Nightmare Reaper

It's pretty good. It runs well, looks good, plays well, is fun, you have everything you need in a modern FPS games. BUT. The negative reviews and critics are all valid: - It is bloated. I'm always one to criticize the Roguelike formula when it doesn't make sense, and it doesn't make sense here. Had this been a single really well crafted playthrough with secrets and alternate endings and whatnot, it would have been peak. Instead it's some tilesets linked together by doors, and you play what feels like the same levels infinitely. - What you unlock does not broaden your gameplay, it does add more tedious things. Yay, you unlocked an arena! So more of a bloat. - Minigames are here to unlock passive bonuses. You can toggle to skip them in the menu and you should. They're slow, clunky, confusing, don't look good, break the flow of the gameplay, and only triggers "Uh... I need to grind 20k green money to unlock that one upgrade." - Dropping all your weapons but one makes it that you just keep one that you like and play every single level with it. Weapons are aplenty and they're all useful or fun. But many modifiers just kill the weapon entirely. And the achievements are like "Finish new game +3" when a playthrough seems already infinite... So getting this game with being a completionist is kind of a nightmare. So it's good. But beware that it is what it is. It's a game I'll come back to a little bit from time to time.

My opinion might sound biased because this is my favorite retro style rouge-lite FPS, but this is the best retro style rouge-lite FPS.

Hopped into the demo (which was a whopping 3-4 hours of gameplay) and was hooked by the end. Purchased the full game and in three days I have played for almost 20 hours and would consider it one of the coolest independently developed shooters I have ever played. Absolute banger and totally worth $25. To be honest, I feel like I have gotten way more than $25 of fun in my 20 hours. As someone who isn't very experienced with the roguelike genre, I was surprised to find myself very comfortable with the elements that are present. Highly recommend this game to anyone that loves shooters with a heavy emphasis on movement, weapon variety and diverse gameplay. Game's art direction is stellar and tells a story that I am still processing. Absolutely addicted and I don't want to go back. This game has sold me on boomer shooters in the modern era. My only complaint thus far is that the music isn't as adaptive as a game like Doom 2016 but frankly I like that the game lets itself be silent. Makes the music more impactful when it plays. If you think you might like this game, play the Demo. You've got nothing to lose but your sanity. ;3

After trying this game out last year for about an hour, I dropped it and didn't give it another thought for many months. A few weeks ago I saw a reddit comment glazing this game and figured I would give it another shot. I'm really glad I did, because while this game has flaws, it has really surprised me and I've thoroughly enjoyed my playtime. While its gameplay is very fun. I think NIGHTMARE REAPER's greatest strength is its PROGRESSION. There are numerous "skill trees" where you upgrade your character's power and abilities in very significant ways, but these skill trees are actually various mini games that your character plays on a little handheld gaming device that totally isn't a Gameboy Advance. This system has kept me glued to the game with the desire to max them all out, which will probably take you a pretty long time. This is a double edged sword however. I would say, in general, this game does struggle with a bit of BLOAT. I think there are too many levels to beat the main campaign, there are a lot of different enemies that don't challenge the player in terms of mixing up approaches or strategies. And because this game is a rogue-like with random weapon drops and level layouts, I found the level design to be inferior to other boomer shooters with hand-crafted levels. There are some level sets I don't enjoy moving through very much, but in spite of the random layouts, I think these levels are as good as they could get within a ROGUE-LIEK FRAMEWORK, and I do end up enjoying many of them. The weapons are all incredibly fun to use and are rolled with random modifiers, which makes picking up and trying out new weapons a total treat. One thing I'm kind mixed on is the art style. At first it was not attractive to me, but it has grown on me significantly during my playtime. It can struggle with visual clutter and it still isn't my favorite looking retro shooter, but I simultaneously find it to be very charming. Overall, this game is super fun and addicting to make progress in. I haven't even tried the recently added multiplayer! I recommend NIGHTMARE REAPER!

7,5/10. Mechanically, it was a fun and unique blend of Boomer Shooter/Roguelite. I liked the art style, I enjoyed running around and gunning things down, and the coop made it a more fun experience to share with someone else. Narratively, I wasn't expecting much since it was, well, a boomer shooter-- but it still managed to be worse than I expected, especially near the ending, where things sort of nosedived both in a game design/bloat way and as a story. If you're fine with just focusing on the gameplay, it's really enjoyable! But it *attempts* to have a thought provoking narrative and it really, really falls flat for me.

b

replay-ability alone makes it worth it.