My GOD is Nuclear Throne an incredibly tight experience

Art style: phenomenal

Audio: phenomenal

Gameplay: probably the best in the biz when it comes to a twitchy roguelike

Story: fuck if I know

The bread n butter of this game is actually ALL of these aspects firing at once. The gunplay is really really good by itself, but once you combine that with the STELLAR player feedback you get from hitting an enemy with a bullet you get some of the most satisfying "shooting" in any game ever.

You shoot a crystal enemy and it makes a lil clinky sound. You shoot a normal dude and he goes "UGH". The noises the guns make themselves? Exactly as you'd imagine. You hear the crossbow "knock" another arrow, you hear the bolt fire, you hear the bolt hit.

The perks are pretty well designed and all feedback into this wonderful loop. Not only do you get a really satisfying noise upon level up, every perk has a unique noise themed around its effect. Perks like trigger fingers feel so good because you both visually notice how much faster you are shooting, and notice audibly notice how many more enemies are dying.

And the best part is... a normal run takes about 15 minutes max to "win". After you win, you can either end your run, or just KEEP ON GOING and see how far you can take it. You "loop" and start over from beginning but there are now new enemies, hundreds more of them, and a whole host of new bosses that ONLY appear post loop!

NEVER is there a dull moment in nuclear throne. The worst case scenario you hunting down a damn bird that flew across the map, and that takes maybe all of 10 seconds. The other 99% of the time is PURE action. Non stop shooting, dodging bullets, and collecting ammo. The most effective strategy is to be in the MIDDLE of the brawl, otherwise you start hitting ammo constraints.

There is also a wonderful MELEE system in this game. Melee is effectively just really short range ranged weapons with the added benefit of clearing out all the bullets constantly sent your way. This is pretty necessary post loop, as your entire screen will likely be bullets otherwise. The perks that tie into melee are also SO SO satisfying, and really incentivize the player to literally never stop swinging, and never stop killing.

Meta game progression is based around unlocking various characters that all have pretty damn different playstyles. Once you unlock those you have the REALLY grindy goal of unlocking all crowns, on all characters. This involves looping at least 6 times with each character, and the crowns themselves are basically perks with heavy downsides attached with them. Completely optional, but just another element that pushes forward the "one more run" mentality.

This game has been out for like 15 years now and I dont know if ANY roguelike has come close to it in terms of being a cohesive package. I am really glad Vlambeer is back from the dead!

he dum

https://cytu.be/r/hexbear

https://cytu.be/r/hexbear

https://cytu.be/r/hexbear

https://cytu.be/r/hexbear

Thanks to @Mabbz for the sickest ad ever.

Tune in 8am CST and 8pm CST 8/27/2021 at https://cytu.be/r/hexbear