Immortal Redneck

KAMGUSTA'S MINI REVIEW
I played it out of curiosity, but I got hooked! This is a fast-paced rogue-like arena shooter set in the Antique Egypt. Way better than Ziggurat and also Deadly Tower of Guns. You can easily squeeze out 15/30 hours out of it. Good graphics, good gameplay, good controls, good upgrade system, I can't really say anything bad about it - best of all, fun to play!
Beware of frogs!
Best played with keyboard & mouse
Recommended buy price: 15$
Score: 7,5/10

I'm conflicted on Immortal Redneck. As a boomer shooter fan, I feel like I should love this game to death, but as a roguelike fan, it's kinda hard. The movement and gunplay are some of the most addictive in the genre, and they highkey carry the game in spite of its shortcomings. The music's pretty nice, too; I never considered how well a banjo and a sitar could work together. The bosses are cool, but the enemy and level design is frustratingly hit-and-miss - the blue sniper dudes in the third pyramid straight-up don't work sometimes and ruin certain rooms.
Redneck's biggest failing, though, lies in its roguelike elements. Immortal Redneck not only isn't a very good roguelike, but it feels like it doesn't even want to be one. Room layouts get VERY repetitive only a few hours in, and the skill rooms in particular get a groan out of me every time. Scrolls, your main source of progression during a run, can just be bad for you sometimes with garbage like adding fall damage (LOL) or removing one of your jumps. There's no interesting choice here, the game just decides your power-up is a power-down for no reason. I once had a run where nearly every scroll I picked up was bad, and there was nothing I could've done about it other than not picked up scrolls to begin with, which isn't fun. Some scrolls just turn off certain mechanics, which doesn't feel particularly well thought-out; Trap Disarmer trivializes most skill rooms by itself, for instance. The most you have in the way of long-term progression is a hackneyed skill tree, which leads to lengthy stretches of grinding each time you reach a new pyramid so you can get your numbers up. Frankly, it makes me wish the skill tree wasn't there and I could run through each pyramid as I unlock them by the seat of my own skill.
Immortal Redneck is also one of the most remarkably unpolished games I've seen come to market. Enemies spawning on top of you or damn close to it is a woefully not-uncommon occurrence. I once had to abandon a run when one of the enemies teleported out of the room and I couldn't kill it. The game's also prone to random stutters in my experience, one of which cost me a run on the final boss. The subtitles almost never match what your character is saying, and while I wouldn't mind it happening once or twice, it being every time Redneck opens his mouth is a bit distracting. These things don't bother me much on principle, but taken together, they come off as a lack of care taken by the developers. It feels like I'm playing an Early Access game, but the game's 8 years old and has been through multiple patches.
In spite of everything, I'd still say I enjoyed my time with Immortal Redneck. As much as I can't stand the jank, damn if the gunplay didn't have me hooked. "Good shooter, bad roguelike" is the best way I can describe it. I recommend Immortal Redneck with the hefty asterisk that it WILL test your patience as much as your aim and movement. If you're okay with that in the name of a fun boomer shooter, give this game a try - just maybe get it on sale.

Game is quite fun, but there are a few pretty significant bugs...
In certain situations, and especially with the floating balls that shoot out many pellets when they die for me, one hit will randomly kill you. I'll get hit with one pellet from far away, close up, etc. and will die from full health.
Certain scrolls don't work as intended, like Level 5 Vegan. It will take all of your other weapons and give infinite ammo for a while, but then the infinite ammo effect vanishes and you may be left high and dry.

It's a FPS rogue-lite with some classic arcade elements such as traversing lava by jumping over moving pads, or navigating corridors with some traps, etc.
- Just enough complex but not overdone level designs and arcade elements.
- The difficulty is well-thought-out. Easy is easy, hard is challenging.
- Roguelite skills and trees unlock stuff that does feel different.
- Enemy variations and weapons are original.
- As a cherry on the top, the Egyptian thematic is pretty neat.
All in all, the game isn't punishing and still can come out as challenging, and it is a no-brainer fun. I recommend!

it gets fairly repetitive, but the great gunplay and tight movement make up for it

I dont love this game, theres a few things about it that either annoyed me or i just didnt enjoy as much i would like. Some of the weapons are useless, shooting animation are not great, the progression is too sluggish. However it can be fun, i like the graphics and i think people might enjoy it.

"what if it was a roguelike with metaprogression" is a great template to apply to almost any other genre, and pretty much every genre has had it applied over the past decade. but this might be the best execution of it on a boomer shooter. Great, fun level and enemy design; really satisfying movement and gunplay; fun selection of really distinctive weapons; tons of upgrades and abilities to keep each run fresh. I haven't beaten the second pyramid yet but I've enjoyed every death.