Microbes and Machines

Seemingly well made game. But far too reliant on a grindy meta progression in order to level up and actually make any progress. Pair this with essentially no content/variation and the game just gets extremely repetitive extremely fast. All rooms are basically just empty with the same couple enemies that spawn, that you deal with in the exact same way every time. Bosses are bullet sponges and repeat the same couple attacks forever and take a century to kill. Game is cheap, but otherwise you are infinitely better off playing either Monolith or Comet Striker, or any other number of other twin stick roguelikes. 1 of the positive reviews stated that the game apparently scales with your level so you can't actually grind to make it easier, but based on my low level experience and what I can see from the trailer, that is objectively not the case.

It's fun and simple (and $.84 on sale!!), in a way that doesn't overstay its welcome. Most of your early runs will be under a minute long, which is a great way to get to grips with the basics. The persistent level that you gain xp for whenever you find an xp cache or kill an enemy is a lot more fun than I thought it would be at first. It means that the "I almost had it and now I'm dead" effect most rougelikes have, which is hugely frustrating is largely absent- next time you get there, you'll be ready for it, in both practice and power. It's not perfect, I think that something is wrong with how it handles framerates under 30, since the game seems to slow down and speed up somewhat unpredictably when I have a browser running, (my computer is garbage, though, you should be fine (and this should be an easy fix with a delta time rather than linear time)) and the levels not on the main path to the boss are fairly useless, since at higher levels, xp caches are worth about as much as your average normal room of enemies. I wish exploring the level was a little more interesting. And I wish it was easier to unlock the second gun. But on a $1 per 1 hour enjoyment, fantastic investment, and it's a great game to learn on if you want to get into more difficult/complex twin stick shooters. I want to see what this dev does next, the level of thought and polish in this game is outstanding, Thanks to the Splatter devs for the rec!