I discovered this game couple days ago when i was going through discounts. Oldschool-ish graphics brought my attention, i was amazed by how this game looked fresh and old in the same time. This will definitely discourage some people because let's be honest - you need to love pixelart to accept this game, if you hate this style, even a masterpiece will throw you off.

I'd say this game starts quite slowly, introducing basic mechanics that everyone should already know but it still a sign of good design. You'll learn how to fight certain types of monsters, how to navigate through map etc. I've never felt overwhelmed by amount of things i can or should do, there's always "just enough" to make me play that one more level. There's always something new, some new possibilities after finished level.

Let's focus on mechanics because they give a great modern twist I really loved. Character progression - during the game you will gain levels, every level gives you one attribute point which you can spend on Strength, Life, Spirit or Capacity (without getting into details). Every 5th level you gain perk point and i'd be honest, it's something that IMO should be redesigned because half of the perks is not that useful and I don't think anyone would need them. Maybe on higher difficulties, who knows...

But now, the bread and butter of this game - UPGRADES. Oh my god, i cannot express how great this is. During you shootings and exploration you will gain upgrade points which can be spent on weapons or spells (i will not talk about them because i kinda ignored them in my build - but i believe it's possible to use mostly spells instead of weapons). Almost every weapon can be upgraded into one of two possible forms, it's very important decision because once upgraded, you cannot switch or even go back to original state. It took me some time before i finally decided what i want but when i upgraded them, oh boy, it was AWESOME. I kinda miss the ability to refund the upgrade because i wasn't happy with my double smgs but i still used them and didn't complain much.

In terms of weapons, i'll keep it short. We have melee weapons, revolver, shotgun, double-barrel shotgun, smg, minigun, rocket launcher, dynamite even something similar to BFG! You can feel people at Buckshot love classic FPS and wanted to give a little wink to fans, half of the weapons reminded me other games and maybe that nostalgia made it even better for me. Every weapon feels great, sound, visual effect, screaming enemies. Using them brings pure joy

I'm gonna be honest with you - i was worried that i bought another roguelike game, but fear not! Just like good old classics - it has chapter split into stages. Every stage has X amount of levels and every chapter ends with boss fight. Be careful during your exploration, they were very cheeky with their traps and surprises. However, after some time you can smell the trap from a mile, it shows that they weren't so sure about map design but it's still good. I'm surprised that i never felt bored by their level design, good job!

And monsters, once again i cannot express how good they are. Every chapter has its own theme and because of that, monsters change as well. They look great, you can feel the payed a lot of attention to this and tried to make every one of them special. My only concern is that some of them are just reskins and mechanic-wise they work similarly but there's also a good side of this. Because of that with every chapter, instead of teaching us new monsters they can throw us into deep water and surround us with couple dozen of baddies.

Bosses are okay, they didn't really impress me but i cannot say they are bad. They have simple mechanic and the biggest obstacle is just fighting them + never ending waves of their minions, it's a good challenge to see if we are really "worthy" to go to another chapter.

Just go and buy this game, you will not regret it.

Great game 8/10
If you miss oldschool shooters with modern twist, give it a chance! And finally, NOT A ROGUELIKE, just good old shooter with a lots of cool mechanics!