In this article, we will give a complete guide about the Best PC Games
Best PC Games
Table of Contents
Neon Abyss
So, Neon Abyss Review – What happens if you mix an Enter the Gungeon- style shooter, some mechanics from The Binding of Isaac, and a slight irony à la Metal Slug? Probably an inter-dimensional rift comes out that sucks up the whole world, but if your lucky, things could be even a little better, and you might be faced with something like Neon Abyss. We do not hide. We say it immediately: it is a derivative title, with many things they already know, and some lack too much, but it is so absurd and funny that you almost risk forgiving everything. So let’s understand what its strengths are in our full review!
Aesthetic Roguelite
Neon Abyss is a relatively simple game to describe: it’s a roguelike under acid. It is part of that sub-genre of titles in which the gameplay counts more than everything else, even if everything else is not sacrificed too much. A fundamental factor to appreciate is its aesthetics, and it is precisely from here that we must start to understand it fully. Aesthetic Roguelite is one of the Best PC Games 2021. The developers Veewo Games have inspired by various titles of the ’90s and early 2000 to establish a graphic style that would be nice.
Choosing the pixel art in 2D as a starting and charging it with effects, animation, and modern complications to give her one innovative momentum. What you see at the end of the job is a fresh, colorful, and fun aesthetic aspect. Which surprises and makes you smile when the elements on the screen begin to be very numerous. When you are holding a super-powered weapon, it’s all an anthology of little flyers. Spitting fireballs, unfriendly bears are trying to shoulder a load of you, and glowing shots are coming out of our rifle.
On the other hand, the name Neon Abyss leaves no room for doubt: the neon abyss into which our little character falls is full of enemies but also of many-colored lights, with some references to vaporwave culture or cyberpunk. Not only that, because there is also an incredibly well-chosen sound choice. The central theme that welcomes us from the beginning is a dubstep that pushes big! The sound of guns firing, crates shattering, or enemies biting is exaggerated, toy, absolutely unrealistic. And that’s good news because no part of the game wants to be.
It descends into the abyss.
In the futuristic world of Neon Abyss, Olympus no longer exists. The ancient gods sank into the abyss and turned into gods of consumerism and modernity. For this reason, some small heroes are hired by Hades in the Grim Squad, a company of fierce characters who will have the task of facing and defeating the new Gods, called Supervisors.
What you have to do in Neon Abyss is the classic loop that so many roguelikes have accustomed us to in recent years. Move-in the 2D platform-style environments, destroy everything to the end. If you die, you start all over again. At the beginning of the game, we are in the lobby. Where there are the bar, the dance floor, and several other unique elements, here you can choose your favorite character, set the difficulty, enter a specific seed, and pray before jumping into the abyss.
More
Once you get to the bottom, you have to go from room to room – all procedurally generated – devastating every enemy, until you find the boss room. Once the latter is defeated, you advance to a new level. Where the same cycle is repeated, trying to survive until the last boss. In normal levels, there are random bosses. In contrast, in some particular groups, there are fixed Supervisors, always the same, more powerful than the others. These are the Gods above and must be unlocked by beating the previous God or in more specific ways.
Each level slightly increases the difficulty of the rooms. So it is essential to collect resources and items to become more robust and more powerful. Such as coins, keys, bombs, hearts, and shields. Furthermore, in the trunks or particular rooms. You can find weapons and unique objects, which allow you to obtain powers and improve your attack/defense statistics. The secret to becoming truly overpowered is to create the right synergies among the objects and weapons in use. Creating a build in which the weapon fires more bullets as the number of minions we have, or more powerful hits as the number of coins increases.
Crystals, gems, and… eggs!
There are also three essential resources. The first is the eggs, which can be found in crates or as a reward for clearing the room. They work with a very peculiar mechanic: once collected. They connect to our character and fly around following him wherever he goes; after passing through a few rooms, they hatch and release a minion(or even nothing)! Be careful because there are many minions, not all cheerful for our gameplay: some shoot enemies, others instead steal hearts or coins, making our life more difficult. Our minions have a certain number of life points, so if enemies hit them, they can be eliminated: it’s not always a bad thing because some produce special effects on death and can be exploited accordingly, trying to make them die fitting rooms.
The second special resource is purple crystals. Useful for opening some trunks and special rooms (such as the shop) or for activating strange purple devices that you will occasionally find around. If we get close and give up a crystal, we can activate the pact with the Goddess – a small bar appears at the bottom right. While if our character or an enemy hits the device. Then it changes color, becoming red: at this point, we can approach and take damage, activating the pact with the Devil. The same happens with the purple doors. With these gems, we can unlock new upgrades at the lobby bar: different branches can be followed, so it is possible to unlock special items, new characters, and new rooms. Each of these things can then be used or will happen in the rooms that we will face.
Good or bad?
In the course of the levels, there are, in fact, numerous special rooms of different types. Each level surely includes a shop, a secret room to break through with a bomb, a challenge room, and a treasure room. Depending on the case, there can also be a piano room, a ballroom, a pond to fish in, and many other absurd rooms, which appear randomly after unlocking them at the lobby bar.
