Peak!?

It a good

So, I'm writing this after just having 100% completed the launch content for this game. Every weapon fully mastered, all bosses defeated, all Agility Orbs collected (even after having hit the max agility level), all of it. The only achievement I don't have involves the Rogue mode that, I believe, was added post-launch and I haven't touched yet. With that in mind:

I really enjoy this game. The gunplay is responsive and has good feedback. The movement is excellent! The damage feedback is a little lacking, but that is likely more because I turn off screen shake due to my own issues with how that affects me when playing a game. This is a fantastic example of a game built for the flow state. If you like FPS games, I heavily recommend it to anyone that likes movement shooters, especially if you prefer a PvE-focused experience over a PvP-focused experience.

There are a few flaws, though, as no game is perfect. First is one that's honestly more a point of praise in the form of a downside - I wish there was more of it. I'd describe my skill level in FPS games as somewhere in the realm of "average," with some light variation, and it took me a little under 12 hours to complete the entire game. For the low price, that's a good amount of length, but I find myself wanting more, which I may get in the Rogue mode when I dive into it after taking a short break from the game after marathoning it over 2 days.

My next complaint is the bosses. They're alright for FPS bosses, but each one amounts to a bunch of moving platforms strung together with a metric ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of turrets put on it. They grind the best part of the game, the feeling of absolutely insane speed with gameplay that compliments that movement, to a halt and force you to play far more cautiously due to the sheer volume of turrets in place on the bosses. Most of my deaths were at the hand of one of 3-5 turrets in a small space that, even with the explosive weapons, it's very hard to actually take out with any sort of speed instead of ducking in and out of cover, which doesn't mesh well with the movement-focused gameplay elsewhere.

My final complaint is that the difficulty takes some time to ramp up - as mentioned, I'm roughly average in my FPS skill, and on the hardest difficulty I didn't really feel much challenge outside of the aforementioned bosses until I was about halfway to 2/3 through the game. The combat encounters you do for the Scans are fun, but the upgrades to the different level of enemies doesn't really make much difference, and most of the difficulty comes from sheer volume. That's fine, the game is going for more of a "power fantasy" angle than it is for a high difficulty, but then it shows that it isn't afraid to challenge you in the post game, when the Bonus Scans start adding modifiers to their encounters - Gun Game, The Floor is Lava, Nightmare Enemies, Enemies can only be harmed when they're airborne, etc. This feels like the game is afraid to give a full challenge to the player until you have already gone through most of the combat encounters available in the game, and I wish it was more willing to pull out those modifiers before the post-game content.

In conclusion, all-in-all this is a great game I recommend to anyone who wants a fun movement shooter. I can't wait to dive into the Rogue mode or start trying to rope my friends into trying the co-op!