on early access: developer appears to have abandoned game correlating to release of their title, "Chonkers," and have similarly appeared to have abandoned development of "Hardest Harvest," an arena shooter à la Devil Daggers before offering any non-demo release. In light of this information, I consider this game to be both abandonware and incomplete, however my review is not contingent on either consideration. Instead, I am reviewing this game "as is," recommending for/against purchase in light of what is present, not what might be in the future. Significant future addition to the game appears unlikely-but-not-impossible.
The farming angle of a survivors-like is not entirely new, but given the Hardest Harvest demo, it appears to be a meaningful theme to the devs, and much of the visuals call back to said demo, even if in a 'demake' style somewhere between 16 bit and 2d more generally. While the care in creation of the sprites and balancing feels evident, it does not quite seem logically consistent. What constitutes friend and foe is limited to the developer's assigned values, but does not seem linked to any subjectively available criteria. Their own taste towards the produces named notwithstanding, what identifies the alliance is only described in naming--friends are named as their real-world counterparts, foes given a more creative treatment (e.g. Avocabros, different variations of Pepper-Oni [itself unclear, as there are three such peppers, but only one counts as the base "Pepper-Oni," despite equal claim to the name as the Bell Pepper and Jalapeño], &c.) indicating worthwhile distinction. Fine, but feels as incomplete as walking about in a bespoke suit with bare feet. You're going to be judged more harshly because of where you gave up than because you're not wearing shoes.
The strategy is fairly shallow, as rather than offering room for skill development, it's more important that you unlock the stronger weapons than that you get comfortable with any of them. I don't know what balancing or additions have changed since the beginning, but it still doesn't feel as though it's worthwhile to actually experiment.
Progression via character upgrades is severely hindered by reward currency granted so stingily that while I completed all of the extant content in the game, I still couldn't even max any one character upgrades, let alone multiple. Besides this, the actual upgrades are fairly middling. Most can be compensated for by a couple levels or harvests worth of upgrades, and as such they occupy a frustrating space between win-more and meaningless. Progressive weapon unlocks were similarly frustrating, as it unlinked the themes that connected them to their original characters (woodworking tools with the woodworker) while being less rewarding than they were just one step closer to completion.
Giving up the early access after eight months (contra the anticipated 6 month early access period in toto) isn't a great look paratextually, considering the now two abandonware titles released prior to "Chonkers," a game which had more mainstream success as well as taking advantage (derogatory) of the community market for player generated and sellable consumable items that make the game p2w without drawing too much negative attention to itself. The portion of the early access roadmap which states "you are here" remaining incomplete (where are my weapon evolutions, Summer?) and in the back half , the last game update of any kind correlating to the release of Chonkers; It's not the gameplay that this effects, it's my willingness to grant benefit of the doubt for projects whose developers have continued dutiful updates elsewhere while forgetting prior commitments. The cons of my gameplay experience are felt as strongly in light of these details, but that is less the source of my negative review and more the source of my decision to suspend my frustration to await further updates. To another seemingly abandoned game in the same genre I gave a positive review as it didn't purport to have anything future to offer, but didn't need any more to be fun, either.
I would very enthusiastically revisit this game should the development actually resume, but I don't foresee that happening, so I will instead urge you try something else.
