Recent reviews by APM

Vampire survivors in space - less to do but definitely worth 3-5 quatloos. Some fun weapons and very nice soundtrack and vibe. No performance issues. UI could use some more information, especially on the pause screen during play, but you eventually learn what's what.

I hope it gets more development and content, but I'm satisfied with my 13 hours even if it doesn't.

Very fun in its simplicity. I look forward to more items, evolutions, and play modes.

Co-op multiplayer would be extremely fun on this - maybe someday. In the mean time, it's worth three bucks.

A deeper and better looking Battle Brothers. You've got the familiar party economy, health, and equipment management gameplay loops with a cool, tactically flexible turn based combat system and some interesting non-combat jobs and party knowledge trees. Faction decisions don't feel super meaningful yet, but it will be cool to see them evolve. Early game is a bit on rails at the moment in terms of which play styles are viable (one city in starting area) and some party systems (wages, food, encumbrance) feel a bit onerous and restrictive even on the easiest difficulties. Once you get established and open new regions there's more variety and less mandatory subsistence mission grinding to stay afloat.

Very interested to follow this game and see it improve on an already great start.

1-2 hours of great chill gameplay, probably more if you stretch it out over multiple sessions, it's a steal for the price. Try it out. No crazy time or # of clicks achievements leaving the completionists feeling like they are missing something, it really lends itself to a relaxing, thoughtful pace.

Credentials: I've played one character class to the current max level and toyed around with a few others.

This game has a solid combat and loot system, which are the most important parts of an ARPG. Getting new loot drops can drastically increase your power, allowing you to venture into new areas and make faster progress. Dungeons and gear both have level requirements, and leveling also nets you some stat and skill points. Skill trees are straightforward and there's plenty of opportunities to move points around as you level. Fighting above your level is appropriately difficult, and it is usually not productive without a party.

The various open world areas and instanced dungeons are well designed and interesting to work through whether solo or with a party. Even in alpha they have a nice variety of enemies as well as levers, puzzles, and secret areas. Checkpoints typically unlock progress and also keep death from being too much of an annoyance as they provide a place to respawn with no penalty upon death. Dungeons are designed to be run multiple times, and each successful run counts toward unlocking harder and more rewarding versions of the dungeon - this is currently just higher level enemies, but there's other interesting things they could do with this.

The downside is typical alpha stuff - there's not a lot of content yet aside from going into dungeons, killing monsters, and taking their stuff. The loot system is good, but it needs to be fleshed out with more uniques, sets, and interesting modifiers. There's only one quest and it's standard collection fare, but it works pretty well and shows that the quest system is viable. Harvesting and crafting are in, but they currently involve socketing one harvestable gem or one quest reward gem into items. Not particularly interesting, but, again, it shows that these systems are working.

Controls are occasionally awkward with multi-key input inssues, but you eventually learn the quirks and learn to work around them. Lag is sometimes a problem, but it has never been bad enough to cause me to quit a playing session. It does occasionally result in death, but as I mentioned above, death is not a huge setback by any means.

The biggest positive for the game is that the dev staff are updating regularly, post regular articles about progress and future goals, and actively respond to community input and bug reports.

If you're looking for a finished game with tons of content, this is not for you, but if you're interested in a Secret of Mana MMO with Diablo-esque loot with a lot of potential, there's a lot of fun to be had. The active community is small, which means it's easy to be listened to if you are willing to give thoughtful feedback.