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Do not buy this version. It suffers from incompatibility and bad support. Apparently, there is a remaster or something but that doesn't concern here. This version is still up for sale and therefore should be at least maintained.

Get some community patches and it is fine. Don't expect achievements to pop, though.

0 $
0 time wasted
100% creativity
100% heart, blood, talent

100% fun.

Dev has some of the worst work ethics I have ever experienced. The 1.0 release feels a bit insulting.

Many old promises are still unfulfilled.
Many bugs are still existing.
Still leads and items that simply lead to nowhere due to them being just not finished.

With the 1.0 release, we got:

+ some bug fixes (you can finally save your run, again, sometimes apparently still bugged
+ artwork got shuffled around
+ some more gameplay, I think...

And in addition, we got more promises yet still unfulfilled, resulting in:

# still no Steam achievements
# still no Workshop implementation

The dev hyped the ad campaign in Japan, has such a patient community and this is how he 'makes up' (or doesn't) for all the years of vanishing for a year, patching a bit on Halloween, hotfixing on the Holidays.

A personal grievance for me is that many plot lines simply don't stay coherent within the runs. One event within an investigation doesn't make sense in the grander scheme of the investigation or previous random events. This is easily fixable by some system like flagging events with some logic markers, for example. Everybody, who has briefly played this game, knows what I mean. You could chalk up this to 'artistic' choice, "it's a rogue like" or something, but I find it jarring and this happens quite often.

Sadly, I can not recommend it. I gave the dev some time, the communication is non-existent and if he has a patch right around the corner, then he should say as much. Like this, you would be wise to think that the next wave of bug fixes and new bugs comes like clock work on Halloween, when horror games are most lucrative.

Watch YouTube videos instead, these are way more hype then the actual game itself.

What a shame.

It lacks some refinement, but I did not encounter jank worth mentioning. The second trailer is of an older version, it seems with some weird portrait animation. Wow, looks awkward and a bit non-human... Anyway.

The star of this game no doubt is the soundtrack. If you like vaporwave, you will find some range here. *I* am not so much a fan of that genre since it's been done to death (even in 2017). But it has a way bigger score than it even needed to have since this game is much smaller than it should be.

The campaign can be completed in two hours. It is *very* challenging and if you buy yourself into a corner (which you most likely will), you're out of luck. You have no choice but to grind that same wave you die in over and over until you can afford an upgrade or an unlock you will have no idea if it might break you free from this cycle since there is no information about stats whatsoever. You can change difficulty all the time, though, and I have no clue if that would be sufficient to get you out of that cycle.

The whole game can be trivialized by an exploit *every*. *single*. *guide* or tip about this game mentions. So many items are of questionable effectiveness, leading me to think that if you want to get the most out of this game, use the exploit in your own discretion and farm money for the stuff you want to experiment with. If you have so much self control, congratulations; you might get something out of this game.

The combo meter is crucial to your success. The bonuses will make or break your run and if you are in luck you have to spend your money very wisely, otherwise you will waste not only your money and time, but also your streak of luck. And how to spend one's money wisely is something I do not know how to since you are left in the dark about detailed stats.

The bosses are a highlight. Instead of very simple patterns, these are balanced rather hard. This was so unexpected that I really did not know what I was doing wrong. They are a nice break up of the horde that itself is fairly varied. You have small aliens, larger aliens, exploding aliens, shooting aliens, small numerous flying aliens, shooting zombies, exploding zombies and some more which can be dealt with through different means in gear accordingly, IF you know that beforehand.

The visuals nowadays (see very first paragraph) are lovely. It is a 2D-ified 3D models fried into pixelart that, if I am not mistaken, is also the method that found for instance in Dead Cells some purpouse. It is coherent and barely ever breaks it the illusion and cohesion of 2D perspective with skilfully paced animation frames, if you know what I try to convey here.

All in all it is way too expensive. The difficulty and especially the mercilessness when it comes to experimenting with load outs and the high risk of one being driven into a financial corner, only to be very disappointed with cool-sounding weapons (every melee weapon, at least for non-enthusiasts is worthless except for the riot shield and the dark matter hand) turning out to be offensively useless money sink holes. Letting the player at least reset the waves without losing the money would go a long way, but the whole game needs a fair bit of rebalancing for at least the medium difficulty. Not every single game has to be hard by default (and even harder if desired) when this results in leaving the impression of a myriad of utterly worthless upgrades and unlocks.

The soundtrack is generous and for fans probably a feast for the eardrum. That is the reason I give this game a thumbs-up.

It still is not finished. It is buggy and unstable and doesn't get any technical support anymore. A shame.

It is buggy to this day. It is way too long and visually sometimes with crass differences. The controls are as if you're ice skating to a degree (which Half-Life 1 couldn't deal with, either) and where extra content came it was way too long padded out unnecessarily.

edit: I am crawling inch by inch. Xen is beautiful but its mechanics, the jump pack, are whack. They demand high speed parcour while the environment, where you're supposed to prove quick thinking and perception, is sometimes so misleading that you might question your sanity if you're the problem and simply are stupid or if they want you to suddenly and inappropriately slow down, take your time, use the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crouch jump over and over again and then hope to God that you don't bump into some straw of Xen grass or pebble and get scooted around like an air hockey puck.

I still am not through but Gornach's Lair is, after all the damn padding, the worst content in the Half-Life "series" (if you count this game as part of it) I have ever played. This is stupid and the bugs with Workshop still not being fixed but the devs demanding quite a some of money leads me to not recommend it if not on heavy discount.

To you, devs: Your dedication is astounding and I appreciate that but this game at least the many bugs in the options alone still need fixing. I have only heard praise and this negligence on top of the crazy stretching content and pacing wise is not what is worth any amount of money in the double digits. Only because you love that game (Half-Life 1) it doesn't mean that by cramming as much as possible into it, finishing it with a proper ending and then go your own marry way without any consideration afterwards that you deserve all the money and praise by default. At the very least your graphical options should be fixed enough, aside from the wacky Xen collision boxes with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ jump pack.

Servers are sometimes up.

Servers down since months.

Yes.

Of course I couldn't recommend this. The publisher is atrocious!