Later levels do show the limits of Loopmancer’s combat though with redundant enemy types and boss battles that don’t do much to stand out, so while it is fine and even above average at some points, it’s not top of its class by any means. Environmental hazards also play a role like dangerous traffic and explosive barrels. If decent combat is all you are after, this particular flavor of side-scrolling dodge-heavy fast-paced combat is certainly fine. It’s still a healthy challenge, though and enemies will punish you for screwing up or falling out of rhythm. Baiting enemies to swing or shoot at you in one direction and zooming behind them is fun, and once you integrate all the different techniques you can develop with the variety of bombs, guns, and melee weapons it can get pretty intense." "Combat itself is Loopmancer’s strongest element. Thankfully, another improvement I’ve noticed since I played the earlier build is being able to see the action through foreground objects that would otherwise obstruct your view, that, along with a handful of other balancing issues that make combat a bit less punishing, have smoothed the action out to a nice sheen. Baiting enemies to swing or shoot at you in one direction and zooming behind them is fun, and once you integrate all the different techniques you can develop with the variety of bombs, guns, and melee weapons it can get pretty intense and dare I say deep. Alternate paths to different levels can also enhance the feeling of discovery a bit and give you more reason to look forward to future runs as you can just try a different path next time.Ĭombat itself is Loopmancer’s strongest element. These things don’t add up to much narratively, but they do help you feel like your progress matters. Your progress also comes in the form of unlocking momentos and other pieces of info that you can reflect on in the apartment between runs. Now, it feels much more like my progress actually matters and that’s a good thing for a game with relatively long levels that aren’t consistently engaging. Each run you do leaves you better positioned to get farther next time, and that is something that I feel like has been improved since I played the pre-launch version where the difficulty was so high, I only rarely made it out of the first area regardless of what I had. Speaking of the genre, this is indeed a fairly standard roguelike in that you are repeating levels every time you die while your upgrades remain. If you’re somehow new to the cyberpunk genre or sci-fi in general and are unfamiliar with its trappings, then it might not bother you too much, but for anybody else, it’s going to feel like you’re repeating history and not just in the good roguelike way. Roguelikes don’t really need much of a story to work, so why they went through all the trouble to establish such a weak and uncompelling narrative and portray it so badly is beyond me. The incredibly stiff voice acting only adds to the staleness of the narrative, and at times made me wonder why they even bothered with this kind of story at all. This all comes after a horrible car accident that shattered his family you see, and the way the villainous Wei Long, the missing reporter, and Zixu’s strange experiences all ties together turns out basically exactly how you are expecting it to about an hour or two into the game. "The game’s foundationally decent combat, while reasonably fun, just isn’t quite good enough to carry the game’s dead weight across the threshold into being something truly memorable." You play as detective Xiang Zixu who is repeatedly winding up dead and waking up at his apartment while investigating the disappearance of a reporter. This is also the case for the entire cast, with a soft exception for Wei Long, the main villain, who’s psychopathic tendencies and foolish arrogance can make him moderately entertaining at times. The game’s dystopian cyberpunk setting as well as its main story are derivative at best and downright forgettable at worst. Loopmancer probably isn’t going to be your game. If an original story, compelling characters and settings matter to you, then I can make this really easy for you. Meanwhile, the game’s foundationally decent combat, while reasonably fun, just isn’t quite good enough to carry the game’s dead weight across the threshold into being something truly memorable. That said, despite some admirable attempts at creating a memorable world, interesting characters, engaging level design and a satisfying loop to partake in, Loopmancer rarely finds – let alone keeps – its footing with most of that. The action is fast and challenging and the combat is dense enough with different types of bombs, melee weapons and guns that the game does get some decent mileage out of it. Loopmancer strives for a handful of neat ideas and often comes close enough to pulling them off to create some fun moments.
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