Utopia Must Fall

I played the prior version of this game a LOT. At first it was a retro impulse -- I'd wondered whether any indie devs were using vector graphics and what they could do with them on a modern computer, and I was delighted to find a game combining Missile Command, Asteroids, Centipede, and Galaga. As I explored the tech tree and tried the different "paths," I just got sucked into the game for its own sake. It never felt like a game that was still in alpha. I got good...And then this recent upgrade came, and it feels like an awesome sequel to the game I'd been playing. I expect that to continue, with the game continuously being expanded and improved. Amazing game of arcade action, and countless antimatter explosions for my buck.

I like the negative review that said "In this game you have to play the same two weeks over and over." It would be like negatively reviewing a racing game and saying "In this game you have to race other cars over and over" or "In this game every time a race ends, you just have to start over in a whole new race"

Okay, okay, set the way-back machine Mr. Peabody. If Space Invaders, Geometry Wars and Missile Command had an illegitimate game-baby it would be this awesome piece of code. Definitely a one-more time type of experience.

I bought this game because it was recommended by the Nova Drift dev and had a similar art style. The art style is great, but this dev could learn a lot from how Nova Drift handles difficulty and build diversity. My main problem with the game is how it scales difficulty. While later days introduce more complex enemies and send more enemies at once, enemy health increases rapidly. It seems to be the main form of difficulty scaling. Within the first week, even buying every weapon upgrade, an enemy wave that could be killed as they enter the screen requires two passes with the main weapon. It makes enemies feel very spongy and takes away from what is initially very crisp handling. I compare this to Nova drift where enemy health only starts to increase in the late game, and both enemy speed and damage are also used as scaling mechanics. Build diversity is also lacking. There are several different upgrade paths, and the game presents multiple choices with interesting trade offs. The problem I have found is that many of those paths seem like traps. The number of viable options is much lower than it first seems. I might just be bad at the game, but the bullet spongy enemies in particular do not motivate me to get better. I wish it had something like the artifact of glass from Risk of Rain; that would be much more fun. I hope that the early access period is used to improve some of these issues, and I will probably revisit the game on release. It has a great concept, style, and basic mechanics, but the execution needs work.

I adore this game, sank a lot of time into it and highly recommend to anyone but I despise how bad the health creep can ramp up. I'd rather be genuinely be beaten by the procedural waves than have the fun sucked out of the day 40+ waves because I have to focus fire enemies for up to 20+ seconds while managing a full screen of projectiles and I can't fire a nuke to help get some breathing space because of 2 alternating voids which are also incredibly tanky. I do love the challenge of the later days and I'm close to breaking 2 million points ( Can't wait for leader boards ) but the insane health most enemies get from about day 45+ really kills me on the inside at times and puts me off playing more because I know it's going to be an insane slog in the end game. Regardless this game is a blast, I love the direction it's went, the sound design, enemy design etc. Technosphere is my favourite part of the game, it's such a raw battle of endurance at times and the music gets me every time. I'm excited to see what's in store for the future and continue me and my friend's rivalry of one upping each other on our scores. This game will definitely end up as one of the games I put over 1000 hours into and I can't wait to see what happens in the meantime. Much love :^)

I think the game is neat but it got stale after a few hours. It felt like i was doing the same thing and dying at around the same spots.

It's like if Space Invaders was good

>Продав всю ядерку >Продав всі щити >Пішов у відпуску >Вмер від першого ж ворога 10/10 will play again

First of all 9.5/10 game. Just buy it. I'm kind of a complete freak for this game. I love the visuals, and the combo of so many golden age arcade games is just amazing. The vocoder sound is icing on the cake. It's challenging, fun, satisfying and is just a joy to play. I try to sneak in a game at lunch daily at least. Notes to devs: 1. Every play through seems to end up at the same place with upgrading everything vs specific paths. Surely there is an optimal build order that I haven't learned yet, but my point is I would like the game to feel significantly different based on my build priorities and specialization. What I mean is I feel like having a fully maxed flail should have the same gameplay significance as having a fully maxed laser tower setup or fully maxed drone setup or fully maxed nuke setup. I would love a balanced power tech tree where there is a viable gameplay style where you're focused 90% on nukes and it plays essentially like missile command. I'm talking about having something like x7 or x10 nuke production daily. This could be completely at the expense of primary weapons or towers (tower sites are replaced w nuke production factories for example, or flail amplifier generators so you can have a 25 chain flail, etc). Right now each playthrough seems to eventually end up in the same place, regardless of main weapon choice. 2. I have unlocked all of the optional events and most of the time these don't feel worth the risk. It is really fun doing the red flag day and sending a sky full of nukes (and maybe having to blackout) but the other events don't seem much worth the downsides 3. it's not clear to me what population increase / decrease does 4. it would be really cool if we could select a city and each city could have unique strengths, like one gives a bonus to main weapon, one has extra nuke production, one has free flail upgrades at day 7, etc. 5. I have never beat the fat boss with all the armor plates surrounding it. I'm sure it will be satisfying when I finally do, but that level is always a wall. 6. this probably should have been first: I would like permanent upgrade unlocks over time so run throughs eventually get easier, like over time you start w free contracts and earlier upgrade unlocks, or a stronger base weapon, etc. I was kind of surprised to see there were no progression unlocks for starting upgrades. 7. controls remaps would be nice. I found this hard to play on steamdeck using two analog sticks. I would have liked to remap the main weapon gimbal to L/R buttons so right or left pad or stick could just aim the nukes 8. the visual options are so frickin cool, really great work. ======== EDIT: I have played another 30 hours since my initial review, seeking out the Steam achievements which direct you to berzerker and hermit modes. I've played both of those now and they do dramatically change the approach to your build. I think it would help new players if these achievements or modes were more overtly shown directly in the game itself. Had I not gone after achievements I doubt I would have ever accidentally hit on not using or upgrading nukes for 7 days or going multiple days w no shield. Using one of these modes I finally managed to beat the technosphere and today I finally was able to top 1m points. I have experimented a fair amount and I'm not sure I could get that high with any other build than the path I chose which is my lone remaining crit about the game. I would still love an all Big Fat Nuke build (I don't like that the burst radius keeps getting smaller) and I think the nuked up cobalt gun could get buffed a bit if I get a wishlist item. Anyway, even more of a strong recommend on this game. My personal goal is to get it all set up on a trackball arcade cab for some pure 80s throwback times. <3

11 hours of my life i would not sell away for anything