Sidestep Legends

I had high hopes for Sidestep Legends and I really wanted to like it because the concept is neat, but I feel like I keep going back to it and it just doesn't quite click for me. The player is offered a traditional bullet heaven control scheme, with WASD or gamepad stick usage and fixed camera, or one closer to MOBAs with the mouse doing all the heavy lifting. It's all about sidesteps, avoiding enemy attacks, traps and more, with a handful of enemy types roaming on predetermined paths as the mobs in a MOBA unless the player bothers them. Unlike the waves of Vampire Survivors clones, Sidestep Legends barely features any attack that can be used to damage opponents while moving, so players will be required to keep switching between moving and standing still, to dodge and to attack respectively. This is a fun take on the genre for sure, as it adds an extra layer of strategy and decision-making, on top of a higher skill ceiling. The issue is that it doesn't really feel too rewarding. The enemies are not very varied, and they pose a challenge pretty much only because the player has to stop to fight them, with an initial attack range pre-upgrades that is quite laughable. The base attacks and speeds are also superlow, though upgrades make them a lot more satisfying eventually. The map has XP gems and coins spawn all across, with even treasure chests and challenges filling in the blanks, but often these happen far away from enemies who, remember, follow predetermined paths. The game actively pushes you away from the action a lot of the time, with traps like gas waves, fire areas and hooks pulling the player back for extra challenge. This is the game's incentive to have the player moving... but again, you are supposed to stop to attack, which means that most of the time you will not be attacking, as it doesn't take long before you are looking at a couple dozen enemies and traps are spawning everywhere. Couple all this with fairly unimpressive 3D visuals and a skill tree that's packed with tons of expensive yet minor upgrades, and I just can't say that I truly enjoy or want to recommend this game yet. Even when the upgrades become more satisfying, some higher level skills and characters are unlocked and you're battling against a giant boss, at its core Sidestep Legends feels like you're fighting against the game's design trying to slow your every move and attack more so than the hundreds of identical minions you encounter in a run. A good bullet heaven and a good MOBA both make you feel swift and powerful, and unfortunately that feeling is too rare here for me to recommend the game as of now. I plan to revisit it in the future because it's still in Early Access and I believe the concept can achieve a lot more with some balancing and design tweaks. Bullet Heaven Fandom review #47. If you're looking for extensive coverage of the games in this genre, consider checking out my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43402758-Bullet-Heaven-Fandom/]Bullet Heaven Fandom[/url] curator page.