Deadlink

it’s good. it’s a good game. however i have some gripes with it, a lot more than i usually have with games. 23 hours for the 100% so i have some experience. it is a deeply flawed game. lets start out with some positives… gunplay is pretty incredible, and the whole “mark enemies or die” mechanic is great, it’s fun and gets your noggin joggin. you can kill them, but your kit is on cooldown, so do you risk it and wait? or like finding scenarios of huge marks one ability pop, and grouping enemies for that purpose. it’s really interactive and a big difference from other shooters. guns look amazing, they sound good, they feel good, they hit good. their kit feels relatively balanced, EXCEPT for the fact some augments do basically nothing to engineers gauss rifle, i feel like that’s a bit of an oversight. it still performs well. the abilities are really nice, all the shells have movement abilities in one way or another. they all feel very unique. but i do feel that there’s shell upgrades that should’ve just… been in the main kit? it’s weird, it feels like i always want them and the class feels incomplete without it. stuff like soldiers gripwire reset on kill upgrade, or hunters c ball translocation upgrade, or juggs cooldown lower on enemies hit with graviton punch, or engys double turret. these all should’ve been base in my opinion, perhaps with a tradeoff. playing them without it feels anywhere from weird to rough. i think they’d feel a lot better to play knowing you don’t have an immediate “need immediately” shell upgrade. the rest feel very balanced and situational. you eventually get hub upgrades that can grant you 3 kits at the start of runs, and you can hope it has it there. or just restart but that’s a bit out of the spirit of it, still, it’s a bit lame to encourage resetting like, these should have been base or a choice in the kit before even playing. it’s not good to discourage building on the fly in games like this, knowing your next shell upgrade is set in stone basically. the areas… they’re okay. they’re fun. but there’s so little of them that the game feels a bit stale. i was actually very disappointed seeing this, it helps keep games fresh. are the bosses different? no, the only real randomization is the fourth areas mini bosses. i think the fourth area is done really well, and i also love the mini bosses in 1-2, they’re so fun and have such character. the areas look great, it’s just they do run their course. that can be fine, games like noita have this, but in noita it fits the game much much better as you’re striving to reach these areas, you have to actually plan for it. the story is not good, it’s very forgettable, the characters are very unlikable, and the voice acting kills it even more. the story just kinda happens with small cutscenes, it’s whatever. it’s there. you don’t play games like this for the story but i find it weird how half assed it is. one character in particular you get her and she never shuts up i cannot stand her. maria or something. would love to disable va as an option. ymmv. for the other modes, we have essentially time trial challenges (chronodeck), and endless (extant existence). LOVE chronodeck, it’s a ton of fun. endless is just endless, so it’s there, done pretty well although not the best. highly recommend chronodeck it’s a great time. the problem is that this game is trying to do to way too much. that’s okay by itself. but it doesn’t do any element particularly well, except the gunplay. it’s a bit of a shame, there’s a great framework here, the roguelite elements and upgrades are super cool but just seem not all there. i’m gonna recommend this game with a caveat: it’s not gonna be some mind blowing experience. but it is fun if you take it for what it is. and if you like these games, maybe you’re a doom eternal and roguelite fan, you have something decent here. i enjoyed my time with it, yet i still feel a bit sad at what it could’ve been. it is enjoyable but in a way where you’re kinda wishing for more. so if you take all that and roll with it, you’ll have a decently good time. oh yeah, music is good too. it’s fine, it’s fun, but it is very, VERY flawed. it’s not gonna rock your socks off but it’s an alright game. probably rate it 6/10ish.