Recent reviews by Techington

I had been eyeing this for some time but couldn't bring myself to grab it. I had hundreds of hours in the origin DayZ mod and always enjoyed getting on there and playing, despite it being frustrating, but that's just the way these kind of games are.

I decided to pull the trigger when it was on sale in the last steam sale. I ended up refunding the next day after playing for 90 minutes.

Everything about it that made the Mod version good was gone. There was a level of intuitiveness to it. Discovering how to do certain things, map knowledge and so forth. Sadly so much has changed that everything is exponentially more cumbersome. Certain keybindings don't do what they do anymore. loading/reloading a magazine is not intuitive and beyond cumbersome. Put ammo in one had and mag in the other while in your inventory screen, exit inventory screen, load gun using you mouse buttons.
If you want to reload, it doesn't reload anymore, it simply chambers a single round in your gun if you have any ammo for said gun. There's no way to map a reload, so if your in a heated fight and out of ammo, you have to run and hide, open your inventory, search for you mag, hope it's loaded, then put it in your hands and then go through the process of using your mouse to load another mag.

I get the intent of this being survival, but it shouldn't be a chore to do menial things. Hell, I play Tarkov and it's not nearly as cumbersome or complicated like this. Entirely different styles of games, but still. Even another game here on steam, DeadSide isn't anywhere close to being the cumbersome, it's even way more polished than this. Maybe someday they'll make some dramatic changes to make the gameplay mechanics less cumbersome. When that day comes, I'll give it another chance.

I gotta say, I really enjoy this game a lot. There's times I've found myself letting time go out the window and end up going for "just one more run" and wind up playing for several more hours.

As someone who's played a lot similar styles of games, I was pleasantly surprised with Neon Abyss. The gameplay, the music, the replay-ability all hit's the right notes. It's really easy to just get lost and keep playing. I really wish I had discovered it sooner. If you like other games such as Streets of Rogue, Dead Cells, Fury Unleashed and other similar rogue-likes, you'll find a good home here.

The amount of combinations with weapons and items can be absurdly OP. What I enjoy most is that no two playthrough is ever alike. Item drops are randomized and there's plenty of variety.

One thing I would like to see maybe implemented, is a way to remove an item you might get in a run. There's been a fair few runs where I'll find something and if you're not playing as Amir or have an ability to see what you're picking up, you can completely break a build. That said though, there is a wikia out there that can alleviate this. It's really the only con that I can think of. Seriously, if you like Rogue-Likes, this one is for you.

**EDIT**

So I wanted to revisit this since my initial review back in October. I have to say, after having poured another 130 hours in to the game after writing the review and up until now, there's been a good deal of improvements to the game. I do enjoy how they're setting out to make this game a living world, things changing as time goes on. These changes aren't skin deep either as there's lore scattered around that you can read up on.

After having completely finishing the game and all the DLC (I think I was around 150 hours) I was kind of left a bit empty story wise. Once you do complete the entirety of things on offer it might seem like there's not much to do. Depending on how completionist you are, there's schematics for enemies, ammo, heals and there's hundreds of collectibles scattered across the map. There's a lot you can still do.

With the added Base Defense, I've yet to try this out, it's a nice option to be able to undertake. I also like the other added content such as the new weapons. One thing I do wish they hadn't done was put 3* variants in your storage. I think they should have only given you either 1* versions, or make it so they're ground/enemy loot. I had started a whole new game after backing up saves so I could truly start over, and I'll be honest, the new weapons make you overpowered for starting out. Where in my first play through I was having to think before shooting, I'm now just steam rolling through things. It's still fun, though it seems it takes the Risk/Reward aspect and unfurls it. Anyways, I just wanted to offer some additional thoughts on the game after putting in another aforementioned 130 or so more hours.

**End of EDIT**

Got this from Humble Bundle. Easily worth the Monthly price.
In my 90+ hours over the last two weeks, you could say I'm a bit addicted.

Sound, omg the sound, it's so good. It's eerie, it's 80's, it's completely encompassing. You're really pulled in by the audio, from the guns, to the machines and most especially to the Music. If you want to just listen to the music, it's available on some streaming platforms.

Gameplay wise, it can be frustrating starting out. Limited ammo, low tier weapons, tough but intensely smart AI, it all creates for a do or die atmosphere. A lot of times you just have to take a risk. I was a little discouraged in the beginning. Once you get the attack patterns down though, it's a little rock paper scissors in terms of what best works. There's plenty of guns in the game to give you some variety with taking down these metal monstrosities. I will say that in my time playing, there are occasions where you just need to cut your losses and run. Not all fights are going to be winnable the first time you come at a situation. I will recommend to loot everything. Also I recommend going backwards to the beginning and doing quick loot runs for things like ammo, heals and such. Sometimes you might find a better piece of gear or something where you had once been.

The world itself is quite huge. There's fast travelling so you're not always having to run, but there's definitely a lot of running, a lot. There are bikes but they're more for entertainment value, you can cover ground pretty quick with them though. There's lots to explore. Even with all my play, I've cleared roughly half the map.

There are some bugs and quirks. I've fallen through the world a couple times where I had to completely quit the game and go back in. Occasionally you'll get a crash, I've gotten one maybe two so far in game. I've gotten a few when exiting the game where it seems to just fail ending the process. It doesn't affect the saving though. It seems to auto save every 5-10 minutes. I've also had some issues here and there with connecting to multiplayer games. It would be nice if the game would just migrate host, but it just ends the session completely on you. So if you're mid mission with others, you're gonna have to start all over again if the host loses connection.

All in all, even still I'd say it's definitely worth a purchase. I'm not sure how much more is going to be added to the game in terms of DLC and such, but there may be more down the road. They do seem to still be actively supporting it though.