ABYSS SEEKERーーWhat Do You See Deep in The Abyss

Abyss Seeker may look like a bullet heaven / survivors-like game, but it's more of a straightforward twin stick shooter with weapon modifiers you can equip by leveling up. In some ways, it feels like a more anime-esque take on Crimsonland than it does something like Vampire Survivors. After all, there is no auto aim (or at least I have not found an option to toggle it), you are aiming your own shots and quick reaction times are needed at moments. The maps are relatively tiny and you are immediately swarmed with hordes of enemies upon starting a run, meaning this game feels tense and claustrophobic from the drop. Unlike a lot of games in the survivors-like genre, you only have a single weapon. Instead of carrying a stock of weapons and passives, you instead have modifier slots that change the firing behavior of your weapon and you get to pick one each time you level up. In a way, this reminds me of how items can modify tears in The Binding of Isaac. These can include very basic functions like multiplying the number of projectiles or increasing the rate of fire, or they can be more elaborate like returning bullets that restore ammo or bullets that fire at odd angles. Some of these …

Updated review: Ver 1.2.0 Good: - It's cheap - The art is nice Okay: - Gameplay is alright, but gets repetitive fast - Spellcrafting was interesting at first and could have been good but the later updates didn't add anything interesting. Disappointing: - No variation in music - Enemies can be frustrating - Stages are mostly re-skins with very slight variation - Updates are disappointing and uninspired Overall still barely a positive review, but only because it is cheap.

Japanese Studio SUCCESS Corp released a very similar game called Heaven Seeker. This game turns many of those systems into a twin-stick shooter. The core of the experience is a neat skill augmentation system similar to Path of Exile, Magicraft, Noita, etc. You get a base skill and different slots to customize the attack to your liking. This lets you create some pretty crazy combos. That said, this game suffers from the same shortcomings as its predecessor: It's really punishing and unforgiving. A good rougelite game will have a difficulty curve, but this studio has games that really stick it to you immediately. Monsters are very OP, and bosses will use crazy bullet patterns during the first few minutes of a stage. Healing seems hard to come by. It's normal to complete an entire build within the first five minutes, and leveling up doesn't do much. It would be nice to further upgrade the skills you have, or gain passive effects, or even to heal from level-ups instead of just recycling them into experience. Some tweaks to the difficulty curve and balancing enemies would be nice, but they didn't do this with the previous game, I can't imagine this one being any different. If yo…

Relatively simplistic twin-stick shooter in which its simplicity is both its strength and its weakness. Rather than relying on multiple weapons for a build, you only have the one weapon you choose when you start the run and then levelling gains you modifications that affect the weapon, and artifacts that act as passives. Weapon mods take up limited slots on the weapon itself, but artifact passives are not limited so you can eventually obtain all of the ones you unlocked so far. One major saving grace and benefit to the weapon mods is that [b]you can overwrite them[/b], which means you can take one mod [b]for now[/b] and then replace it later if you get a better one for what you're building for. The benefit is that you're relying less on heavy RNG that, in other games, can simply ruin an entire run by withholding that one item/weapon you absolutely need until it's too late and you've been forced to fill all slots, so you never really feel too punished by RNG. The fact that you can take weapon mods temporarily if you want the immediate boost and then just overwrite them later means that it's more just a matter of time before you get the build you want. The drawback is that it real…

Fun little game. Limited in content, but for 2$ i'd say it's worth it.

Very fun!