Deflector

Amazing game! The gameplay is fun, challenging and addictive. Has a really nice artstyle and great variety. A must play!

It's not bad theres just not a lot there. The good thing is theres multiple different characters and they play vastly differently. The shooting and dodging and other mechanics are done well and are consistent. The bosses are varied and are tough. But theres also a lot of negatives weighing down the experience.

Theres 4 areas, with levels that all feel the same, with the same sub boss and main boss. Every time you play it you fight the same enemies in the same regions with the same bosses leading to it feeling stale fast. The game is also not an action game, but a bullet hell, something it should be tagged on the store page for. So if you like that enjoy, but if you're like me and don't enjoy it this will heavily reduce your enjoyment of the game. On the later levels theres tons of guys all shooting different projectiles, on top of added enviromental hazards it can be a lot. And for a game about deflecting like 1/2 the projectiles you can only dodge. And when the screen is filling up with both kinds it can mess with your mind.

The other issue is healing is pretty limited, with only 1-2 healing stations throughout, and no good upgrades or mutations that let you heal or get back life. Some shells are also just strictly better, like the gunslinger compared to a close up melee character in a game where everyone shoots at you. The upgrades in the game are many times situational, with just effects from running out of dashes or chances to do something when you're hit. Some make a big effect but many feel useless, and none of them change playstyle at all. Also unlocking progressions for specific shells with new traits are so situational you'll never do them or they require so much grinding. "with this character kill 10 guys with 1 use of the ability" or "reflect your boomerang 500x (not 100x like it should be). So some of the progressions you feel no investment in doing, and theres no progress bar to check how far along you are with them.

The permanent upgrades are pretty lame as well. No straight stat or ability changes leading to feeling of progressions, just things like "10% more healing in 1 of the 2 healing rooms" or very situational "get of chance of doing this when attacked". None of it changes your playstyle and it feels like lateral progress and after grinding for 2 hours for currency you'll unlock a single thing that barely does anything, but you're forced to buy one thing to unlock the ability to buy the next thing. Also the stat upgrades in game are pretty weak, getting 10% increase, then immediately 8%, then down to 6% after 2 more, crippling your ability to specialize and penalizing you for no reason with small stat upgrades. When your attack only does 40-50 damage, cutting gains to 6% is like 1-2 damage more for a room you only get 2-4x per area.

So with how limited the variation in levels/gameplay is with the same shell, the lame perm upgrades, the super specific unlikely-to-get shell progressions, and the excessive bullet-hell feel, there are better roguelikes out there. Theres no incentive to play after you've beaten it once. But you could do worse. 7/10.

Doesn't hold a candle to Furi, but is stands on it's own merit.

Game's amazing, but abandoned

cool game.

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