[h1] The best aspect of this game is that it plays like DRG and is more DRG content, but the worst aspect is its main selling point [/h1]
TLDR; it’s a solid 6.5-7/10 game, but $30 isn’t worth the asking price for the gameplay loop- unless you just want to support GSG
My initial review was that this is an alright game and that it has solid bones, but then I played regular DRG again and saw what this game isn’t.
To begin, the good;
The new guns look and feel nice, I like the new reclaimer abilities, the enemy designs and variety is great, and the new level set pieces are pretty cool- both with the abandoned equipment and as you get closer to the core. This might not sound like a lot of stuff, but those are pretty big aspects with the game.
The bad;
For starters, the whole rogue-like aspect doesn’t really work well. With no ability to reroll, a plethora of abilities/upgrades that don’t synergize with others, no ability to control or choose specific upgrades, and sharing between teammates turns most runs into mishmash builds that hardly work off each other- which not bad by itself but most runs play exactly the same or you’re screwed if you don’t get lucky.
Another issue is damage against the player. I’m not sure if the dwarves in RC are slower or if the core spawn are faster- likely the latter since all of the medium enemies can actually jump to clear gaps, but you get damaged, A LOT. To add to the pain, you get limited armor instead of rechargeable shields, and resupplies don’t give you health back. If you don’t have any way to recharge your armor or spawn red sugar chunks, you’re absolutely screwed on the lower levels, since enemies hit hard and red sugar clusters aren’t common.
Finally, the current bosses aren’t done that well. All of them are tanky, have small weak points, have poorly telegraphed attacks that can do massive damage, and the cherry on top is invincibility phases- both when you complete a phase and if you do too much damage too fast.
The ugly/minor annoyances;
- having to do mini games or activities each level to upgrade character abilities or weapons gets tedious
- cave leeches still exist and seem to spawn frequently, kind of a strange feature when the game is about beating the timer and splitting up to explore as much as possible
- runs go for too long with not enough content to justify. Each run is basically a Deep Dive with random effects and weapons, but having to do the exact same mission type with the same type of content on each level gets very tedious
and
- level designs are more linear, which isn’t bad but it screws solo or 2 player coop on higher complexity caves. Enemies get buffs each level, so exploration and upgrades become critical. Because branching caves don’t loop back into each other and you’re still racing against the timer, there are times when you get more screwed by fate.
Again, I don’t hate the game and I understand this isn’t just DRG 2, but when the worst aspects are its main selling point and there isn’t enough extra content to satisfy, I just don’t recommend it now.
