Recently I picked up a bunch of games. A few like Salt & Sanctuary, Axiom Verge, and Crypt of the Necrodancer at least have some following. Others like Cosmic Star Heroine, Flinthook, and Deathstate, not so much.
All of them are quite good but I wanted to shine a light on Deathstate in particular.
It came out on PS4 recently, with little to no coverage, possibly as it had already released on PC in October 2015. So far I've only found one review for the PS4 version giving it a 1 out of 5 stars. The review itself is intentionally brief, being one of several presented on a single page of various indie titles. Its content however shows a very limited understanding of the premise of the game, its features, or its difficulty.
Metacritic score of the PC version is over 80, but with only a handful of reviews. Having recently gotten my platinum trophy for the game, and showing no sign of quitting it I probably have at least more than a cursory knowledge of it to impart.
Deathstate is what I would call a Lovecraftian Bullet Hell RPG. I would go a step further and call it an Isaaclike, mainly because it is more accurate than Roguelike or Roguelite.
Like The Binding of Isaac, in Deathstate you kill monsters in a randomized series of floors, picking up various weapons and alien organs you plop into yourself to gain stat buffs and debuffs, find shops, as well as unidentified potions that may have good or bad effects like the pills in Isaac. You also select from several different characters with vastly different playstyles, fight champion enemies, randomized bosses etc. but with a Lovecraftian theme instead of a Biblical one. This mostly boils down to there being Chtulhu spawn and Gugs as some of the enemies and the plot being similar to From Beyond. There are also several items referencing The King in Yellow, which isn't by Lovecraft but adjacent.
Starting out you control a girl in search of her missing professor at a library (presumably at Miskatonic University). After a while you will unlock several other characters, some human, some astral, some alien, some undead, and one pumpkin.
Each with the exception of Scar, the second character you get, are easily as varied as the ones in Isaac. Scar is sadly a waste of a character, being identical in stats to the first character with a weaker primary skill.
The story overall, while not really the focus at all, is about as fleshed out as it is in Isaac. Perhaps moreso, given each character has their own epilogue.
The actual gameplay consists of spawning in floor one, initially restricted to one world later unlocking an alternate one, and progressing through 3 floors and a boss fight. Then repeat for 4 total worlds for a full run of 16 floors minimum (4 of them being just a boss fight).
There are 8 worlds total, half of which need to be unlocked.
You use the left stick to move, the right stick to dodge, square for primary skill, triangle for any secondary you pick up, and circle to drink a potion you find. Aiming is done automatically, firing bullets/lasers/missiles/fireballs/ice shards/plague skulls/candy corn at nearby enemies. Your rate of fire is usually more than adequate to not feel like the auto aim is a handicap, and your damage, rate of fire, and the number of targets you can hit simultaneously can of course be augmented with items.
One gripe I have is that the controls aren't changeable. Currently you can either have your thumb on the dodge stick, or on your skills. I'd rather have a dodge button on R1, since the shoulder buttons have no function currently apart from R2 which stops autofire. This is only useful in one very specific way and then never again. I suppose the reason is that if you are standing still and want to dodge in a specific direction, pressing the dodge button would be ambiguous at best what it will do. Having it only work while moving, and in the direction you are currently moving would essentially work the same as having it bound to the right stick separately anyways. Its not like you really gain much advantage being able to be moving left and then dodging right with the other stick vs. stopping, moving right, and hitting dodge instead. I'd rather take a few frames to adjust directions than have to choose between dodging and using spells at any given time.
Its like the opposite of Flinthook where the right stick should be for aiming, but is used for nothing.
While Isaac allows you to collect dozens of items in a given run, from hundreds total, Deathstate currently has a few dozen total. In a given run you can expect to find one item (relic, weapon, or tome) per floor, and at least one champion mob that will drop an organ for you to get all up in ya. There are also special giant chests and additional elite mobs with rare drops etc. you can find in certain levels. Overall there is enough variance with the items for you to end up with much different playstyles and preferences even with the same character.
There are even 3 rare transformation items that allow you to use 3 special characters you cannot otherwise use sadly. These are key to another character, who cannot otherwise pick up organs, being able to do so upon switching back for otherwise unattainable synergies.
The difficulty in Deathstate starts out low. With a little time, anyone should be able to beat it on the default path with each character with little trouble even from bad RNG.
The game has much more in store for the initiated however. You will eventually find altars to desecrate, which serve the purpose of summoning a boss on the spot for an additional organ drop, as well as makes the rest of the game more difficult. This gives enemies that would otherwise not shoot projectiles additional bullet attacks, and significantly ups the scope and magnitude of the ones that already do. You also take double damage. You can do this 3 times for maximum difficulty. Since some characters start with only one HP this makes it interesting.
Health and Mana can be upgraded via organs and refilled via drops, assuming you are corporeal.
There is also Endless mode, which is exactly what it says. You keep going, only each floor is harder and selected from any of the worlds at random, even the final one. Bosses still appear every few floors, and they randomly drop some VERY powerful items not found in other modes (but are unlocked in all after you grab them).
Finally, there is Insanity mode. It basically starts you on floor one at max desecration, and after each boss fight it has a second boss fight for funsies. I have only made it to the regular final boss once in this mode, out of hundreds of attempts. There is also a secret final boss that remains the final challenge to overcome.
Ultimately I just wanted to let people know the game exists, its fun, its challenging, but not as complex as Isaac...yet. The devs (Breadmachine) have stated that now that it is out for PS4 they will begin adding additional content, even streaming live on Twitch on Fridays. I was unable to tune in this week but I hope that some cool stuff will be added in time.
