Blast robots and collect loot in this twin stick roguelike game.
This generation of games, especially in the field of downloads, can be called the “roguelike era.” What was once an obscure style of gameplay has been incorporated into various titles with varying degrees of success. Dust & Neon combines that formula with one of his already well-worn ideas, the twin-stick shooter, but brings enough creativity to the table to stand out and feel fresh.
Dust & Neon takes you through a series of Wild West-themed levels, shooting robots and collecting loot. The most important thing about a game like this is that their core shooting mechanics feel good and Dust & Neon nail them before the details are taken into consideration. You can use cover and have useful combat roles that help you avoid enemy fire, but mostly just movement and shooting. is. That is, press a button to reload individual bullets. This was a little jarring at first, but as I progressed through the game I really started to enjoy it. Constantly watching how your ammo is holding up increases the tension of having to find the right opportunity to reload. In a frantic moment, I was slamming and hitting the Y button to take out an oncoming horde of enemies.
Roguelike elements come into play as over time you need to clone again, building up experience that can be used to permanently upgrade your character even after you die, and boosting your base stats. Calling them roguelike elements is accurate, but this is on the very light side of that type of thing. Once you unlock the ability to repurchase the weapons you had, the penalty for death is less severe.
Apart from these upgrade components, guns are the main thing to collect in Dust & Neon. You can always carry 1 pistol, 1 shotgun and 1 rifle, with different types scattered throughout each level and shop. They differ in power, accuracy, critical hit probability, and clip size. The last one is very important when considering the reload mechanism. The only problem is that even if you find a really good gun, you don’t have the guts to try something else.
The levels to play are very simple, with several different objectives to keep things from being too similar. Each major region also has boss battles that allow you to fight powerful enemies in their own patterns and give you major upgrades to your base. The power-ups you can buy are only effective in one or a few missions and help give you a different feel at the point of the game like you’ve seen it all. Still, the game feels repetitive at times, as most games of this type do.
Even with all that repetitiveness, the core mechanics are so good that I really enjoyed jumping into a few missions on a regular basis. Dust & Neon manages to combine some common game elements in new and interesting ways, with a surprisingly fun reload mechanic that stands out on crowded fields.
