Neo Shock

Steam's option to write a review is very polarized because I have to choose "Yes" or "No" to answer if I would recommend this game. In short, this game appears to be made by an indie developer and thus, is lacking many features and qualities one would probably expect. I am a huge fan of Roguelike games, and this game has very little content compared to pretty much any Roguelike I have played. The "Tools" and "Skills" the developer lists in the About This Game section basically covers all the things you can acquire to strengthen your character. But to be fair, comparing this game to something like Risk of Rain 2 isn't really a realistic standard to hold a brand new indie developer to. If you (someone browsing the Steam store) want a fun Roguelike game to sink many hours into, then I do not think this game will fulfill that in its current state. However, I do not want to leave this game a "Not recommended" review because I don't think that is very constructive and encouraging for the developer. I knew exactly what this game was going into it. I purchased it to support an indie developer and get a chance to give them feedback. On the topic of feedback, I want to give the developer some feedback on their game. When I say "you" from now on I am referring to the developer, not a person browsing the reviews on the Steam store. First of all, I do not know what your intentions were with this game. I do not know if you just wanted to make a relatively quick buck or maybe you wanted to test the waters with your first commercial game and you are serious about being a developer. I do not know and the point is that I may be wasting my time because I do not know if you actually care about feedback. In the event that you do care about feedback and you are considering updating this game or improving on your next game, here is my feedback: - First of all, the game lacks a soundtrack. I understand it is difficult to get music you can actually use, but trying to have at least something decent will greatly improve the experience. The extreme quietness contributes to making the average gamer bored very fast. I think a lot of games (even indie games) obtain pretty solid soundtracks from people who make music on their own. - I can certainly see the Roguelike elements in your game, but content is very lacking as I mentioned. I understand you are probably just one person working on this and it is hard. I think the Roguelike genre is a solid genre to make a indie game for, but it requires a lot of content for it to be fun and rewarding. The player should feel like they get progressively stronger at a considerable rate and the enemies should get stronger at a similar rate. Roguelikes are typically about racing to keep up with the enemies and surpassing them in power using many items and upgrades. The indie game "Muck" is a great example of an indie Roguelike that was successful and got a ton of updates. The player should be overwhelmed by enemies and be able to obtain the tools to deal with that situation. In your game I think you have a decent baseline but there are not that many enemies spawning (even on hard mode) and the melee enemies are only a minor inconvenience. Part of the fun in Roguelike games is being able to mow down large amounts of enemies. Stacking upgrades and abilities should be a very satisfying experience and I feel like it is a bit underwhelming (unfinished) in this game. Now I will get into more specific details and give my feedback on those elements. - On the topic of the Roguelike aspect of the game. I feel like this game is more like a straightforward and basic shooter with some Roguelike elements thrown into the mix. I run around and shoot enemies in the head, before they can do much. Even after obtaining upgrades in the 'store' room, I did not feel like I was turning into some crazy powerful killing machine the way I feel when I play something like Severed Steel or Risk of Rain 2. Basically I think more focus on the Roguelike aspect of things would make this game feel more complete and interesting to play. - The idea of having to worry about ammo is fine, but having to press a button and interact with specific weapons and bodies on the ground to obtain ammo from them is super annoying. Picking up bodies is fun, you should keep that. But I think it would be better to have ammo automatically be picked up when the player walks over the weapons or bodies that contain ammo. You could also just have the ammo drop in packs on the ground when enemies die. Changing this feature would allow you to spawn a lot more enemies and the player would not have to worry about the headache of spamming interact while looking at the ground for ammo containing objects. If you want stealth to be an option and that is why you spawn less enemies, then add some upgrades and abilities that enable a fast paced stealth play-style. - Allow me to change keybinds, I use X for reload so my muscle memory gets annoyed when that action is stuck bound to the R key. - The movement feels weirdly floaty and it feels like the player slides around a bit when one moves. If you want a momentum mechanic that if fine, but personally I think it is a little flawed as it is now. Also, the aiming feels weird as if there is some sort of mouse acceleration or mouse smoothing. No FPS player likes that in aiming. I may add feedback and suggestions to this later. I will probably play the game some more. If you (the developer) respond to my review with some interaction (like a conversation in comments) that will encourage me to give you more detailed feedback because I will see that you are actually interested in listening to feedback.