Take part of the “Grim Squad” a task force set up by Hades himself to infiltrate the abyss and defeat the new gods that are there. Neon Abyss is a single player run and gun shooter with rouge like mechanics.
General Gameplay
Neon Abyss is a single player shooter with a random generating level in which you go through and fight your way from room to room, collecting coins, crystals, and other power ups to get to a boss fight. The game has a randomness to its design where you will go through the same level, but it is randomly generated from each playthrough. Once you are defeated, you will have to start the process all over again from the beginning. The Game Visuals are presented in a 16-bit style where there are pixelated characters, objects, and backgrounds. The game design is more focused to showcase the characters in a retro detail and the look and feel of the game also matches this style. All the characters, enemies, bosses, and backgrounds are in detail and easily seen on the screen. The colors in Neon Abyss are more of a neon style with bright and vivid colors showcasing on the screen. Most of the levels have a darker blue hue and more of the bright colors compliment the screen action. The game does not support a colorblind mode; however, it is not needed as the game’s colors are bright enough to see on the screen. In our play testing, we did not see anything that would be offensive to younger gamers as the game is like a standard shooter in its visual design. Audio in Neon Abyss is a mixture of midi rifts that at times sounds like an EDM concert. The game has it standard sounds that you would hear from a shooter, from gun fire, enemies attacking, being defeated and so forth. Each level as well mini games have their own soundtrack and the game excels in the background music that is being played. The game story is told via text and there is no spoken dialog. The game is presented in both 5.1 surround sound as well as 2.0 stereo sound. In our play testing, there was nothing offensive to hear in the game as the game, and its game soundtrack was family friendly. Controls in Neon Abyss is unique in its design. There are your standard buttons for a platform shooter with you fire, jump, grenade use, melee and special but the way it is arranged on the controller is a little hard to get used to. The jump button is on the left trigger where you use the right thumb stick to aim and shoot and the left one to move, and there are the face buttons to use for jumping, melee, and grenade use, this type of configuration is a little to get use to (more about this in our family friendly section of the review) and a little unorthodox for a platform shooter. Outside of this unique controller setup, Neon Abyss responds very well for gameplay. The controller actions are extremely fast and as this is a good thing for shooter where reaction time is critical in the game. In our play testing we did not encounter any troubles outside of what we pointed out with the controller settings and found the game to be quite easy to control for most gamers. As the game is on the console, there is no need for a special controller to be used for Neon Abyss and the standard controller is fine for gameplay.
“A great platform shooter with a great soundtrack. Neon Abyss is a great game for those that like a challenge and rouge like shooters.”
Family Friendly
One of the many things that make Neon Abyss a great game is the unpredictability of the gameplay itself, but this could be a good or bad thing based on the gamer that is playing the game (more on this on this section of the review) Neon Abyss is a shooter that is all about how much time that you put into it and more of a risk-vs-reward mechanics that are the game. For an example, you can do a run where you can acquire great power ups and be able to cruise through the levels to get to the boss battles and get onto the next set of random generated levels to continue onto the boss battle after each area but if you are defeated in the process then it is back to the beginning of the level without the power ups that you obtained, expect for permanent ones that you are able to purchase with the crystals that you get from each run through. Now that the permanent power ups are there for you to use it is all about how the random dungeons work towards your favor in your run for the game. You may get an easier run where each level generated is quick to get power ups, eggs, and other items to help you get to the boss battle with more of an upgraded character and defeated them. Now during your run, you can get eggs that are obtained in treasure chest that can hatch and aid you in your offensive and defensive abilities during your run but again it is a risk of the egg not hatching. Again, this is a risk-vs-reward addition to the game itself. One other option is that if you do have a good run and are defeated, the game offers a code that you can punch in before your next run where all of the rooms that you visited and the powers ups from the previous run are there, this is a good option for those that had a great run to go back and play the game without the random generating of the levels and know where each power up and upgrade is at, but it does disable achievements by using the code. One of the cool things about Neon Abyss is that the game breaks up the action with fun mini games that you can play. They range from Piano Performances, Dance Competitions, Meditation Challenges, and other challenges. These can also get more loot, power ups and upgrades based on how well you do with the mini games. This is a much-needed game type to a game like this and fun to play between runs. Another fun aspect of the game is the boss battles, the names and type of bosses that you fight are fun to see and fight against. Now you ask who would enjoy in my gaming family a game like Neon Abyss? It depends on who in your gaming family is a fan of platform shooter and or random generating games.
Neon Abyss is a fun game when it comes to these factors of the game, but for casual shooter fans it may be a little difficult to play as each run is different (unless you use the code generated from your past run) to complete, also as it’s a shooter by nature so its all depending on how much of a fan they or you are of shooters. In our play testing of the game, both hardcore and non-hardcore shooter fans loved the game. They loved how each level was different from each run and how once they got used to the controller setting that they were able to play the game. Now some were turned off by the games nature of restarting from the beginning without the power ups that they obtained from the previous run but this was easily adverted by them entering the code from their last run and getting back on track. So, if you yourself or anyone in your gaming family are fans of run and gun platform shooters, they will enjoy Neon Abyss very much. Now we did talk about the controller setup and how in most shooters that the jump button would be assigned to a button rather than the left trigger, now even for us during the review, this was a little to get use to as most shooter are a standard settings but once playing the game, you will get used to this and it becomes second nature in the gameplay. As the game is rated T – For Teen, Neon Abyss has some violence with animated pixelated blood and gore, not overused but it fits well with the game and how the shooter is played, so we feel that anyone in your gaming family over the age of 10 can play the game (parents and guardians please watch our gameplay of Neon Abyss to make the best choice for younger gamers to play the game) In our special needs game testing, we did not run into any issues with the game visual, audio and outside of our concerns of the controller setup the game is very special needs gaming friendly. So, if you yourself or anyone in your gaming family are a fan of shooters or games with random generated levels, they will enjoy Neon Abyss.
NOTE: Those that have Xbox One and Game Pass, you can download Neon Abyss for free through the Game Pass and play and install it for free (at the time of this review).
Closing
Neon Abyss is a great shooter for those that love run and gun shooters. With random generating dungeons, great boss battles and lots of mini games, this is a great game to have in your digital library.
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