Gauntlet

A fun little arena shooter with roguelite elements. I questioned the balance at first, as enemies can be real bullet sponges on your first run, but once I started engaging with the upgrade system, the game's core loop started to shine. Having enemies get tougher each time you die in exchange for greater XP rewards creates this arms race that incentivizes really thoughtful approaches to each run, as keeping your deaths low and your XP gains high can turn you into an absolute god. I also like the narrative at play. You're some sorta private cop, you don't want to let your boss down who has put her faith in you as the next elite in your company, you've got a friend named Ruth who gasses you up constantly, it's charming window dressing that makes the simple core loop really charming and fun to engage with repeatedly. Haven't completed a run yet, but am having a blast in my many attempts. If you enjoy these sort of fast-paced fight>upgrade>die>repeat games with minimal downtime, it's well worth the price of admission.

I wish there was a porn mod for this game

gamesux straifing is slower than forward and back movement and it makes aiming extremely difficult which makes the gun shooting so slowly an absolute pain to deal with not worth the 60 cents i paid for it

Fascinating game. The fact that each death both makes the game harder and increases XP gains per enemy, means you'll hit some soft bottlenecks in progress where you need to play tough as nails to progress. But then once you make it through a wave or two, you're rewarded with nice juicy stats. I think my favorite part of the game so far is its... "story"? Gauntlet has what I can only describe as peak ten-year-old writing, and I mean that positively. You're not really told what your job is, only that in order to advance you have to kill a bunch of identical people (who are also your coworkers) in some sort of urban paramilitary base complex concrete... place. I feel like I'm playing through a strange dream. I whole-heartedly love that the protagonist's defining feature is this weird glove he was given. He's literally just some part timer in this... job? And then he's getting promoted if he fights good enough. There's something pure here about the writing here that I can't put my finger on. And it's not like the characters don't have personality - they do. There's some fun little touches of characterization here and there, enough to be able to relate with our (literally) faceless protagonist. So if you want to play a game where you "fight" your "coworkers" in some sort of bizarre promotion ritual, in the bowels of a liminal military space, fighting through a strange progression system that rewards cunning and perseverence... Gauntlet is genuinely the game for you. I think one main block to being able to recommend this game to friends is that "Gauntlet" is already the name of a much more popular game franchise. Oops!

This game is a fun and engaging arena shooter with roguelite elements that really start to shine once you dive into its upgrade system. While the enemies may feel like bullet sponges during the first run, the progression mechanics quickly balance things out. The dynamic where enemies grow tougher after each death, but also reward more XP, adds an exciting layer of strategy. It creates an arms race that pushes you to carefully plan each run, balancing risk and reward. The gameplay loop becomes incredibly satisfying as you build up your character, and mastering the balance between survival and maximizing XP can turn you into an unstoppable force. Highly recommended for fans of roguelites and arena shooters!