoyment, highlighting its polished state even in early access. Many find it surprisingly complete and well-worth its price.
- Excellent developer support and updates (weight 0.94): The development team is highly praised for their consistent updates, active community engagement, transparency, and responsiveness to feedback, which has significantly improved the game over time.
- Stunning visuals and art style (weight 0.92): The game's visual presentation, including its graphics, art style, and overall design, receives high marks for being beautiful, polished, vibrant, and aesthetically pleasing, contributing to an immersive experience.
- Diverse and engaging build crafting (weight 0.92): Players enjoy the deep and varied build crafting system, which allows for diverse and powerful character customization through items, upgrades, and cursed artifacts, enhancing replayability.
- Varied enemies and challenging bosses (weight 0.88): The game features a good variety of enemies and challenging bosses with distinct mechanics, ensuring combat remains engaging and forcing players to adapt their strategies.
- Exceptional and immersive soundtrack (weight 0.87): The soundtrack is consistently praised for being immersive, atmospheric, and enjoyable, with many players finding it catchy and perfectly suited to the game's tone.
- Unique and balanced character roster (weight 0.84): The game offers a good selection of unique characters, each with distinct playstyles and balanced abilities, encouraging players to experiment and find new ways to enjoy the game.
- Rewarding achievement-based unlocks (weight 0.83): The achievement-based unlock system for items and characters is well-received, providing clear objectives, extending playtime, and adding a rewarding layer to progression and replayability.

Common complaints:
- Unbalanced and Inconsistent Difficulty (weight 0.59): Many players feel the game's difficulty is inconsistent and poorly balanced, with some finding it too easy and others too hard, especially after recent updates. This leads to a frustrating experience where the game can feel like a tedious grind or an insurmountable challenge.
- Lack of Content and Repetitive Gameplay (weight 0.59): A significant number of players report that the game suffers from a severe lack of content, leading to repetitive gameplay, limited replayability, and a general feeling of hollowness. This issue is exacerbated by a perceived lack of variety in objectives, maps, and overall game progression.
- Frequent Crashes and Technical Issues (weight 0.35): Frequent game crashes, freezes, and infinite loading screens are a major source of frustration for players, often leading to lost progress, especially during long runs. These technical issues significantly detract from the overall playability and enjoyment.
- Negative Impact of Recent Updates (weight 0.31): Multiple players express strong dissatisfaction with recent updates, particularly the October 2024 patch, stating that these changes have worsened the game's balance, removed enjoyable features from the beta, and generally made the game less fun and more of a 'slog'.
- Problematic Enemy and Boss Design (weight 0.14): Enemy and boss design presents significant challenges, with complaints about enemies scaling too fast, having excessive health (bullet sponges), and bosses lacking engaging mechanics. The constant swarm of high-HP enemies and repetitive boss encounters contribute to a tedious combat experience.
- Lacks Originality (Risk of Rain Comparison) (weight 0.13): Many players feel the game heavily imitates the 'Risk of Rain' series but falls short in execution, lacking its own unique identity, creative spark, and content depth. This comparison often leads to disappointment, as players perceive the game as an inferior copy.
- Poor Character Balance and Diversity (weight 0.13): There are significant balance issues among characters, with some feeling underpowered or useless, especially melee classes. Players also note a lack of distinctiveness between characters and ineffective upgrade paths, which limits strategic depth.
- Frustrating Unlock System (weight 0.12): The current item and achievement unlock system is widely criticized for being tedious, frustrating, and unrewarding. Players dislike the grind, the re-locking of items after updates, and how unlocking new items can dilute the item pool, making runs less enjoyable.
- Poor and Inactive Multiplayer (weight 0.09): The multiplayer experience is severely hampered by a lack of active players, no dedicated servers, and critical issues like inability to rejoin or save co-op games. This makes playing with friends difficult and often impossible, despite the game seemingly being designed for co-op.
- Unimpactful Skills and Items (weight 0.07): Players feel that skill and item upgrades lack impact and diversity, often providing only minor numerical increases rather than meaningful mechanical changes. This leads to repetitive build paths and a lack of excitement or strategic depth in runs.

Gameplay feedback:
- Top-down Roguelike with RoR/VS Elements (weight 0.26): The game is consistently described as a top-down roguelike, heavily inspired by Risk of Rain 2, with elements of Vampire Survivors and Hades. It features both an objective-based progression mode and an arena/survival mode.
- In-Run Leveling and Progression (weight 0.11): The game features a robust in-run progression system where players level up and choose from three stat upgrades. Every fifth level allows for a special skill upgrade, and progression through stages involves increasingly difficult enemies and objectives.
- Variable Difficulty Scaling (weight 0.09): The game's difficulty is generally well-received, with a good scaling curve and options up to 200%. However, some players find the game too easy, especially after a full run, and suggest further difficulty increases.
- Content and Replayability (weight 0.06): The game offers decent content for solo play, estimated around 20 hours or a couple of evenings. Runs can be long and even loop infinitely, contributing to replayability despite a limited number of unique maps.
