Black Paradox

My very first impressions were good thanks to the solid audio, nice background art, and the fact it actually worked with my DS5 controller without needing to change any Steam settings (that's rare!). The bullets also felt like they had some solid impact when hitting enemies (good use of rumble). Unfortunately though I quickly realized that this was not a traditional shmup where how far you got was up to your skill, but instead is one based endurance where you play a linear series of scrolling levels repeatedly until you have enough upgrades to power through all the developers bad design decisions. Ship controls are slippery and imprecise; After you let go of a direction the ship continues moving in said direction for about half a second, and no the mouse cannot be used to control your ship as a way to overcome this. On top of that your ships hit box is huge, with the 'glow' of bullets often seemingly hitting the ship before the bullet itself even touches it. Attacks and objects that can hit the ship often come from behind where you (normally) can't shoot, and if you're too far to the left they'll hit before you even see them coming. Of course being a rogue like you die once and yo…

Could be a good game if it wasn't brutally hard.

Horizontal shmup with interesting roguelite elements and upgrades. Gives a lot of retro 80's/90s vibes, cute graphics and synthwave audio. Decent controls with keyboard but a bit clunky ui to navigate. It has received a face lift recently with a new free update that added upgraded visuals and some new mechanics. The price is reasonable and although It's not mindblowing as a game in general, I like it.

Black Paradox, developed and published by Highwalls, is a roguelite shoot ’em up that merges the intensity of classic arcade shooters with modern progression systems and a strong retro-futuristic identity. It places players in control of a bounty hunter navigating deep space in a heavily armed vehicle, taking on waves of enemies tied to a criminal syndicate. While the premise itself is straightforward, the real appeal lies in how the game structures its action—fast, chaotic, and constantly demanding—while layering in systems that encourage repeated runs and gradual improvement. At its core, the gameplay follows a familiar structure: move through horizontally scrolling stages, defeat enemy formations, collect upgrades, and survive long enough to reach boss encounters. However, what elevates this formula is the integration of roguelite mechanics. Each run is shaped by random elements, from the weapons you acquire to the enhancements you unlock mid-run, which means that no two attempts play out exactly the same. This unpredictability gives the game a strong sense of replayability, but it also introduces a level of inconsistency that can sometimes work against the player. Combat is i…

-Weapon pickup RNG is the biggest factor in a good run, one weapon in particular out classes the rest -Starting movement speed is way too slow, raising base stats is too grindy -Visual Feeback is a mess

fun game but takes way too much grinding it feels like to level up to where you can really get anywhere in the game.