Reviews

Neon Abyss Review

Neon Abyss Review
Written by Ankit Gaba

Information:

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC
Platform Reviewed On: PS4

Price: 20$

Genre: Roguelike Action Platformer

Neon Abyss is a fantastic game with only a few issues. The gameplay is enjoyable; it reminded me of Dead Cells. Contra Neon Abyss is a mixture of both when you die you lose everything you have similar to Dead Cells there are Procedurally Generated or Dynamically Generated maps which increase the replay value a lot the game itself is very challenging you’ll have to explore the maps thoroughly to unlock new abilities or improve your health bar to make your experience easier the sprites in Neon Abyss are very pleasing there are also some areas where you can see the reflection in the water which was very satisfying the story itself is very simple. Still, it’s interesting enough to keep you hooked I completed Neon Abyss in about 8 hours since it’s a very challenging experience you will die a lot you can also lower down the difficulty. Still, I played Neon Abyss on Hard since I love challenging games.

Unique rooms of mini-games can be discovered in the dungeon, each one with new mechanics and rules. Take part in piano performances, dance competitions, Fight clubs, and much more.

There is a virtual currency in-game which you can use to buy several things like weapons there’s also an area called “The Bar” you spawn there whenever you die you can upgrade your abilities or change your characters in that area you can even dance in The Bar by pressing R1, and the Music boosts up.

There are portals similar to dead cells that allow you to fast travel at a level from one place to another. You just have to get close to the portals to unlock them.

Navigation:

The Navigation in Neon Abyss is very simple. You even have a mini-map. You can open it by clicking on your touchpad it will also show you where you missed Coins or hearts which help you fill your health bar or keys which help you unlock various locations you can use keys to open chests too. Still, some chests can only be opened with explosives or grenades. The chests are hidden behind rocks. Sometimes, you have to destroy the rocks with grenades or explosives to get the chests. Chests can drop Keys, Weapons, Abilities, Hearts or some of these things at once there are also crystal chests which can open in 2 ways you can either pay three crystals to open them or just shoot them to turn them into some satanic chest when you touch the chest it’ll take half of your heart and open. Same with the doors in shops, they take three crystal to open, but you can just shoot them, and they turn satanic, and the same thing will happen with doors that happen with crystal chests.

Replayability:

Neon Abyss has a very high replayability value. Still, the gameplay loop can be tiring. You are just doing the same thing over and over again until you reach the Boss Fights, which are quite fun. Still, they get repetitive too after you advance to the next area where you are just fighting the same Bosses mostly over and over again until you reach the final Boss in an area there are five areas which have a different amount of levels it’s only the gameplay loop which can be tiring another issue I had was frame rate it dropped rarely. Still, I did experience some problems; also, there was a bug sometimes when you tried to fast travel through a portal. The screen would just go black. You would have to restart the game from beginning to continue. I’m pretty sure Team 17 might have fixed this Bug in their Day One Update, but this review is based on my experience your experience might not be the same since you might play the game with a patch or something.

In Neon Abyss, there are eggs that you can collect. They will hatch over time. They might contain a pet or nothing most of the time. These eggs contain nothing. Still, sometimes there are pets in the eggs which help you to fight enemies every pet has a different ability they will also evolve and become stronger as you progress through in Neon Abyss.

Variety of Weapons

There is a large variety of Weapons in Neon Abyss there’s a gun which looks like a Cat too which made me laugh a lot the best gun in this game for me was the one you get in the beginning I just used abilities to upgrade it there are also some special abilities in particular areas like Temple in Neon Abyss it has water below the platform you can see the satisfying reflections in the water the one we talked about at the beginning of this review

You can also remap every button, but I ended up getting used to the default controller scheme a lot of games don’t allow you to remap buttons. I think more games should have this option.

There is also melee combat. The default character uses a knife whenever he’s near an enemy. Still, some other characters you can play as having different melee weapons which are way more powerful than the Knife I usually found myself just shooting the enemies instead of using melee combat as it was more fun to me.

Sometimes some parts of the map are empty, but that’s due to procedural generation. I guess the developers did make it like that.

The Final Boss Fights are very challenging. They are harder than all the normal Boss Fights combined honestly. I died a lot on Boss Fights in Final Areas. Still, every time I replayed, I progressed. Further, it’s all about the experience. You can’t beat the game easily on your first try without any experience.

Dynamically generated maps, over 400 items, dozens of monsters with different styles, and countless secrets ensure that no adventure through the abyss is the same.

Verdict:

Neon Abyss is a very challenging game, but the gameplay loop can get boring quickly, and there are some bugs which might have been fixed by the time you are reading this review I would recommend you to get Neon Abyss if you like Contra and Dead Cells or any other Metroidvania or Roguelike games because it is similar to them the developers did a great job on the level design the reason I didn’t talk about the lore in this review is that I didn’t want to spoil your experience well that’s it for the Neon Abyss Review let’s get to the Pros and Cons

Pros And Cons:

Pros:

  • Very Challenging Experience
  • Great Art Style
  • Amazing Level Design
  • Allows you to remap controls

Cons:

  • Frame Rate Issues
  • Some game-breaking bugs
  • Gameplay loop can get boring quickly

7/10

About the author

Ankit Gaba

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