- Solo Play Challenges (weight 0.03): Playing solo can be a significantly more challenging and potentially less engaging experience compared to co-op, with some players finding it boring or too difficult on normal mode.
- Engaging Arena Mode (weight 0.03): The Arena Mode is a popular alternative to the main game, offering a more frenetic, wave-based survival experience on a single, small map. Some players prefer this mode exclusively.
- Totem-Based Relic Acquisition (weight 0.03): Totems scattered across maps provide relics (passive or active buffs) and require players to stand nearby to charge them, often with varying modifiers.
- Varied Gameplay Mechanics (weight 0.02): The game incorporates various gameplay mechanics, including hidden map mechanics and diverse enemy behaviors, with new mechanics being gradually introduced.
- Objective-Based Map Clearing (weight 0.02): Gameplay involves clearing maps by killing monsters and completing specific goals, often under a timer, requiring timely dodging and strategic movement.
- Cursed Item Mechanics (weight 0.02): Cursed items introduce a unique risk-reward mechanic, providing strong buffs alongside equally strong, often identical, negative debuffs, requiring more cautious play.
- Weak Escape Skills (weight 0.02): A common complaint is the weakness or long cooldowns of most characters' escape skills, particularly their inability to traverse environmental obstacles like walls or fences.
- Problematic Mob Hitboxes/AoE (weight 0.02): Some specific mobs, particularly in desert areas, have problematic hitboxes or unindicated AoE attacks, leading to frustrating player experiences.
- Satanist Skill Issues (weight 0.02): The Satanist character's first skill is criticized for lacking auto-aim, having a strange and almost useless second level, and minimal AoE damage, making it ineffective.

Performance notes:
- Excellent performance and stability (weight 0.07): Many players report excellent performance, especially on the Steam Deck and high-end PCs, with consistent frame rates and no bugs. This indicates a generally stable and optimized experience for a significant portion of the player base.
- Standard PC requirements (weight 0.01): A player noted that the game has minimum PC requirements, which is a standard expectation for most games. This point is less about a specific issue and more of a general observation.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended for Roguelike Fans (weight 0.43): Many players recommend the game, especially to fans of roguelike/roguelite genres and titles like Risk of Rain 2. They highlight its potential for fun, particularly in co-op, and suggest it's a worthwhile purchase, especially if on sale or if players enjoy similar games. Some also note its early access status and potential for future growth.
- Better with Friends, Co-op Focus (weight 0.07): The game is frequently noted as being more enjoyable when played with friends in co-op. However, some feedback suggests that the multiplayer experience itself might need optimization, and finding co-op partners can be difficult. There's also a call for better single-player optimization.
- Early Access, Needs More Content (weight 0.06): Players acknowledge the game is in Early Access and express anticipation for future updates, content additions (like biomes, enemies, items, bosses), and balancing improvements. They hope for continued development to realize the game's full potential and increase replayability.
- Difficulty Preferences Vary (weight 0.02): There's a mixed sentiment regarding difficulty, with some players recommending playing on maximum difficulty for a challenge, while others suggest lowering it if needed. This indicates a desire for flexible difficulty options.
- Buy on Discount (weight 0.01): Some players advise purchasing the game at a discount rather than at full price, suggesting that its current value aligns better with a reduced cost.
- Controller Issues Being Fixed (weight 0.01): There are reports of controller issues, with players noting that fixes are expected in an upcoming major update, indicating a known technical problem.
- Clarify Game Mechanics in Description (weight 0.01): Players suggest that the game's mechanics should be clearly outlined in the description to prevent potential misunderstandings or misleading expectations for new players.
- High PC System Requirements (weight 0.01): A specific technical concern was raised regarding the game's performance on less powerful PCs, suggesting high system requirements.
- Suggests Self-Heal at Start (weight 0.01): A specific quality-of-life suggestion is the addition of a self-heal mechanic at the start of gameplay, indicating a desire for improved early-game sustain.
- Positive Developer Feedback (weight 0.01): Some players express positive sentiment towards the developers, indicating appreciation for their work or engagement.
- Suggests Community Challenges (weight 0.01): A suggestion was made to implement community challenges, similar to those in Helldivers 2, to foster a stronger player community and engagement.
- Consider Price Reduction (weight 0.01): One reviewer suggests a slight price reduction to attract more players and revitalize the player base.
- Prioritize Artifact Unlocks (weight 0.01): A specific gameplay tip advises prioritizing the unlocking of artifacts over Bastion, indicating a strategic preference for progression.

Other player notes:
- High anticipation for future content (weight 0.23): Players are highly anticipating future content, updates, and the full release of the game. There's a strong desire for more maps, enemies, characters, and varied gameplay mechanics, indicating a belief in the game's potential for growth and improvement.
- Specific balance and feature suggestions (weight 0.05): Players offer specific suggestions for game balance, character buffs, item mechanics, and monetization. These include ideas for character skins, enemy balancing, item cost adjustments, and artifact management.
- Mixed feedback on pricing (weight 0.02): There's mixed feedback on the game's pricing relative to its current content. Some feel the price is fair, while others expected more content for the cost, especially compared to the demo.
