Duck Paradox

I forget where I first spotted this, but I've had it on the watch-list for a while now, waiting to grab it once it finally released. Didn't know much going into it beyond a singular fixation on ducks, but having played it quite thoroughly, I can say I enjoyed my time with it! About my biggest criticism with this is the difficulty with regards to getting the endings isn't as high as I was expecting from the outset. The core of the game involves bringing Quark the duck back to the start of the level, the time machine where the game's plot originates. Exploration tools are explained clearly enough, and players are challenged to explore to find lives, duck eggs, and devices that change Quark, affecting where the portal will land them on the next level. Duck eggs give you ducklings, which can give you power boosts, regenerating shields, piercing shots, improved time-stop capabilities and so on - generally a good help to find. On top of that are shields, which are your one saving grace against the enemy; anything and everything can kill you, including your own bullets. Any shots you fire MUST hit something to dissipate, and they don't care if that something is your character. Dying restarts the level, minus one life - lose all your lives and the run ends. Simple as. But lives scattered around the level regenerate when you die; know where the lives are, and it's very easy to stay equal whilst you learn a level's layout. At that point, a run can be very difficult to lose short of exiting out of the game. Heck, one achievement ties to having 20 lives, so this isn't unexpected behaviour. The aforementioned changing of Quark lets you access different level types - the Disco and Bathroom stages. The former has you playing bat-and-ball with a glitter-ball whilst doing your best to avoid the chunkier enemies flying around, whilst the latter changes up gameplay by letting you control a duck for a short while! The aim as a duck is to bypass areas that your human self can't access, whilst bringing a time-shifted version of yourself to the same station that changed you to a duck without being hurt or dragged back to the start of the level. It's a fun little change on what's been established, though controlling the duck might be a little finicky at first. The boss fights... that [i]might[/i] be the weak point of the game, I think? One of them simply spawns guys to bother you whilst following a strict path; a second is more of a challenge on a platforming level as the ground beneath you starts to dissipate if you want to blunt its offence. The third boss works with the usual gameplay model of pitting you against an exponentially-growing horde of horrid waterfowl. Completing these fights gives you unlockable toggles for your gun, either offering traversal or greater power without being tied to the upgrades. These upgrades are key to completing the game's "Impossible" mode, which disables duckling upgrades. You get no extra defences or offences; simply reach the end of the game with your starting energy and the tools you have to unlock on each run (with the game's one kindness being to let you start with the boss drops, so you only need to get their respective component parts with the standard methods). I expected this to take me a while; [spoiler]I got it on my first run[/spoiler]. This DOES do more than just act as a challenge, so I recommend giving that a go if you grab this game. The meat of the game's challenge lies in the Survival mode. Shooting gives points, and the Kronits (energy points) the horde drops give points too, IF you're at full time-slowing juice. Points let you buy shielding, duckling eggs, and support ducks with their own firing modes, but the prices go up as you buy them from different areas. Face as many waves of weird ducks as you can before they finally overwhelm you. This is the mode that let me realise I'm not as good at this game as I thought, because my best progress still didn't reach Wave 20... So in summary: there's some good fun to this game, but the main challenge lies outside of the standard gameplay mode, which can feel like a bit of a cakewalk once you get a proper handle on the controls. [i](also I like Quark's little "I'm over here! ;_;" sounds)[/i] EDIT: Forgot to mention, the settings seem quite sparse, and the game doesn't seem to have a frame-rate cap. I don't [i]think[/i] this adversely affected my computer as Steam believed it was trying to render over two thousand frames a second, but it seems odd that the extent of this game's graphical settings are whether it was full-screen or not.

Very niche audience: precision platformer + roguelike shooter + puzzle lover. I don't know whether that person exists who the dead have in mind, but good luck out there. I think the goal should be explained better, that is to say why do you have to kill the enemies even after saving the duck on the given levels? Also why isn't any progression between "runs". I think the technical part is OK, but the game itself as an experience sucks.

Esta divertido, sus rompecabezas y su dificultad es un reto.

Very fun experience that I intend to play more of with super unique and fun gun play. Although it does have some faults, namely the alt weapons feel very overpowered and take away from the feeling of calculating plays and consequences of bad execution. Also after the first 2 loops through the game the balance feels very player heavy where you can kind of just turn off your brain for every level. But otherwise this game is really something special and anyone into bullet hell type games should give it a shot. Also the art style and visual effects are amazing.

Good fundamental gameplay that is really innovated on well.

This game is a LOT more than the sum of it's parts! The bouncing projectiles make it stand out by forcing the player to not spam, and to be a lot more deliberate with their shots. The upgrades completely change the way the game is played, so many possible strategies! There are SO MANY SECRETS! It's incredible! Why are there so few reviews? This game is one of my favorites this year!!

If you want a honking fun time and you're good at platformers, you'll love this game.

It's an awesome game, also I was lucky to get it for free. To be fair, sucks to be you if you haven't gotten it during it's pre-release.

Lovely game, I had the game in my library for the longest time while it was in Early Access, and only just realized it fully launched, I was expecting to pay for it, but it was free for me. The only thing I think should be changed is ricochet physics (only a few bounces before the bullet disappears) but its your game. Keep it up!!

quack