STRAFE

It's important to stress that STRAFE, even with all the fixes that have been made, will never be a boomer shooter. It's a roguelike, and it's a very good one. There is a way to play it as a traditional FPS, but you need to spend some in-game credits to unlock it. Those same credits can also unlock an instagib mode, rocket arena, and so on.
STRAFE pairs fast paced gunplay and movement with roguelike mechanics, and does so better than many triple A developers could ever hope to accomplish. It's honestly a shame this game did as poorly as it did, because Pixel Titans did something special here. Everything has a good weight to it, and weapons you find in the environment can be thrown when ammo is depleted. Additionally, you aren't locked into whatever you pick up, so the magical murder machine you have upgraded your starting weapon into can be swapped back to without dropping the rocket launcher you found, for example.
The music is fast, vibrant, and on par with Doom 2016. I have listened to this soundtrack since the game released. This review is being written in 2020, and I expect I will still be playing the track "Slain" to show people how dope this soundtrack is well into 2025.
If you dig roguelikes, do not let the poor early reception this game had turn you away. STRAFE recovered big time, and is easily worth your time just as much as the genre mainstays like Nuclear Throne, Risk of Rain, or even Hades.

A lot of people don't like this game but I do. It takes me back to the old Doom and Quake days.
Took me a long time to beat it and even now when I get to the end there is not certain I will win.
But, it is my unwind game after work. Engrossing enough that I can get away for a bit.
It has it's quirks that can be frustrating but I can live with it.

Fast paced. Do you like fast paced? Well, this is fast paced.
I appreciate this being available in Linux

Pro:
- Very enjoyable and fast pace roguelike
- Love the art style
- There is some doom ref in the game <3
- Movement is solid for fast paced FPS rogue like
- The gunplay feels pretty good
- The gore is pretty ok at best
- The theme somehow feels like DOOM mixed with Dead Space which is good (There is even Similar enemy model like Dead Space creature in the game)
Cons:
- The game can be completed in less than 2 hours
- You literally only need one weapon and that is your main weapon (other weapon 100% are useless)
- The game doesn't feel really rewarding you to play again especially for rogue like game
- it's annoying in the few first level enemies and the level design at first level really confusing because all the material is the same...
- Some few bugs in the game
* Lost my save progress (Even after enter cyro pod to save) and need to restart from zero again :/
* Some missing image or texture effect (White Square popping up)

Strafe
The FPS Roguelike that looks like Quake
How is it? It's pretty good but not perfect. I like Strafe, but it does some wrong to me personally and objectively. I'll start with what I notably enjoyed.
What I Liked
The Graphics, Aesthetic, and Atmosphere. It pulls off the old school vibe pretty well. I like the Weapons, mostly the Shotgun and Machine Gun. Shooting feels good enough, same with the Gameplay. The Bunny Hopping being executed amazingly helps with the old school feel. There's lots of little Easter Eggs and Secrets. They also kept updating the game years after release up to the Gold Edition. There's lots to appreciate here.
But What I Don't Like
I just personally feel like Strafe is partially a missed opportunity. Like it's fun when you first beat it, which took me about 4 hours. After that I Achievement Hunted for a bit and played all the other modes just once and that's it, which was overall 7 hours for me. Maybe my expectations were off, but I kinda expected more. Like there was very little motivation to keep playing, which sucks cause I like this game. I wish there were more Achievements or better in game progress to motivate me to keep playing. There can be a lot of Replayability for some people, but not me. Makes me wish this game had better, hand-made levels and a Campaign. Maybe even if this game was a RogueLite instead of RogueLike for longterm upgrades. The pros still outweigh the cons.
Overall
Strafe is more a Roguelike FPS rather than a Old School Shooter. It looks like Quake but definitely doesn't play like it, and we shouldn't expect it to. I appreciate Strafe for what it is, but it didn't hold my attention for very long. I personally really like FPS Roguelites and had to try this game. It was still pretty fun. Get this on sale. I'd mostly recommend it for Roguelike fans and Old School Shooter fans who are curious.

"IT'S NOT LIKE OTHER FPS"
- but it really isn't!
I never expected to fall in love with an FPS - at the risk of sounding blasphemous, those are just "wind-down for an hour" games to me.
This one, however! It has TONS of content you'd never expect in this day and age, is surprisingly maleable (if that's the right word? think back to how the traits in Fallout 1 & 2 could change the entire game experience; that kinda depth and variability!), has LABOR OF LOVE sticky fingerprints all over it, and the OST kicks some serious ass.
And it's achievements are both witty AND encourage you to actually try and fool around and experiment and explore, rather than "reach level 5" and "kill 10 baddies" - hell, they are all either mad, fun, or MAD FUN
I would encourage everybody to pick it up and give it a shot; I sincerely doubt you could resist its charms!

The only roguelike that doesn't make me feel so frustrated to the point of throwing the pc out of the window
10/10