- Desire for new character archetypes (weight 0.02): Players express a desire for new character archetypes, specifically mentioning melee classes like a sword-wielding knight or a ranged bow user, indicating a wish for more combat variety.
- Unique top-down perspective (weight 0.01): The game's top-down perspective and unique style are noted by players. This distinguishes it from other games, even those it's compared to.
- Interest in high difficulty (weight 0.01): Some players are interested in high-difficulty challenges, specifically mentioning playing at 200% difficulty. This indicates a segment of the player base seeking advanced gameplay experiences.
- Requests for quality-of-life features (weight 0.01): Players request quality-of-life features such as the ability to restart a run from the middle in case of crashes or interruptions, and the option to rejoin a disconnected match.
- Feedback on Bastion character (weight 0.01): Feedback on the character Bastion suggests a slow early game but overall positive reception, with some considering Bastion the best character.
- Reference to 'Infinity' version (weight 0.01): Some players refer to an 'infinity version' of the game, which is noted as a free version. This indicates different access points or versions of the game in the community.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.28): Players are highly satisfied with the game's overall quality, including its engaging gameplay, polished design, and consistent performance. The game's value for money, replayability, and the developers' responsiveness to feedback and continuous content updates also contribute significantly to positive player experiences.
- Disappointment (weight 0.17): Disappointment stems from a perceived lack of content, variety in builds and items, and issues with game balance, particularly after updates. Players also express frustration with poor boss fights, inactive multiplayer, and critical bugs that hinder their enjoyment and progress.
- Frustration (weight 0.17): Frustration is primarily caused by technical issues such as frequent crashes, disconnections, and lost progress due to the lack of a mid-run save feature. Unfair difficulty scaling, problematic enemy mechanics, and frustrating achievement unlocks also contribute to player annoyance.
- Excitement (weight 0.1): Players are excited about the game's high quality, addictive and chaotic combat, and the anticipation of future content and updates from the developers. The game's potential for growth and its engaging multiplayer experience also fuel this positive emotion.
- Joy (weight 0.05): Joy is derived from the overall enjoyable game experience, particularly when playing with friends in co-op. Players appreciate the pleasing visuals, engaging gameplay, and the continuous improvements made through updates, which enhance their fun and replayability.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.03): Players find enjoyment in various aspects of the game, including its dynamic gameplay, music, and the variety it offers. Both solo and co-op play contribute to a captivating experience, especially when powerful builds and impactful items are discovered.
- Hope (weight 0.03): Hope is centered around the game's future development, with players expressing a desire for bug fixes, new content, and balance changes. There's also a strong wish for increased popularity and the implementation of specific features like split-screen and meta-progression.
- Anticipation (weight 0.02): Anticipation is driven by the expectation of future updates, new features, and the game's overall potential, especially when considering playing with friends. Players are eagerly awaiting the roadmap and further development of the game.
- Anger (weight 0.02): Anger arises from perceived poor design choices, game-breaking bugs, and technical issues like crashes during good runs. Players also express frustration with developers' decisions, particularly regarding changes to unlock conditions and updates that worsen the game experience.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom is caused by repetitive gameplay, slow progression, and a lack of engaging content or new features. Players find runs blending together due to RNG and monotonous mechanics, leading to a tedious grinding process.
- Optimism (weight 0.01): Optimism stems from the game's early access status and the ongoing updates, which suggest future improvements and content additions. Players are hopeful for better content variety, multiplayer potential, and the game's ability to surpass similar titles.
- Appreciation (weight 0.01): Players appreciate the developers' hard work, responsiveness, and commitment to providing free updates. The quality of the game, especially considering it's from a small team, and their effective communication are also highly valued.
- Desire (weight 0.01): Players express a desire for specific quality-of-life features, such as auto-fire/aim options and menu improvements. There's also a strong wish for increased difficulty modes, character rebalancing, and more content to enhance the gameplay experience.
- Admiration (weight 0.01): Admiration is directed towards the developers for their impressive achievements with a small team, particularly in terms of game quality, visuals, and soundtrack. Their attention to user experience is also a significant point of praise.
- Concern (weight 0.01): Concern arises from issues such as character balance, potential decline in multiplayer activity, and performance issues, especially for other players. There's also worry about negative experiences on lower difficulties.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Players are surprised by the unexpected quality and content of the game, often exceeding their initial expectations. Discovering features like Chinese language support despite store page information and enjoying the game despite genre preferences also contribute to this emotion.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion is caused by unclear meta-progression, unexpected bugs, and strange design choices. Players also experience confusion due to game crashes after long play sessions and ambiguous unlock conditions.
- Love (weight 0.01): Players express love for the game, often stemming from their enjoyment since its free version and a continued strong affection for the overall experience.
- Amusement (weight 0): Amusement comes from unexpected game events, humorous death experiences, and the chaotic nature of the multiplayer experience, often involving frequent deaths.
- Challenge (weight 0): Players feel challenged by the game's difficulty, which often punishes them, and by the demanding nature of certain achievements.}