Lawbringer

A frenetic, hack-and-shoot arcade game that takes Akane-style action, adds a roguelike-inspired build system, and cranks the whole experience up to 11. Lawbringer is FAST, and it's HARD. While you don't die in one hit, and healing is relatively accessible from healing drops and certain passive upgrades, you'll nonetheless be dying a lot during your struggles in the arena. On top of this, a timer system, refreshed by enemy kills, demands incessant aggression on the player's part -- but that's exactly the point. Lawbringer is at its best when you're slashing through enemies, frantically dodging and firing off whatever gun you can get your hands on. The game does have its limitations (the upgrade/gun pools are not huge, player animations are limited, and arena waves always feature the same static enemy composition), but, for a $4 indie game, I'm more than willing to forgive the smaller scope of the game. Since it's been a while since this game has had a new review, I will note that nearly every criticism in earlier negative reviews has been addressed by the developers by the time of my own review here. The timer "timeout death" is now toggleable, leveling up is initiated by the play…

Slow arena shooter that just doesn't hit the way the developer intended. The enemies and their attacks are not well explained leading to getting hit without seeing it coming. The gameplay is very slow and the arena is to small imo. Like i said i see the vision just not fun for me personally. Also side not i know it says its unknown if it works on steam deck or not but i can confirm it does without issue

It's a very hard game for me, obviously needs some polish. The sound and graphics are quite nice. For this price, absolutely worth it.

Game has potential. Right now it's just a real basic proof of concept "progressive wave hack-n-slash/twin stick gunner arena survival rogue-like" or PWHNSTSGASR for short. What it does right: Fast action, reasonably distinct graphics and sprites. Good fighting mechanics. There is your classic melee attack, a dash move, right stick aim and right trigger shoot. You can clash swords if attacks coincide, you can bat away projectiles with your melee attack as well. Has a leveling system with Roguelite style upgrades and different synergistic build options and so far it seems reasonably diversified but not over complicated. Has cool enemies with both melee and ranged attacks of different styles, with a reasonable amount of diversity including "elites". Has a leaderboard and the feeling of accomplishment when you rise up in the ranks. Your default gun has infinite ammo and you have to reload but it's not too slow and you can still run and dash while you reload. You can pick up temporary guns with different attack types that have limited ammo. These can be immediate game changers even if you only get three shots with one. What needs work: Enemy AI is bad. Enemies get stuck on…

Relatively straightforward but really fun hack and slash rougelike with a gauntlet level system, the timer adds an interesting dimension to the formula where you can't just cheese around enemies but you need to use all the tools in your arsenal to defeat them. Controls are a little wonky for keyboard and mouse , a controller is a better option for this game. All in all a nice little game def worth the price.

If there was an option to add a neutral review I'd leave one here. If you want a better version of this I would just play kill the crows.