Finally, there is the temple of the Devil and that of the Goddess, already mentioned above. To reach these special rooms, it is necessary to complete the bar of the pact that we activated with the purple or red device. Suppose we choose the pact with the Goddess. We will have to use the crystals to open the purple chests and purple doors. But also complete a room without ever taking damage. To raise the bar of the pact with the Devil, instead, we will have to suffer damage in the rooms or with the devices and red doors.
Once you reach the completion of the bar, a message will appear on the screen. In the temple of the Goddess, we will be able to choose one of the two proposed objects, taking it for free. In the time of the Devil, the choice will instead be between three objects. But to make them appear, we will first have to sacrifice a container of hearts, which is no small thing.
It’s not what it looks like
If everything we have said so far seems complicated to you, know that we have only scratched the surface of this huge luminescent mass. Which like any good self- respecting rogue-lite, hides many secrets inside. Fortunately, it is easier to play than to describe it. After the first hour of play, you will already be immersed in the psychedelic atmosphere and the frantic gameplay, managing to move without fear among its mechanics.
This is also thanks to the ability to choose the difficulty of the game in the lobby. There are three of them, plus a bonus to unlock – and to select one of the proposed characters, to be unlocked with the yellow gems at the bar. There are ten different ones: some have particular skills. Such as the ability to do a somersault or read the description of the objects before picking them up. At the same time, others offer more initial resources, useful for those who want to build particular builds.
Another factor that makes the gameplay much faster and more enjoyable is the teleportation. Every two or three normal rooms, there is a larger room with a large blue boulder. Which unlocks as soon as we pass over it by unlocking various teleporters. You can quickly travel from one to another, avoiding going through the rooms we have already been to.
Conscious irony
So, you will have understood that the gameplay is not very original. The mechanics are derivative, and that reaching the end of each level is not at all obvious. So why dive into Neon Abyss? The answer is the simplest in the world: because it’s fun! The game offers a crazy amount of weapons, objects, enemies—game situations, with an incredible number of citations to nerd culture and other video games. If you read the descriptions of the objects well. There are elements taken from the Assassin’s Creed saga, from the games by Tomb Raider, or from the movies of the 80s. The same goes for the weapons of the powers of some objects.
Speaking of weapons, it’s hard to tell the satisfaction you get when you fully upgrade a rifle and start firing shots of all colors. Lighting up the entire room and eliminating all life inside. You laugh, however, when you take a new gun for the first time and find that it shoots fish bones or bouncing balls. Each weapon is unique, and many have special powers. So it’s very important to learn how to recognize them before picking them up or buying them at the store.
And
The enemies are also very different from each other. Some flutter around trying to bite, others stand high and shoot fireballs, others still have armor, or are real ghosts. And then there are the bears, real mini-bosses that can do a lot of harm if you’re not careful. For them, a similar argument applies to that made for weapons. To fight them effectively, you need to know them. Of course, it also applies to the end-of-level bosses. Who has attack and defense patterns that can be memorized and wisely exploited?
All this, however, never becomes tiring, heavy for the player. The whole game never takes itself too seriously, which dominates every situation and every moment of the adventure. The graphic style, animations, and effects already mentioned help to make the gameplay pleasant. The memorization of the movements of the enemies is, therefore, natural as the hours of play pass.
Sins of youth
In terms of performance, there is nothing to complain about. Neon Abyss runs smoothly on PC and console, as it doesn’t require many computational resources. There are some problems only on Nintendo Switch. Where the frame rate drops slightly when there are too many elements on the screen. The serious problems could be with some youth bugs that the game carries with it from the earliest stages of development: for example. Also noteworthy is the inability to save. If you quit a game, you go back to the lobby and start over, a real hassle.
However, these are non-fundamental critical issues. Which do not prevent you from enjoying the gaming experience to the fullest, which should be released with a patch as soon as it is ready? The same patch should also bring some additional elements, improving the balance and progression of the game.
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The overall impression we have had so far is that it is still a bit immature title in some ways. We see that it has unexpressed potential, that other enemies and bosses can be added, that some mechanics need to be pushed even more. So we hope that the developers work their best to bring more and more content over time. On the other hand, even for The Binding of Isaac and other titles of the same genre.
It went like this: over the years, new versions and expansions have come out that have improved the game more and more. Probably the same will happen for Neon Abyss if the public awards him with the success he deserves.
Final judgment
Neon Abyss Review – Final Judgment – Neon Abyss is one of those addicting titles right out of the box. It takes very little to enter its loop and no longer detaches itself. Because it offers a balanced and always new challenge. Maybe he’s still a little bit unripe and suffering from a few sins of youth.
We would have liked some more content, both as items and as final bosses – but this is likely to come with new expansions and updates. However, it also has a progression method very interesting nonlinear, which could evolve even more in the future. If you like roguelikes, it is certainly worth trying. Also because it costs only $ 20, a more than fair price for such a fun experience.
