In the tide of roguelike that has swept over the market for a few years, few have caught me as much as Neon Abyss. A massive arsenal, modifiers that add up to create completely insane results, and accessibility rarely seen in the genre make this one of the indies you should not miss in 2020.
It was by playing the demo during the Steam Game Festival that I was won over: I invite you to try it on Steam, Switch, Xbox or PlayStation 4. Who knows, maybe you too will fall for the abyss ?!
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Neon Abyss: familiar, but unique
Each start of the game, we are dropped into a maze made up of a multitude of interrelated rooms (as in Rogue Legacy or Flinthook). You explore in order to collect objects (weapons, artifact, familiar) in order to become powerful enough to find and eliminate the boss of the level.
Forget the loading mechanics of Enter the Gungeon: in Neon Abyss, just point the right joystick in one direction to fire an endless number of bullets. No need to frantically pull a trigger to fire! It allows us to concentrate on avoiding enemy bullets by doing a few steppettes using the jump button.
The happiness of acquiring an overpowered arsenal
The key word to describe Neon Abyss is “synergy”. Much like The Binding of Isaac, we can stack artifacts and modifiers throughout the game, sometimes giving us crazy overkill mixes!
Weapons: Your dumb rifle may seem pretty dull at the start of the game, but the artifacts collected will allow you to improve it. Otherwise, over 70 weapons with various projectiles will appear in stores or elsewhere in the dungeon. Each of them comes with an active or passive ability that can be activated for free or by paying for crystals. A “Keygun” who pulls keys? There is something to make Sora jealous!
Artifact: While weapons will change the way you act in combat, artifacts will change everything else! An item that allows you to fire more projectiles the more money you have? No more spending! Another that lets you fly in the air? The next bosses may be much easier! It’s more than 250 objects that add up without ever canceling out another.
Œeggs and familiar: You might think your character thinks he’s Yoshi, when you see the trail of eggs floating behind him. Every time you pick one up, it gets added to the queue. A little later, the egg hatches, and takes out a creature that adds some modifier. “One bullet in five will be transformed into a homing missile”, “blocks enemy bullets”, “exchanges the money collected for shields”. The difference with artifacts is that these creatures have hit points! If it lasts long enough, they can evolve, and increase the bonus they give you.
Part of the fun comes from the lack of information on the screen before acquiring an item. We discover them as we play: they will often completely turn your game upside down with an unexpected effect. If you don’t like surprises, you can take a look at the official wiki at neonabyss.gamepedia.com.
Optimized for the pleasure of the player
«So hard you’ll want to cry, ”rogue-like trailers too often tell us. For those like me who play for fun, not pain, I am pleased to tell you that Neon Abyss is for you. Of course, death is still a big part of the genre, but at least this one isn’t overly punitive.
I would even go so far as to say that it is totally the opposite. I applaud Neon Abyss for being optimized around player enjoyment. Here is a list of some details that make the gaming experience enjoyable:
Difficulty selection: you can choose between easy, medium and hard right off the bat. If you want a tough challenge, the option is there, but if you want to avoid the frustration, the developers still open their arms to you.
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Objects on the ground NEVER disappear: hearts, coins, shields, weapons and items remain on the ground even if you change rooms, allowing you to return to them later. Better yet: the mini-map displays the objects remaining in the room!
Every second room contains a teleporter, reducing back-tracking to the strict minimum
Stylish doors of special rooms give us a warning about their content. No surprise boss battles when you weren’t ready. Again, everything is marked on the map once discovered.
No downtime: as soon as we die, we can start again at the push of a button
Lots of replayability! A little too much, even …
In addition to the choice of difficulty mentioned above, there is a tree structure of new items to unlock with the coins you earn for each mini-boss defeated. There are new items in there that will appear in your next games (with a free trial for the first). But what’s most interesting is that we also unlock new facets to the game. New rooms, new stores or new characters, things that keep the experience fresh until the end.
On the other hand, I didn’t have the chance to see a lot of them, since the progression is very slow. You get a crystal for each mini-boss defeated. If the 6 playable characters to unlock require 15 each… that’s a lot of bosses!
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My only other negative comment is on object management. Depending on your character and what is in the dungeon chests, it often happens that we lack a key (to open the doors) and / or a grenade (to destroy the rock blocking passages or chests). We then find ourselves at a big disadvantage in certain parts, where we have difficulty obtaining money and items. I know, that’s part of the randomness, but we know in these cases that our character will not last long. Conversely, when luck smiles on us, we feel ready for anything!
Opinion is quite divided compared to Neon Abyss. It’s simple: if you loved Rogue Legacy, chances are this one will get you hooked. If you’ve played The Binding of Isaac for hundreds of hours and everything that has been done in roguelike for the last few years, maybe Neon Abyss won’t bring enough new stuff to get you hooked.
Either way, you have nothing to lose since the full version is included in Xbox Gamepass on PC and console, while a demo is available for all platforms! Try it!
Verdict
Most
- Wide variety of weapons and items
- Stunning item synergy
- Players of all levels will find their account here
- Can’t stop once we start
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The lessers
- It will take you a thousand years to unlock everything
- Doesn’t revolutionize the genre (although it’s really fun!)
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Final note
8 / 10
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