All of them are quite good but I wanted to shine a light on Deathstate in particular.
It came out on PS4 recently, with little to no coverage, possibly as it had already released on PC in October 2015. So far I've only found one review for the PS4 version giving it a 1 out of 5 stars. The review itself is intentionally brief, being one of several presented on a single page of various indie titles. Its content however shows a very limited understanding of the premise of the game, its features, or its difficulty.
Metacritic score of the PC version is over 80, but with only a handful of reviews. Having recently gotten my platinum trophy for the game, and showing no sign of quitting it I probably have at least more than a cursory knowledge of it to impart.
Deathstate is what I would call a Lovecraftian Bullet Hell RPG. I would go a step further and call it an Isaaclike, mainly because it is more accurate than Roguelike or Roguelite.
Like The Binding of Isaac, in Deathstate you kill monsters in a randomized series of floors, picking up various weapons and alien organs you plop into yourself to gain stat buffs and debuffs, find shops, as well as unidentified potions that may have good or bad effects like the pills in Isaac. You also select from several different characters with vastly different playstyles, fight champion enemies, randomized bosses etc. but with a Lovecraftian theme instead of a Biblical one. This mostly boils down to there being Chtulhu spawn and Gugs as some of the enemies and the plot being similar to From Beyond. There are also several items referencing The King in Yellow, which isn't by Lovecraft but adjacent.
Starting out you control a girl in search of her missing professor at a library (presumably at Miskatonic University). After a while you will unlock several other characters, some human, some astral, some alien, some undead, and one pumpkin.
Each with the exception of Scar, the second character you get, are easily as varied as the ones in Isaac. Scar is sadly a waste of a character, being identical in stats to the first character with a weaker primary skill.
The story overall, while not really the focus at all, is about as fleshed out as it is in Isaac. Perhaps moreso, given each character has their own epilogue.
The actual gameplay consists of spawning in floor one, initially restricted to one world later unlocking an alternate one, and progressing through 3 floors and a boss fight. Then repeat for 4 total worlds for a full run of 16 floors minimum (4 of them being just a boss fight).
There are 8 worlds total, half of which need to be unlocked.
You use the left stick to move, the right stick to dodge, square for primary skill, triangle for any secondary you pick up, and circle to drink a potion you find. Aiming is done automatically, firing bullets/lasers/missiles/fireballs/ice shards/plague skulls/candy corn at nearby enemies. Your rate of fire is usually more than adequate to not feel like the auto aim is a handicap, and your damage, rate of fire, and the number of targets you can hit simultaneously can of course be augmented with items.
One gripe I have is that the controls aren't changeable. Currently you can either have your thumb on the dodge stick, or on your skills. I'd rather have a dodge button on R1, since the shoulder buttons have no function currently apart from R2 which stops autofire. This is only useful in one very specific way and then never again. I suppose the reason is that if you are standing still and want to dodge in a specific direction, pressing the dodge button would be ambiguous at best what it will do. Having it only work while moving, and in the direction you are currently moving would essentially work the same as having it bound to the right stick separately anyways. Its not like you really gain much advantage being able to be moving left and then dodging right with the other stick vs. stopping, moving right, and hitting dodge instead. I'd rather take a few frames to adjust directions than have to choose between dodging and using spells at any given time.
Its like the opposite of Flinthook where the right stick should be for aiming, but is used for nothing.
While Isaac allows you to collect dozens of items in a given run, from hundreds total, Deathstate currently has a few dozen total. In a given run you can expect to find one item (relic, weapon, or tome) per floor, and at least one champion mob that will drop an organ for you to get all up in ya. There are also special giant chests and additional elite mobs with rare drops etc. you can find in certain levels. Overall there is enough variance with the items for you to end up with much different playstyles and preferences even with the same character.
There are even 3 rare transformation items that allow you to use 3 special characters you cannot otherwise use sadly. These are key to another character, who cannot otherwise pick up organs, being able to do so upon switching back for otherwise unattainable synergies.
The difficulty in Deathstate starts out low. With a little time, anyone should be able to beat it on the default path with each character with little trouble even from bad RNG.
The game has much more in store for the initiated however. You will eventually find altars to desecrate, which serve the purpose of summoning a boss on the spot for an additional organ drop, as well as makes the rest of the game more difficult. This gives enemies that would otherwise not shoot projectiles additional bullet attacks, and significantly ups the scope and magnitude of the ones that already do. You also take double damage. You can do this 3 times for maximum difficulty. Since some characters start with only one HP this makes it interesting.
Health and Mana can be upgraded via organs and refilled via drops, assuming you are corporeal.
There is also Endless mode, which is exactly what it says. You keep going, only each floor is harder and selected from any of the worlds at random, even the final one. Bosses still appear every few floors, and they randomly drop some VERY powerful items not found in other modes (but are unlocked in all after you grab them).
Finally, there is Insanity mode. It basically starts you on floor one at max desecration, and after each boss fight it has a second boss fight for funsies. I have only made it to the regular final boss once in this mode, out of hundreds of attempts. There is also a secret final boss that remains the final challenge to overcome.
Ultimately I just wanted to let people know the game exists, its fun, its challenging, but not as complex as Isaac...yet. The devs (Breadmachine) have stated that now that it is out for PS4 they will begin adding additional content, even streaming live on Twitch on Fridays. I was unable to tune in this week but I hope that some cool stuff will be added in time.