Deathstate: Abyssal Edition

Sampled this game for an hour on my "Indie Tryouts" Day - what a banger. It's an unholy eldritch combination of bullet heaven and hell - as a viewer put it "Bullet Purgatory". Throw in some wild roguelike "Binding of Isaac"-style relics and upgrades and it's well worth a look. Cool to uncover an old hidden indie gem.

This game is very addicting, it just keeps pulling you in, if you enjoyed Halloween Forever, youll love this!!

SUMMARY: A must-buy single-stick roguelike shooter adventure with plenty of unlockables and challenge. Fight Lovecraftian monsters in a dream world, try to find the way to the right endings, and have fun! I got Deathstate in 2022, years after release. I played it for hours, if you want any idea how good it is. In Deathstate you play one of many people/beings trapped in an in-between dreamworld by a mysterious professor's experience. You pick someone to play and voyage into various dimensions, battling monsters with psychic powers and magic, and hopefully doing the right things to escape. Yes, there's actually a plot. The game delivers everything you'd want in a single-stick roguelike shooter adventure - items, enemies, boss fights, lore, all sorts of equipment. At the same time it's precise in its design, with clear gameplay, easy controls, and an adventure you can often play in 30 minutes. However, let's look at the elements. CHARACTERS: You start with one character, and unlock others as you progress. This gives you different ways to play, and of course various endings to unlock. GAMEPLAY: Literally move and you shoot automatically. A lot of your time will be dodging and activating various relics, abilites, and potions. ENEMIES: Enemies are cute 16-bit lovecraftian monsters. Many are simple, but enough have unique abilities to keep you on your toes. LEVELS: Pretty standard proceural block-based dungeons. The colors and extras are nice, adding a vibrancy to them. There's also various treasures and devices you can find. BOSSES: Bosses are pretty interesting, though you'll develop strategies for them over time. The designs are great. LEVELING: You level characters by finding organs from champions and boss monsters. These are randomized, and will affect your gameplay choices. EQUIPMENT: This is very precise. You have one special ability (which might change), one artifact (triggered), one weapon (modifies your attacks), one grimoire (which adds attacks or modifes yours), and one potion to carry. You have options, but also you never have to manage a complex inventory. UNLOCKABLES: LOTS of unlockables. You'll unlock more items, secrets, treasures, and more in most games sessions. It makes the game very fun to play as you're usually rewarded. ENDINGS: There's also endings, secrets, and videos to unlock as well. In short, Deathstate is a must buy if you like roguelike shooters. Its just a lot of fun with plenty to do.

Deathstate is kind of a mix between bullet hell and roguelike, and holds the balance well. Runs are short with enough variety to keep it interesting. There are a lot of unlocks (both items and characters) and feels a little opaque sometimes given how much the game hints at secrets, but is still worth the asking price.

Deathstate

The gameplay is super unforgiving, even for a bullet hell, but it’s equally rewarding: killer aesthetics, spooky atmosphere, fun levels and challenges, and the soundtrack SLAPS.

[h1]The best thing about this game is that I will never have to play it again[/h1] It is hard for me to write this review. I really wanted to like this game. Years ago, I thought it looked amazing and I stopped playing it because I became obsessed with completing it while collecting an element called Desecration in order to get a very difficult achievement. After years, I finally managed to do that and more. Recently, after playing many bullet hell games and getting much better at the genre, I decided it was finally time to end this and complete a game that had haunted my library for a long time, 100 percent. In this review I will go over the positives and negatives, but keep in mind that the negatives greatly outweigh the positives. [h2][b]Positives[/b][/h2] [olist] [*][b]Story: [/b]The game has an interesting story with a good balance of mystery and vagueness. It keeps you curious and makes you want to learn more about the world. [*][b]Pixel art:[/b] The game has a very pretty art style, which is what made me fall in love with it years ago. Unfortunately, visuals can only take a game so far. [*][b]Enemy and boss variety: [/b]There are many different enemy types that require you to learn their behavior to survive. The bosses are unique and, at times, fun to fight. [*][b]Multiple characters: [/b]The game offers a solid variety of characters. While some are clearly better than others, they generally feel balanced enough and it is enjoyable to try them all. [/olist] [h3] [/h3] [h2][b]Negatives[/b][/h2] [olist] [*][b]Walls and terrible enemy bullet hitboxes:[/b] This is incredibly frustrating. Enemy bullets often ignore walls, especially from the sides or top, unlike player bullets. This leads to many cheap deaths where you get hit when you least expect it. [*][b]Terrain is your enemy: [/b] Many areas have large holes or awkward terrain. While trying to dodge enemies and bullets, you can easily get stuck, which almost guarantees death or receiving cheap damage. [*][b]Enemy speed inconsistencies: [/b]Some enemies move at a reasonable pace, but others suddenly sprint at extreme speeds. These enemies can instantly lock onto you and rush you with no warning, often feeling completely random. [*][b]Game effects: [/b]The visual effects often work against the player. Lights, saturation, shadows, symbols, bloom, and static effects frequently obscure enemy bullets and sometimes even enemies themselves. Certain lighting effects constantly change colors and can completely hide bullets. One color in particular can even make enemies nearly invisible. [*][b]Cheap enemy mechanics:[/b] There are enemies that spawn out of nowhere, revive after a few seconds, teleport and instantly hit you, or drop directly on top of you if you do not dodge perfectly or lack movement speed. This gets significantly worse with Desecration active. The list goes on. [*][b]The dodge mechanic: [/b]In most games like this, dodging helps you escape danger. Here, you often need to dodge directly into enemy bullets to avoid damage, which makes no sense, feels terrible to use and takes sometime to get used to it. [*][b]Invulnerability frames: [/b]They are almost nonexistent. If you get hit once, you can easily be hit again immediately with very little chance to recover. [*][b]No item information: [/b]You have no idea what items do until you pick them up. Organs, weapons, books, and relics cannot be dropped unless replaced, which makes experimenting risky and punishing. [*][b]No information in general:[/b] The game explains almost nothing. Many mechanics and elements are left completely unexplained, forcing players to guess. For example, early in the game you can interact with something that says, “The Master of the realm has been weakened.” You would assume this affects the final boss or a miniboss, but after many attempts I never noticed any difference. Another example is the Anubis Mask, which gives no indication of what it does unless you look it up online. [*][b]Maze generation: [/b]Some levels generate extremely poorly, forcing you into tight spaces with no room to dodge. In these situations, taking damage is often unavoidable. [*][b]You cannot aim: [/b]You automatically shoot the nearest enemy. In chaotic situations, this can easily get you killed. [*][b]Extremely luck-based: T[/b]here are so many items that completing the game and getting 100 percent of the achievements heavily depends on RNG. Some organs are outright incompatible with certain characters and can completely ruin a run. [*][b]Ending: [/b]The ending is forgettable and underwhelming. [/olist] [h3] [/h3] [h2] [/h2] [h2][b]Conclusion[/b][/h2] This game is interesting and beautiful on the surface, but deeply flawed and frustrating to play. It relies heavily on artificial difficulty and punishing especially for players new to bullet hell games. There are many better games in the genre. I would strongly recommend avoiding this one. [h3][b]Score: 3.5/10[/b][/h3]

This is like the much more difficult predecessor of the auto-battler/shooter genre that exploded with Vampire Survivor. If you want a bit of a challenge...or a lot of challenge because its super hard on hard lol but definitely reasonable on normal. Check it out, it'snot bad for full price, even better if you catch it on sale 8.5/10