What looks like a straightforward side-scrolling shooter with some platforming elements quickly turns out to be a rich (tons of items and upgrades!) and highly addictive roguelite. [10/2020, p.75]
Neon Abyss is a solid and hilarious roguelite. Hundreds of weapons and items, however, are not enough to hide procedural generation laziness. But all things considered, it is still one of the best roguelites currently available.
When playing this game I feel a little like playing the old good Team 17 titles like Assassin with a lot of modern mechanics that makes playing more enjoyable (teleports preventing wasting time, with each run you can play as different build).
This is absolutely one of my favorite games! I have not found a rouge-like game that I enjoyed before playing Neon Abyss. From the art style to the music and variety of weapons and enemies, I can't get enough!
Neon Abyss is a highly playable action-roguelike with a huge number of perks and weapons to take on the ever-growing horde of monsters that show up in each room. The powerup progression in a run is almost always satisfying, assuming it doesn’t take too long for the random drops to start piling up in a helpful way, and while sometimes the chaos can become unreadable it’s usually due to becoming trigger-happy on entering a new room.
Neon Abyss’ emphasis on thriving, not surviving is a breath of fresh air in a subgenre defined by struggle. It’s chaotic, cathartic gameplay is a welcome surprise and unique take on the formula.
While Neon Abyss lacks plot depth and environmental variety, it makes up for it with some wild item combinations and chaotic enemy encounters. You can never be quite sure how your next run of this roguelike is going to pan out, but you can always be confident it’s going to be hectic, brightly coloured, and filled with mixed-quality puns and pop culture references.
Neon Abyss will satisfy the craving of anyone looking for a competently made roguelike - just as long as they're fine with immediately forgetting about it once they're done. While the shooting is fun in small doses, the dearth of variety in several areas and unremarkable meme aesthetics lend to the game's ultimately ethereal nature. In a genre with so many trailblazing entries, Neon Abyss fails at even making a mark. Most players would be better served starting a new save file on an old rougelike favorite than diving into this dungeon for the first time.
Definitely one of the best rogue-lites 2020 has to offer, it's a must-play for every rogue-lite fan, and it might become a great all-time hit if the developers will keep updating it.
I would give a higher score, If not for the endless number of bugs, freezes, crashes, and black screens. Neon Abyss won't let you finish it. Absolutely everything is trying to stop you, the especially most annoying part is black screens after level end that can ruin all your progress. As there are more than 1-3 levels, imagine how hurtful is to be kicked by a bug...
Apart from technical problems, this game is a good representation of its genre. I'm not a big fan of roguelike, but I had a big pleasure to play it (Ofc if we close our eyes on all the technical problems). Visual aspects look really good, such an amazing piece of art! Neon style + Pixel art makes its job. Neon Abyss is not about plot, but still has a little amount of good humor.
I can't suggest Neon Abyss now, because developers still should work on bugs that kill the experience.
thank god gamepass exists. Now I'm able to play so many games "for free" that I wouldnt dare paying for.
not that the game is not good, but it's just one of the million "frantic, roguelite action-platformer where you run 'n' gun your way through"
There is, in fact, lots of different weapons, and enemies but I got kinda bored really fast
Game was released with a lot of bugs, no testing, and day 1 DLC.
Furthermore, balancing is just wrong and broken in some places. Even before the dev team went and addressed the giant list of bugs, they were thinking of making more DLC.
This game should be in Early Access for 10 bucks. It's nothing more than a PR stunt, copy pasted Gungeon and Isaac, with more problems than good ideas.
Summary Neon Abyss is a frantic, roguelite action-platformer where you run ‘n’ gun your way into the Abyss. Featuring unlimited item synergies and a unique dungeon evolution system, each run diversifies the experience and every choice alters the ruleset.