.EXE is a Rouge-Lite Platformer game about an emoticon trying to escape deletion. In this game, you will jump and shoot through several randomly picked levels, collect items and powerups, and fight enemies until you reach the exit.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
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[*] The game has a very unique art style, with all the blocks and characters being made of computer symbols and ASCII text.
[*] A random set of levels each playthrough, giving uniqueness to each playthrough.
[*] Special level effects, such as lag, memory wipes, key logging, and low power mode(more on that one later). These give levels more diversity and difficulty, as you may have to escape in 3 minutes, or fight tons of enemies.
[*] Power-ups and items that give a variety of effects.
[*] A special [b] "Impossible Mode" [/b] levels that test your skill.
[*] A great soundtrack full of retro soundfonts. (If you are thinking of buying the soundtrack and like the theme used in the trailer, then buy it.)
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[h1]Cons:[/h1]
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[*] Though there are several randomly picked levels, in my current 4 hours of playtime, I have encountered seemingly [u] all of them[/u], to the point that I have been naming them. This can remove the feeling of variety in playthroughs.
[*] Bosses aren't randomly picked. You can either fight "The Kernel" or "Clipster" first, and you fight the other after.
[*] The special level effects only appear on certian levels. This means that you have "the lag level" or "one of the memory wipe levels." In addition to that, some of the effects seem under used, such as the switch levels, of which I have seen two.
[*] Speaking of special level effects, the levels that feature low power mode are extremely unfair. Low power mode restricts your vision to a circle around your character, meaning that you cannot see any enemies, bombs, or spikes in front of you. This, combined with the later levels using falling platforms, means that you will run face-first into a wall of bombs, have no way to turn back, and die. Restricting the vision of the player feels cheap, and leads to frustration.
[*] The power-ups and items can be completely useless at times, and worse, hindrances that ruin a run. While the double jump item is god-like, items that are meant to rival it like the flash transport are extremely situational, and have liminted uses. Nearly every item that changes the way you shoot is garbage. All but one of them feel useless, as enemies never group up in ways that make the shots actualy useful. But worse than that, in the final stretch of the game, you constantly have to make precission shots, or risk blowing up the entire level and falling into spikes. The shot upgrades make precission shots [b] impossible. [/b] The triple shot spreads and hits bombs next to where you aimed, the peiceing shot goes through enemies you are supposed to kill and then explodes all the bombs, the bouncing shot is unpredictable, making precission a nightmare, and the phase shot goes through walls and can explode multuple bombs at the same time. This makes getting power-ups a complete gamble, as one bad power-up can literally end a run.
[*] The controls, if using a controler, are super sensitive. If you even tap the joystick, your character is off. This makes precission platforming finicky and frustrating. My controler also makes me keep runing after letting it go, a problem I don't have in any other game.
[*] The game has a decent amount of bugs. If you jump at the wrong time when landing on a moving platform, you can clip through it and fall to your death. There also exists a bug with the double jump, allowing you to reach insane heights by jumping and using the double jump at the same time. I also beat every "Impossible Mode" level, and despite what it said in the loading screen, I did not get a singe talent point.
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[h1] Conclusion: [/h1]
I was pretty on the fence about whether I should reccomend this game or not. Personally, though I do have a lot of problems with the game, a decent amount are personal, and should be taken with a grain of salt. I do find the game fun when I'm not having to play through a low power level, and when you get a run that only gives you good power-ups, then it's a great time. The music in this game is also really great to listen to. I would say that you should check this game out if you are really interested in it. You may see something in it that I did not.
