Caveblazers

-Minimalistic pixel art, still fluid colofrul animation with a decent amount of frames -Music is forgetable -Randomized levels are decently varied and offer rewards aplenty -coop = AWESOME -bosses feel more like a gear check than anything else -melee combat is freaking godawful, youre never really in control, if you fight one more than one enemy at once you cant tell whats goin on and there is no way telling if youre goin to get hit or if it coudlve been avoided, basically melee as of now is useless, play ranged and stay safe -ranged feels solid, 8 direction firing and several weapon types that change the pace thats the game in a nutshell, if you dont care for the benefit of coop-play get dead cells instead.

Ok, I don't usually write reviews, so for me to write one, you know I love the game. I'm not going to call this game a roguelike because I'd get to much flack from the roguelike community. :P But, I will call it a roguelite. This game draws heavy inspiration from previous games like Spelunky (And I mean heavily). So chances are, if you like Spelunky, you'll love this game (And there's no stupid ghost in this game! :D). However, where this game differs the most in terms of comparison with Spelunky, is the combat. Now I'm not going to say that the combat is extremely complicated, because it isn't. The combat, when you boil it down is actually quite simple. But it is very well done. It feels satisfying, smooth and tight. I love the combat in this game. Top it off with the many different weapons (like what you would see in games like Enter the Gungeon) and the magical items/rings and blessings, and you can make some pretty interesting combos and strategies! Since you are able to equip a melee weapon and a range weapon at the same time, you can get creative with your attacks. The best part is, unlike in many other roguelites, you have an inventory system. Meaning, if there is a weapon you want but don't want to use right away, you can keep it in your inventory and equip it later (and that goes for magical items and rings too) further increasing your possibility of using different strategies for different situations. Keep in mind, this is still a procedural game, and sometimes you will not get good gear and will have to face off against tougher enemies. However, I've never found the game to be unfair. If you are skilled enough, you can easily take out most enemies with the starting weapons. There are a bunch of cool mechanics in this game too, like being able to meet and recruit other adventurers to help you. The bosses are also pretty fun and there are various strategies you can use to defeat them. I 100% recommend this game if you like the Genre!

So far I like it. It feels like a lot of the progression comes from developing your skill, but there is minor improvements that get unlocked as you play. It doesn't take a lot of work to get better at the game either. It's for sure worth the price on sale. I mostly got it for the co-op, which is good. The 2nd player just presses start before you dive in the cave, then you can help each other out through all the madness. Pros: Basic enough for people to jump in and start playing. Randomly generated levels to keep things changing each run. Basic bonuses to help you out the more you play. Lightweight game engine, should run on about anything. Cons: I'd love to get a little more help from the game between runs, like bigger stat increases. Finding ways to heal is crazy rare. Not such a fan of the randomized potion mechanic, unless there was more ways to counter the harm the bad ones did. I don't seem to live long enough for it to matter what the potions do. Other Thoughts: I've heard people complain about all the stuff you've got to remember, but it doesn't seem that bad to me and I've got a terrible memory. It does help being able to remember what shrines will do before you use them, but you can pause and check your journal. Another thing I didn't realize is potions are random each run, so you only learn what they do for that run only, once you die the potions get reset. A final note, another reviewer claimed this game is a copy of Vagante. The funny thing is, this game came out almost year before Vagante. There's also tons of games of this type these days, I'd hardly call either of these games original, though I can say I like this one. It's sad that GOG doesn't do more to get rid of reviews such as that.

TLDR: super fun, lots of variety of powers and tactics, focus on gameplay over story, don't get upset if you die because that's a normal part of the game. I played this a lot on other platforms and was shocked at the low rating so hopefully this will help. Super fun and very challenging. One of the best parts is collecting powerful combos of weapons and power-ups that let you mow through enemies and do a great run after getting killed a bunch of times. Fun to try different stuff to see which combos work well and which ones don't. And it gives you some very interesting things to try: a gun with so much recoil it allows you to fly if shot at the ground, the ability to shoot darts that leave laser traps that hurt enemies, and floating minions that follow you and shoot projectiles just to name a few. Add powerups like ricochet and heat seeking and things get more interesting. Has secrets, unlockables, and special challenge levels that change regularly, often with very different and interesting gameplay. Can't comment on the "end-game" because I don't have the skills to 100% this thing and I don't think that's the point of playing it. It's a rogue-like. Death is a normal part of the gameplay and not a big deal. The fun for me is listening to a podcast while getting as far as I can before I die and try again. Sometimes I hit a cool combo of weapons and abilities and I can make a full run. Those full runs tend to be very satisfying. It's nice to have games that are all about the gameplay without tons of dialog and cut scenes. All that stuff can be great the first time through a game but after that it just gets in the way.