If you liked Enter the Breach, but want a casual and RPG experience, this is the game you're looking for. The gameplay can be repetitive and easy, but again, it's a casual experience that scratches the Enter the Breach itch.
There is a top negative review that a lot of people seem to think is helpful and are probably steering them away from playing this game, but their review is based on a poor understanding of the game. I respect the way the developers responded to them, and that's the reason I decided to pull the trigger and buy the game. The following is what that bad review said about the game, and I'll tell you exactly why they are wrong:
"Annoying mechanic #1: fuel. You burn fuel when moving between encounters, and when you inevitably run out of fuel, which always feels extremely premature, your run is over. There is apparently a gas station unlockable, but even after several hours of play, I never found it."
Your run is not directly over when you run out of fuel. You have options, but not one of them leads to a direct game over. The game will prompt you to use consumables to either replenish your fuel or send you back to the home island. If you have nothing, you have the option to drift with reversable minor "negative" side effects. This option sends you to a random enemy island. From there, you just have to beat the enemy island to refuel. I actually use this mechanic to find new locations without burning through consumables and to grind EXP. Outside of these options, you can refill at the home island gas station, event islands, defeating wandering pirate ships, and defeating enemy islands. Fuel is not a direct game-ending issue.
"Annoying mechanic #2: after ten encounters, your run is ended. Perhaps this is done for balance reasons, but it just feels annoying. Normally with rogue-lites your run is ended because you progressed to some combat that you couldn't win. But in Dead Weight, your run is ended just because you filled up this arbitrary progress bar."
The game has an encounter bar of 10. Most events and enemy encounters cost 1, but I have found 1-2 events out of 50 that cost me 2. You can empty it with 20 gold on rare island events or you can pay 100 gold at the tavern in the main island. If you have a certain perk, every time you empty your encounter bar at a tavern your maximum encounter bar is increased by 1. I'm almost done with the game, and this encounter bar has not been an issue at all. Just do your resource management.
"Annoying mechanic #3: the combat is akin to the Breach, which is fine, but it is more simplistic, and extremely repetitive. Due to Annoying Mechanics Numbers 1 & 2, everything is very slow to unlock, which adds further to the repetitiveness."
If this reviewer followed my advice, they can unlock things faster because as they progress further into the game they get more post-game currency. Of course, if they're only playing 10 encounters per run, they're going to have a rough time. Once I understood I can replenish my encounter bar on my third run, I am progressing through the entire story mode. Now I spend a lot of time just grinding away amassing my strength to make the boss battles trivial. Now I will agree the game is repetitive because of this and due to the lack enemy and event variety. But if you want the scratch the casual EtB itch after a long day, this is the game.
If the reviewer reads this, I hope they change their review. You're leading people away from a decent game.
