HOPE 01 Review Summary

Engaging exploration, rich content, and outstanding dev responsiveness make this great value, though clunky controls, awkward inventory UI, and harsh death penalties frustrate.

Engaging Exploration and Discovery: Exploration is repeatedly praised as fun and full of unknowns, with a strong sense of discovery driving players to explore everything available. The large, interconnected, handcrafted map and varied scenery further reinforce this enjoyment.

Exceptional Developer Responsiveness: The solo developer is exceptionally responsive to feedback and bug reports, providing quick updates and regularly communicating in forums and Discord. A reported bug was fixed within hours, and the developer actively engages with the community, including non-English speakers.

Great Value and Content Rich: The game offers an enormous amount of content relative to its low price, with many considering it a steal and worth far more than the asking price. Even in early access, it provides dozens of hours of gameplay with quests and unexplored areas remaining.

Highly Fun Overall Game: Players overwhelmingly describe the game as very fun, amazing, and fantastic, with many calling it a great or well-made game. This broad positive sentiment spans many clusters and reflects strong general satisfaction.

Excellent Extraction Gameplay Loop: The core gameplay loop of killing, looting, and extracting is highly enjoyable and addictive, with tense and intriguing extraction mechanics and multiple exit options. Players find the loop satisfying and respectful of their time.

UI and inventory management issues: The UI is difficult to use, with tedious inventory management, limited inventory space, and lack of convenience features like shift-click.

Harsh difficulty and death penalties: The game is extremely hard, with drastic difficulty spikes and harsh death penalties that cause strong frustration.

Awkward and clunky controls: Many players report that controls are unintuitive, clunky, and take time to get used to, affecting overall gameplay experience.

Map and navigation frustrations: Maps are hard to memorize, no built-in navigation, and static maps are torturous, leading to players getting lost.

Grindy and repetitive gameplay: Players find the game extremely grindy and unenjoyable, with repetitive tasks and padding. This severely impacts enjoyment and is a common complaint.

Survival horror elements: The game incorporates survival horror elements, with an atmosphere and mechanics reminiscent of the Resident Evil series. This includes inventory management and tense combat.

Extraction shooter genre: Many reviewers describe the game as an extraction shooter, often with a 2D side-scrolling perspective and single-player focus. Some highlight its apocalypse setting or lore integration.

Weapon variety and gunplay: There is a wide variety of guns with realistic ballistics and mechanics. Gunplay is a core mechanic, with options like laser sights and flashlights.

Metroidvania extraction hybrid: Several reviews note the game merges extraction shooter mechanics with metroidvania exploration, creating a unique hybrid. This combination is frequently mentioned as a key aspect.

Interconnected map design: The game features a large, handcrafted, interconnected map with shortcuts and unlockable points of entry. This design encourages exploration and backtracking.

Performance drops in some rooms: One reviewer noted that certain rooms lag, with frame rates dropping to 60-80fps compared to the usual 100fps. This indicates inconsistent performance in specific areas.

Well-optimized game: A review commends the game for being optimized very well, implying smooth performance and efficient resource usage. This is a positive point for overall technical quality.

Battery life praised: One player appreciates that the game can be played for quite a while unplugged without draining the battery quickly. This highlights good power efficiency for portable play.

Strong Overall Recommendation: Many reviewers strongly recommend the game, urging players to buy it without hesitation and stating it is a must-play. The sentiment is overwhelmingly positive across multiple clusters.

Great Value for Price: Reviewers frequently mention that the game is superb for its price, offering excellent value and worth more than the cost. It is considered a solid purchase especially in its price range.

Ideal for Extraction Shooter Fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of extraction shooters and similar genres, including those who enjoy PvE extraction. It appeals to players familiar with the genre.

Niche Appeal to Genre Connoisseurs: The game may particularly appeal to connoisseurs of the genre, including fans of specific titles like Zero Sievert and Darkov. It is seen as a solid entry for enthusiasts.

Pixel Graphics Acceptance Required: Many reviewers note that the game is recommended even for those who typically dislike pixel graphics, as long as they can look past the art style. The pixel aesthetic is a common point of discussion.

Community fair range: $19.99 - $24.99.

Game completion: 80.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

Players overwhelmingly describe the game as fun from the start, with combat, exploration, and discovery delivering immediate hook and binge appeal. One report notes a later pacing slowdown after a few hours, so the time-to-fun profile is mostly immediate with a conflicting drop report.

Friction: Vague tutorial and note provide little direction; Steep learning curve from insufficient in-game guidance; Difficulty spikes and getting lost without strong mapping sense; Grindy material requirements, including double-jump gating in the scrap area; Tedious inventory movement without shift-click.

Unlock drivers: Finding an alternative material farming route.

Exploration-First Metroidvania Fan: Explores a large connected map, unlocks shortcuts, and gathers resources and lore through natural exploration. Motivation: Discovering and mapping out an interconnected metroidvania-style world without grind gating. Stance: buy.

Extraction Shooter Enthusiast: Runs solo extraction missions, weighing risk and reward against a challenging survival-horror atmosphere. Motivation: Getting the extraction-shooter tension and risk-reward loop without the toxic multiplayer crowd. Stance: buy.

Loot and Gun-Variety Collector: Grinds and hunts for specific weapons and loot, treating upgrades as optional but enticing goals. Motivation: Building up an arsenal by collecting loot and a wide variety of guns. Stance: sale.

Steam Deck: The audit of Steam Deck user feedback reveals a completely seamless experience. All reviewed comments are positive, reporting that the game works with no problems, plays absolutely perfect, and requires no Proton workarounds. No technical barriers such as small text, external launchers, battery drain, or stability issues were mentioned.

Linux and Proton: The available Linux/Steam Deck feedback is entirely positive. Users report that the game works without problems on Steam Deck, with one recommending the Linux Scout runtime instead of Proton and another saying it plays perfectly. No Linux-specific crashes, performance issues, anti-cheat/DRM blockers, or Proton workarounds are reported.

Early access with demo: The game is currently in early access and also offers a demo version. Reviewers note that it is making the most of its early access period.

Massive content amount: The game provides a huge amount of content, with many hours of play and easily over 80 hours for some players. Reviewers are impressed by the sheer volume of items, bosses, and endings.

Comparisons to other games: Reviewers compare the game favorably to titles like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter World, Dying Light, Signalis, and NEO Scavenger. The 2D gun system is praised as in-depth.

Limited language support: The game currently only supports English, which requires translation software for non-English speakers. Japanese is planned for version 1.0 at the end of early access.

Solo developer project: The game is developed and independently published by a solo developer, Bending Boy Games. Reviewers note the effort put into the game despite the small team.