GTTOD

Whether or not you like the direction this game is going in (I do but that's besides the point), this is the best state it's been in in a long time. The tutorial feels pretty long but if you go in expecting roughly an hour of (still awesome!!) linear stuff it goes by pretty quick. The new characters are by far my favorite part. The voice acting is incredible, and my only gripe is that they don't appear often enough. I want mid-run commentary, dammit! The guns feel great, although I think the difficulty could use some adjustment. I'd like a more diverse weapon upgrade system, or a system with multiple tiers, though I understand that's not a simple task. The game feels much more skill-based than it did before, when you could just fly through levels ignoring every enemy. You still can, but the lower speed makes it harder. I think you earn a bit too many shards a bit too easily, but that's just me. I also would rather keys be rarer seeing as the bunkers have gotten more useful.

What the *** happened? This was a fun but unfinished roguelike before, now its an awful shooter on rails where you don't need to shoot most of the enemies (OR you need to sit and kill about a hundred harmless enemies while waiting for garbage dialogue to finish)? Or am I just on like level 3 or 4 of the tutorial? The unskippable intro SUCKS, there's no way around it. The level design is visually good but for actual direction of the level is thoughtless. The voice acting is good but whatever script they were given is dreadful. The enemy design is either it takes 30 shots or 1. There's a hunger mechanic now???? I found crafting materials and booster packs but they just didn't do anything, maybe I need to pass the 5th or 6th tutorial section. Also, the amount of shaking and bloom and all these visual effects are exhausting. I turned most of them off just to delay a headache, but that revealed another issue: the movement is actually pretty lame and carried by clunky shaking to hide the simplicity of the system. I can't stand when games try to shoehorn in a story that doesn't matter, is so clearly uninspired, and is just some boilerplate; ESPECIALLY when you can't skip any of it. The game LOOKS good, and that's about it. It plays okay at best. Keybindings need to be reevaluated, along with a plethora of duplicated buttons that don't matter (WHY is there a melee button, which you can hold to heavy melee, and also a heavy melee button? Why is there a radial menu for weapon inspects and a flashlight? Why is there a flashlight, the game is not dark enough to warrant it?) Despite exiting early access, if this game were to be improved, you'd need to gut the entire story, level design, enemy design, available player actions and UI philosophy. That's just a new game, don't bother with this.

Let me start this review by saying that I like this game. But in its current state (Beta 1.0), I cannot recommend it, especially after the recent price increase. Currently, it’s just not as fun as the earlier versions. Visuals Visually, the game looks amazing and has a distinctive neon, low-poly aesthetic. The lighting and effects are great, and the weapons are especially well modeled. Soundtrack and Voice Acting The soundtrack is great and fits the game really well. Weapon sounds are punchy and satisfying, which adds a lot to the gunplay. The voice acting is also well done and is a nice addition to the game. I also think that having a voice actor for the protagonist would be nice. Tutorial and Hub The tutorial and the new story are nice ideas in theory, but it takes well over an hour before you properly reach the hub and start the main game. The tutorial also feels very disconnected from the actual game. A lot of the characters that are introduced during the tutorial just disappear from the hub once you start your first proper run. This makes the hub feel incredibly empty, and the idea of a story just vanishes. Movement The movement feels much heavier now, and not in a good way. In earlier versions, you could glide through levels with ease, while the current movement feels noticeably clunkier and less enjoyable. The new map layout also makes moving through these levels confusing. Gunplay The gunplay feels even better than before. Shooting is responsive, the animations are smooth, and the weapon variety is nice. The problem is weapon balance. Some weapons seem to barely deal any damage, especially against bosses. Because of this, you end up relying on getting a weapon that can actually kill a boss, or you die. Progression The progression in this game is unclear and confusing. The game drops you into the loop without really giving you a clear objective or explaining what you are working toward. It is also not clear what helps you progress. Is it mainly tied to the Jade Vine system, are there other permanent upgrades or unlocks, or is progression mostly just run-based? Enemies and Bosses Some of the ranged enemies feel extremely oppressive now. A lot of their attacks seem to hit you randomly, and you don’t even know why. Instead of encouraging aggressive movement and combat, the game often pushes you into playing defensively, which feels wrong in this game. Bosses have a similar problem. Rather than being difficult because of interesting mechanics or attack patterns, they are difficult mainly because they are massive HP sponges that absorb all your ammo while constantly spamming attacks at you. Minor Issues and Suggestions - Door events and the hub teleporter used to activate immediately when entering the radius, which felt much smoother and more intuitive. - Weapon inspection and other actions being moved into a separate menu feel less intuitive than having dedicated keybinds. - Automatic reloading should have an option to be disabled. - Leaving the Simpod during the tutorial is annoying because moving interrupts the exit process. - You should be able to use a pistol while holding up the shield. - With Auto Swap Weapon enabled, you cannot switch weapons properly if you have the same weapon equipped twice. - Dual wielding is currently very buggy. - You often have too few shards to actually buy the things you want. - Why have sights on the weapons if we cant use them, there is no reason not to Final Thoughts GTTOD has a huge amount of potential, which is why these problems are so frustrating. I am aware that a lot of the smaller issues and quality-of-life problems will probably be improved in future updates. However, the current version has moved away from some of the things that originally made GTTOD so enjoyable. There is a good game underneath all of this, and I would gladly change my review if these issues were addressed in the future. But in its current state, I cannot recommend this game.