My original review was negative, but the developer released a patch that addressed pretty much every previous criticism -- and the game feels absolutely fantastic now. It has instantly ascended into the upper echelons of my personal roguelite favorites.
Insanely fast-paced, twitchy-yet-tactical gunplay to satisfy your Nuclear Throne or Hotline Miami needs, delivering challenging and satisfying combat in spades. Kill fast, die fast, respawn fast as you vibe to the grungy electronic OST. I can't wait to play more!
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Original review, for posterity:
Fun at its core, but there are too many rough edges for me to really gel with this game.
The basic gameplay loop -- spawn into a small floor and mow down enemies with quick precision -- is incredibly fun. For this reason, if I were judging the game solely off the first zone, it's excellent. However, each subsequent zone has a gimmick and, while I get that they're in place to give each zone a unique feel, they fall flat.
Zone 2 is a melee-only section, and, honestly, it's a complete clunker. The intense run-and-gun action from Zone 1 suddenly hits a huge speed bump, as the game forces you to forgo your ranged weapons and pick up a single melee weapon. The tactical bullet-fest that makes Zone 1 a joy to gun through is abandoned completely as the game forces you to go through melee combat, which, considering the player character dies in one hit, feels incredibly shoehorned, with inconsistent blocking mechanics present on the melee weapons. I've seen "melee cuts through enemy bullets" done well in these types of games, but it's just not the case here. The melee in Space Bandit just doesn't mesh well with the core pacing and mechanics of the game, but you're FORCED to encounter it every run. This really killed my desire to start a new run each time I died, as knowing the melee slog was inevitably coming up was a total buzzkill.
The Zone 2 boss is also incredibly confusing -- he's invisible, but there's not a clear way to track him, especially when he goes to hide in a vent, which I discovered on accident after somehow managing to kill him during a few different runs? Maybe I'm missing something, but whether or not I killed him felt random. I just ran around slashing with my melee weapon and hoped I won. I'm not entirely sure if invisibility is a bug or intended design?
Similarly to Zone 2, Zone 3 has its own mechanic, and it's utilizing smokescreens -- but again, this just sort of kills the pace. I was hoping that, after zone 2's forced melee, I'd get back to the guns-blazing action, but, instead, the game pulls back on the weapon drops and forces you utilize smoke cover for kills. Again, I understand the intent is to give Zone 3 a unique feel, but it's just not as fun as Zone 1. At least the boss is clearly visible, though.
Honestly, I just wish a full run of Space Bandit was essentially Zone 1 three or four times, with the difficulty ramping up as you collect upgrades and get new weapons. I appreciate the experimentation in each Zone, but the gimmicky mechanics make playing through them less fun than if they weren't there in the first place. I don't want to rag on the game too much, as there's a lot to love -- the art is great, the music & sound design are fantastic, and, as mentioned, the gameplay during Zone 1 is just perfect. The humor is great, too. But, after clearing Zone 1, it just feels like each run gets less fun as I go on. It's a shame, as the fundamental design of the game has so much potential.
With a very modest six buck price tag, this game may be worth you checking out on your own. But, personally, I have no desire to keep playing knowing that I'll only really enjoy the first quarter of a run.
