Recent reviews by cwj

Combat foundations are decent but everything else is lacking. It's such a pity because the demo seemed promising but the final product was literally just the demo itself.

This game is quite similar to Shape of Dreams and Ravenswatch in concept, but unlike those games, the roguelite mechanics are very one-dimensional

- Item choices are extremely boring (i.e. 1% lifesteal when you crit, +2% burn damage - who cares?)
- Combat is decent but movement is so janky
- Repetitive because of a lack of meaningful choices in a run
- Zero interesting things to do other than "advance to the next room"
- Most of the game you are wasting 10s running to the next room instead of fighting
- The first biome is extremely boring and not at all challenging
- Too many sponge-y enemies, not enough interesting damage or mobility tools
- Enemy design is all over the place, some enemies like the Plant Boss is great, but a lot of normal mobs and other bosses are very boring
- Lore voiceover is annoying, distracting and very bland

And there is so much unintentionally boring dead air even in climactic fights. For example in the 1st level fire biome, you will have a boss that rolls around the arena. When they start rolling you are literally just WAITING for the boss to stop moving because you can't chase him down (no mobility tools), he doesn't pose any threat, and there is no counterplay (can't stun him or damage him significantly while he's rolling around). In the 1st level desert biome, the boss going into his invulnerable state and slamming the ground gets really boring on the 2nd time around.

Overall, I am very disappointed because I was looking forward to this game so much. I went back to play Risk of Rain 2 that I haven't played for 3 years and the contrast in the quality of the game experience was astonishing.

Great potential because no other game replicates the pickup 5-aside experience, but I stopped playing after week 1 or 2.

Too many bugs means:
- Sometimes you score and it might not be because you are skillful
- Sometimes as keeper you do all the literally correct actions and somehow a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ shot goes past your hands
- As defender there isn't that many interesting mind games or tools, as you are forced to be a purely reactive passive defender against the onslaught of ippy slides and EE volleys

Because of everything above, high-level metagame is really boring too. I really hope this game gets a big patch so I can enjoy it again.

Main quest story and design are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ atrocious.

The fact that you are forced to play one of the most boring trash plot before unlocking the real game is baffling

Optimization is terrible

GET READY FOR THE NEXT TRANSACTION

Great VN that has a blend of a fantastically depressing atmosphere, gothic and dark artstyle, and 'mature' concepts you rarely find in this genre.

I love suffering and mystery so I really loved the first half of this VN - it was like when I watched Higurashi for the first time blind.

Music is genuinely interesting and very unique, which really adds to the bizzare and depressing experience (except the annoying 3rd story theme, nothing worse than MIDI instruments playing a terrible "Jazz" arrangement)

The English prose is quite good although dialogue is quite stilted at times, which is expected of a JP to EN translation. Overall, nothing was out of place or distracting.

Most importantly, the themes presented in this game are very interesting to me. This mixed with the audiovisual masterclass of this VN made this one of the best ones I've ever played to date and it's going to be hard to forget about.

There's a lot more concrete stuff I could discuss on the themes and structure of this game/novel, but I won't want to spoil anyone.

It's great to see an Indie game get traction, especially a coop roguelite, however this game is lacking diversity for me.
- Gameplay loop is not satisfying for me, making it feel very repetitive
- Early-metagame complexity is disappointing for beginners
- Combat mechanics are only okay (not a big problem if level design is good)
- Classes do not offer enough differentiation
- Classes are locked too far behind a wall of GRIND (not skill or rng)
- Movement is bland and unexciting
- Lack of innately creative tools for players to express their playstyles (other than through RNG drops)
- Randomized level design is repetitive

The biggest problem I find is lack of available differentiation between player playstyles for a beginner like me. I do not want to grind 5 - 10 hours just to hope to unlock another class, which at first glance doesn't seem that much different from the starter class anyway.

Another big issue is the lack of tools that can accentuate a player's creativity or personality in their playstyle. Deep Rock Galactic does this excellently as all its classes have truly unique and impactful/gamechanging movement tools that can be used in any number of ways. Risk of Rain 2 is another game I've been playing that has really great tools that encourage player creativity and inspires a feeling of freedom.

Gunfire Reborn feels like a Proof-Of-Concept at this point. The core idea of roguelite Borderlands is exciting, but the ancillary gameplay aspects are unrefined and not interesting to me at all.

This is basically L4D meets Helldivers crossed with mining elements and gigantic beards.

Movement tools can be used very creatively, and the class / roles system is perfect in this game. Guns feel great, and best of all you can kick barrels.

It's good.

Played 30 hours but felt like I played 69

game is hard

loading screen is burned into my mind from too many quickloads

I don't remember the last time a game erased the concept of time from my consciousness in-game, but this is one of them. Challenging game with quite intuitive mechanics. As an occasional RTS player it's easy to pick up, and the pause button is a godsend as micro becomes less important (and hotkeys are terrible right now).

Strategical variety is a bit lacking, but even in its current state it's addictive fun. Took me 30 hours of trying and failing a lot to win my first map (Challenging mode) and that's wonderful. When you read guides and begin to understand the core ideas, units/buildings, and ideal timings, it's not that hard to steamroll the first map on Challenging.

My biggest criticisms would be the lacklustre hotkeys, no rebinds, sometimes shocking AI pathfinding, weird attack animation delay when changing targets, and a lack of variety/options. I would also love for there to be a non-confrontational 'Scout mode' for units so I don't have to micro my first 5 units in 5 directions for 5 minutes.

P.S. Lack of tutorials aside, losing on Easy because you don't know what you're doing is not a 'flaw' of the game. Good guides exist in the community.

Fantastic fun even with randoms and no voice chat.

The puzzles and the silly humans truly shine when they require a group of players to solve it, and hopefully more maps will come that have intricate multiplayer-only puzzles, as I just don't find the game that enjoyable alone.

The fun lies in the chaos of 8 randoms getting in each other's way.

This game would be extremely good if it has a bigger playerbase and workshop maps, but at the moment it's pretty good fun.