Botlike - a robot's rampage

[b]Town / before the actual game[/b] Town The town offers a few occasions to prepare youself for battle. * There's a slot machine at which you can invest permanent currency for a chance to win a non-permanent upgrade/weapon for your next run. * Also you can find a shop just like any other shop you can stumble upon in the core game, having 4 random items for you to purchase for you next run, that is if you can afford it, since you usually start off with exactly 0 credits before you invested in some... Permanent Upgrades It's a bit grindy but that's usually the point of rogue-like games, isn't it? I feel like the prices of permanent upgrades are quite reasonable. The amount of different permanent upgrades is totally fine and you can pretty much customize just however you'd like to play the game. You can go for maximum tankiness, tons of damage or ninja play style dashing through everything that's thrown at you like it was nothing. You can even reduce shop prizes or the amount of bling you lose when you die. [b]Killing those bots / actual gameplay loop[/b] Non-permanent Upgrades Non-permanent upgrades which you collect during your runs and lose upon death are plentiful and varying. I especially like the idea of combining 2 or more of those upgrades to get an even better one. Those synergies can be incredibly devestating. It could do with some counter-productive combinations though. I.e. not everything you can pick up makes you stronger in general. Instead some combinations should actually weaken you so that you'd have to put some thought in what to pick up and what not to. This way there could be actual different builds per run, not just a few more or a few less upgrades. But that would require even more different upgrades as well. I expect those to happen sooner or later. Weapons Similarly to non-permanent upgrades you can find/buy weapons on your way. Weapon types were just raised to 10 in the last update, doubling the amount to choose from. Every weapon has up to 5 levels, which you can increase by just finding the same weapon multiple times during a single run. And they all have their own, different uses. Except for the blowtorch. Really, I don't get what I'm supposed to do with that thing. The shotgun at Level 2 or higher is an awesome flak cannon for instance. It gets rid of those pesky flyers in no time. Movement Movement feels a little bit clunky at times, especially the wall jumping, but then again it totally fits the overall theme. Being an old warbot with a tophat might actually feel exactly like that. ^^ It's nothing to really worry about. "Levels" There is a decent amount of content at the moment. 2 differently themed large areas put together randomly from tilesets each with a boss at the end. I'm gonna call them "levels" although there is a fluent transition from on to the other after the first boss. Enemy types vary between those levels as well as general mechanics. The difficulty really spikes after the first boss (which is not exactly easy either... at least not without a few permanent upgrades). The art style and ambience is great. Death Screens Yeah, I just have to mention those seperately. The death screens are hilarious. You'll enjoy those even more if you're an "IT person" yourself. ^^ Conclusion, already? Yes, I never intended to write so much. It's 4 in the morning. Hell, it's about time. My overall experience with this game was way better than I ever anticipated. For an early access indie game it's great and more than worth your 10 bucks. Especially if you value playtime per buck. I even gifted it to a few friends just to have a reason to throw some more money at Binji. You should do so too. Honestly, I really doubt you'll regret it. I'm not a great fan of the rogue-like genre but this game just gets it right in my opinion.