Section 13
Last updated: 2025-05-27
- Tight controls, satisfying gunplay.
- Meaningful character progression, customization.
- Good roguelike elements, high replayability.
- Lacks content, feels repetitive.
- Poor weapon balance and usability.
- Excessive and unforgiving difficulty.
Verdict
Mixed
Summary
Positive 62% · Negative 38%. Score: 38 / 100
Positives:
- Reviewers consistently praise the tight, responsive controls and satisfying gunplay mechanics. They appreciate the variety of weapons, the impact of each shot, and the overall feel of combat. Smooth movement and reload mechanics also contribute to the positive experience.
- Reviewers appreciate the sense of progression and customization through upgrades, perks, and character development. The meta-progression systems are well-designed, encouraging players to keep playing and improving their characters. This makes each run feel different and rewarding.
- The game incorporates roguelike elements such as procedural generation and permadeath, which add replayability and variety to each run. Reviewers appreciate the dynamic gameplay and the feeling of freshness with each playthrough. Randomization of maps, enemies, and items keeps the experience engaging.
- The game offers a wide array of weapons, each with unique characteristics, encouraging experimentation and diverse playstyles. Reviewers appreciate the variety and the impact of weapon choice on gameplay. This variety extends to locations and enemies as well.
- The game offers enjoyable solo and cooperative play options, catering to different player preferences. Reviewers note that playing with friends enhances the fun, requiring communication and teamwork. Recent patches have made solo play more viable.
Negatives:
- The game suffers from a lack of content, repetitive gameplay, and uninspired level design. Players feel there is not enough variety in enemies, weapons, maps, and objectives, leading to a quickly stale experience. Some reviewers note that the game feels unfinished or like an early access title despite not being labeled as such.
- Many weapons are underpowered, awkward to use, or have long reload times that leave players vulnerable. The limited weapon variety and poor balance force players to rely on a small subset of weapons, diminishing tactical options. Some weapons are considered outright useless in solo play.
- The meta-progression and upgrade systems are uninspired, slow, and offer lackluster bonuses. Many upgrades feel inconsequential or provide minimal impact on gameplay. The lack of meaningful character builds and the resetting of gun upgrades between runs diminish the sense of progression.
- The game's difficulty is considered too high, especially for solo players, with limited recovery options and frequent one-shot kill scenarios. The permadeath mechanic and lack of checkpoints can lead to frustration, as progress is easily lost. Some reviewers feel the difficulty is artificial, stemming from enemy health scaling or poorly designed encounters.
- Boss fights are tedious due to excessive health pools and bullet sponge enemies. Some bosses have poorly designed mechanics or spawn too many adds, making them frustrating to fight. The final boss is considered absurdly difficult and requires specific builds to defeat.
Gameplay:
- The game is a top-down, twin-stick, roguelite zombie shooter. It combines elements of cooperative gameplay, strategic resource management, and character progression. This core combination defines the overall gameplay experience.
- The game emphasizes tactical gameplay with slower movement, manual reloading, stealth elements, and friendly fire. Players must carefully plan engagements, manage resources, and utilize stealth to succeed. Sound affects enemy awareness, and perks can buff damage against unaware enemies.
- Players acquire temporary power-ups and permanent upgrades through meta-progression. Experience and money are used to improve stats and unlock weapons, but progress is lost upon death if a safe zone isn't reached. This creates a cycle of grinding for permanent enhancements.
- The game features a class system ('Departments') that influences weapon and skill choices. Weapons have levels and perks, and damage types (physical, psionic, golden) affect enemy behavior. This system adds depth to character customization and combat strategies.
- The game features hand-curated maps with some procedural generation, creating a mix of familiarity and variety. Some players feel the maps can be narrow, while others appreciate the changing paths that prevent repetition. The maps change partially from death to death.
Performance:
- The game's technical performance is generally positive, with many players reporting smooth gameplay and good optimization, even on older hardware. Some reviewers specifically noted the absence of bugs and crashes, indicating a stable experience.
- The game appears to be graphically demanding, with some reviewers noting that it heavily utilizes the GPU, potentially requiring a dedicated gaming PC for optimal performance. This could limit accessibility for players with less powerful hardware.
- Multiplayer stability is a concern, as matches can be unstable if the host has a poor internet connection. The inability to rejoin sessions in progress further exacerbates this issue, potentially leading to frustrating experiences for players.
- The game's optimization suffers in specific areas, such as the parking lot, where the presence of purple creatures causes lag. This indicates that certain graphical elements or environmental interactions may be poorly optimized, leading to performance dips.
Recommendations:
- Many reviewers recommend waiting for updates or sales due to bugs, balance issues, lack of content, and unpolished gameplay. Some even suggest considering a refund if possible. Some reviewers mention specific issues like difficulty scaling, flawed mechanics, and repetitive gameplay.
- Many reviewers express excitement for future updates and the full release of the game. They are interested to see how the game evolves and improves over time. Some reviewers are specifically looking forward to new content, features, and gameplay enhancements.
- Several reviewers mention the game's price, with some finding it worth the cost and others suggesting it's only worth considering on sale. This suggests that the perceived value of the game is tied to its price point. Some reviewers feel the game is worth the price, especially in its early access state, while others suggest waiting for a sale to support the developers.
- One reviewer urges people not to review bomb the game due to misunderstandings or overreactions. This suggests that the game has been the target of review bombing. Review bombing can be harmful to a game's reputation and can discourage potential players from trying it.
- One reviewer specifically calls out the reload mechanic as needing improvement. This suggests that the current reload system is clunky or unsatisfying. Improving the reload mechanic could enhance the overall feel and flow of combat.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is in early access, with developers actively communicating updates and planning to add more content like classes, weapons, and maps. Players are anticipating these updates and looking forward to the full release, with some hope for further polish.
- The game is a hardcore, top-down, isometric, co-op shooter with roguelite elements. It has shifted from its original concept as a Left 4 Dead-style horde survival game.
- Progress from the demo version of the game does not carry over to the main game. Additionally, the game may still indicate a trial state even after completion.
- One reviewer refunded the game due to a lack of available co-op rooms after attempting to play solo. This suggests potential issues with the matchmaking or player base size for co-op play.
- The game currently lacks Japanese localization, which is a feature that at least one reviewer is hoping to see in the future. This limits the game's accessibility to Japanese-speaking players.
