You know, I've played so much stuff over the years, I've become less afraid of the visceral, horrifying stuff that video games could show you nowadays. Well, surprise, surprise, this one had my dopamine so enamored, it keeps destroying me elsewhere.
The whole toll of playing a shooter roguelike becomes a ride to purgatory, after corridor, after corridor, you test your instincts, how fast you can move the mouse, spot the mobs coming at you, and maybe survive a number of surprises like crows jumping out of the window, demons in the rooms hiding, pigs in TNT barrels, dogs, ok, just talking about all this is driving me insane.
Welcome to the bullet hell corridor shooter roguelike, semi psychological horror game. Oh, it is a very "Cruel" game, alright. Living up to its name while throwing you into a pit, and dance around till 10 levels to finally escape that goddamn fire that keeps chasing me.
You start off with a question, a sinister question. Just who do you want to kill? Well, take a good gander, and see what response you'll get because you have to answer by actually typing the name. It was all jokes till the 10th run, and I wasn't laughing anymore.
No, the embers of fire set up by this unholy, unsanctioned engagement has created this tapestry of madness, running door to door, kicking in every room, taking out mobs after mobs, it never ends. They all want to die, they want a taste of my wrath, my also willingness to collect soda cans, stack up on ability cards, and throwing every conceivable projectiles without slipping.
Yeah, it's mostly a reflex and focus test, you have to be glued to the screen, and not lose momentum, or else the fire will catch up and kill you. Yes, running away from that is the entire goal. You don't necessarily need to kill every enemy, but each room's also claustrophobic.
So yeah, for your sake, and well-being, you're going to have to kill whatever you can to keep moving on. Manual reloading, strafing, kicking doors, and using whatever is around. I'm talking about the melee weapons, you can use the back of a gun, pipes, bats, you can even throw them at enemies, and pick another. Make a habit of that because they have limited durability.
Every room has some interesting surprise waiting, also a vending machine for cans, do not forget to pick those up. They heal you, and if you have saved up cans, at the end a nice doggy will give you tarot cards with unique traits and abilities. Like more ammo, headshot healing, resurrection from drinking, combo explosions, and oh, your guns reload themselves magically when you parry bullets. YES! You can parry upcoming bullets. Try learning that now, HAHAHAHA!
Continue down to level 2, 3, and so on, you get the other two amazing weapons to fast flip to like the sawed off shotgun, and SMG. The rooms also get trickier to navigate, but no worries, use your best instrument. Your brain. It isn't difficult to know how the system works.
But if you feel like taking chances, and increasing your odds, after the end of every level, you also get to gamble. I'm guessing mine from the first few levels involve talking to a guy in the bathroom stalls, before he lets out a bone chilling "HI" to me. Before throwing me a can. Now it's called Gamble for a reason, because you snooze, you get jumpscared and killed.
Everything's experimental, till it isn't. Till your brain gets exhausted from dying all the time, restarting back to the first level. Enemy placement, and some of the room design, kind of changes and shifts often. But I was really getting the hang of the murder spree.
You have to constantly move the mouse, make room when things get too rough, adapt, and for the love of god, I will kill the guy who placed all those mines. They're so annoying, dear god I just want to get to the next level. I just want to get to that next level, why is that so hard to ask? Am I not worthy enough? My anguish, pain, and potent rage not satisfactory?!
Ok, mask off. Yeah, this is a hell of a fun time. I mean, for people who need to wind off a bit in the office, train, or you know if you're waiting for the new Nvidia graphics card. Definitely not a game made to be played using a controller. Unless, ah, they put auto aim for the consoles.
Each room run lasts like 2–4 minutes, I've gotten to half the levels in half an hour. And yet was taking breaks to get back in the saddle. Really fun stuff, dirt cheap too. Give it a go.
