PLAGUN – The Plague Goes On

Un bullet hell fresco e coinvolgente. Unisce dinamiche classiche del genere a elementi di innovazione... Giusto il grado di sfida, perfetto per quando avete poco tempo a disposizione per giocare. Super consigliato!

Giocato in accesso anticipato, gameplay frenetico e accattivante, run dalla lunghezza proporzionata, tutto sommatto molto divertente, lo stile e la trama molto interessanti, consigliatissimo soprattutto per il rapporto qualità prezzo, il giusto per supportare un gioco che merita.

A roguelike that bridges the old and the new, with a simple yet atmospheric visual style and great character design to spice things up! The autoaim system is an odd but intriguing and sometimes deadly choice, as it can turn the game into a sort of tower defense (where you are the tower c:). Despite the static backgrounds, the stage always manages to feel dynamic thanks to clever platforming elements that add unpredictability to the gameplay, with some recalls from classic fighting games! I reeeeeally hope the developers keep supporting this, it has tons of potential and it can surely still improve!

i really enjoy it! If you are looking for a game like Hell is other demons this game it's really good!

Gioco molto divertente, con un stile molto bello e buona musica.

Va fortissimo, finalmente un gioco a cui non mi rompo le mele di giocare dopo 5 minuti e che non richiede la carta dello zio peppe anche per respirare

The atmosphere is great, I love the retro gameplay, and it's overall a great game. It feels insanely hard at first, but then you get upgrades through the pile and it gets much easier. I hope to see this game grow!

Please add more levels. Love the game, story and dialogue. Alas, it's so incredibly short and I cant even scratch the surface of what my build could be.

gran bel gioco, perfetto per il mio povero portatile

[b] Update 6-9-26 [/b] As of the recent 1.1 update at the time of writing, many of the problematic bugs have been squashed, thus making the experience much smoother and more enjoyable, as well as some alterations to the scaling. Overall, this recommendation is less tentative as many of the inherent issues I had have been fixed for the better. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Perhaps my most tentative "yes" as a recommendation. PLAGUN is not groundbreaking, nor particularly special as a roguelite, but is cost-effective little game that has enough going for its content that keeps drawing you back in for another run, especially with how fast runs can go. The primary game itself can be beaten within a few hours, and most of what's after that is extra challenge. [h2] The Good [/h2] Although there's nothing revolutionary here, the game itself has relatively well-built systems. Instead of different characters, you play as one, but can choose a mask that alters your base stats and gives new abilities - for example, your starting mask grants +3 extra ammo loaded as well as giving a leap skill on a 3 second cooldown, but other mask unlocks can include the Wolf, which increases your damage dealt and gives a Rage state after dealing enough damage, with the tradeoff being taken a noticeably increased amount of damage due to having reduced armor. Although each mask is not necessarily balanced against one another (Axolotl for example is often better than Owl), they all offer relatively altered gameplay choices, while still following the core gameplay loop. Additionally, build variety. A key part of any decent roguelite, and it's present here. Although much more RNG-heavy as many items are not the greatest, the variety of weapons and items are much appreciated in their functionality, allowing for (attempting) to streamline a build, or just go for a wide variety. Mutations are also a nice aspect, though they have many issues covered next. Lastly is the movement. Although very simple, the movement feels... surprisingly very fluid. Some movement skills can sometimes be a little clunky, but the base movement itself with a double jump at core, with the character itself feeling relatively snappy, at least in my opinion, made for pretty decent platforming and avoiding. Well, when avoiding worked. [h2] The Bad [/h2] As implied, the balance of this game is very lopsided. Although some core systems like the masks and clot gain isn't too bad, many aspects are quite strange in their decisions. One such example is Mutations. Although there isn't a bad mutation option per say, there are several that are just so objectively better that not choosing them if the option is present is essentially throwing your mutation pick. One given mutation that follows this is Echo Bullet, firing an extra copy for every shot you make. Why pick anything like "your bullets can sometimes electrify for ??? effects) when this has clear cut effects and is a direct damage upgrade? Additionally, starting weapons similarly are strange. Although they are technically a meta unlock, the random weapon drops you can get on even the first level make them almost irrelevant sans the Broken Sword or Triple Barrel unless you have bad RNG or are playing Axolotl (where you can't switch your weapon). As such, the fact that they cost 1000 of the meta currency when they could better be spend on unlocking new items or weapons to spawn in run just feels bad, even if accumulating meta currency isn't terribly difficult. Further, there's the strange design with certain stages, especially the Graveyard with disappearing platforms. Although I understand the gimmick, the fact that this game is based around moving from platform to platform as your means of avoidance being completely taken away can make those situations at times feel unfun, especially versus certain bosses. My main issue with balancing though is enemy scaling to player scaling. Although good play and build choices, assuming your RNG is good enough (another problem, though lessened by the very short nature of each run), can most certainly help, enemy volume can very quickly outpace your health, and in some situations you may not even be able to catch a break and just explode. This is exacerbated in Hard Mode, which is the crux of my issue here especially, as there your damage may as well be tickling unless you get very lucky, and enemies can obliterate you in literally less than 2 seconds if you mess up on one of the later stages, all without making any actually interesting adjustments to the majority of enemies. [h2] The Clunky [/h2] In spite of the balance issues though (well, besides Hard Mode), my actual issues with this game and why it's a tentative yes, although I'd prefer to give it a neutral review, is the overwhelming amount of jank. This game is rife with bugs and glitches, from the game randomly making inputs, infinite reloading, preventing you from firing, your secondary skill becoming unusable, etc. While most bugs are infuriating at most, and can be worked around if you understand what triggers said bug, there are some that are near or actually run-ending, such as the aforementioned firing prevention. Y'know, the thing you need to do the brunt of your damage? And has cost runs at several points. Couple this with monster hitstun - as you can jump on enemies to deal damage, it often becomes very unclear when you jump, and when you actually got hit. Additionally, the hitstun itself locks you in place and completely halts your movement midair, which is extremely jarring and anti-movement despite the game's premise. You also, as far as I can tell, lack hit iframes, meaning that if you get put into hitstun, especially in later stages or Hard Mode in general, you can simply explode off of one hit. [h2] TL;DR [/h2] And for those who don't want to read all of that, the tl;dr is that the game has good parts and its short run style is great for coffee breaks or those who just want a quick game. However, it's currently held back by several balance issues and major bugs that can at times mar the experience and drag the game down. I will continue to recommend it, primarily because I think there's enough good in its systems going for it that make it a reasonable pickup to fill out your cart, especially for its price, but for anyone going in, expect to be frustrated a lot from the bugs and jank.