The demo for Abyssus hooked me with its brinepunk FPS action after a few hours of play, but after 25 hours in the full game, it feels like Early Access. Repetitive runs, shallow systems, and a lack of depth make it hard to recommend at full price. The core is solid, and the roadmap promises more, but it needs serious work to stand out.

Value for Money
The demo was so exciting that I expected a deep roguelite adventure. Instead, the full game adds little beyond it, feeling thin for a full release. At the current price, it lacks the variety and surprises I expect from roguelikes, which often deliver fresh runs through diverse builds. The Soul Wheel grind for unlocks like healing shrines is sluggish, and repetitive loops don’t justify the cost. I’d suggest waiting for a bigger sale or updates for better value.

Combat and Gunplay
The shooting and movement are smooth and fun, with weapons like the Tesla, Bow, and Revolver standing out. The shotgun, though, feels like a toy, lacking impact. Visual clutter is a big issue: enemies with two to five modifiers, plus extra bars from effects like Frost, make screens chaotic, especially on small maps. Duo co-op is great, but with three or four players, cramped spaces cause collisions and stray hits, making dodging a mess.

Progression and Build Variety
This is Abyssus’s weakest spot. Upgrades lock you into focusing on one part of your kit, primary attack, secondary, or ability, stifling creativity. For example, forging the Anchor into an exploding throwable is cool but forces you to spam it over guns. In other roguelikes, like Risk of Rain 2 or Slay the Spire, upgrades spark exciting combos and varied playstyles. Aspects here just boost damage without synergies, missing chances for fun builds. Merchant costs climb as you progress, but gold stays scarce, making upgrades feel out of reach. The Soul Wheel adds passive changes, but runs still blend together.

Exploration and Level Design
Exploration is almost nonexistent. Every run follows the same linear path, room after room, with no branching routes or meaningful secrets. Small secrets, like weapon unlocks, exist but don’t inspire discovery. Objectives like “shoot targets” or “stand in zones” grow stale quickly. All areas reuse layouts, making early levels tedious, though the final Aztec pyramid zone, with its bold red-and-white design, looks stunning. Roguelikes with varied paths, like Slay the Spire’s branching choices, keep runs fresh, but Abyssus feels predictable.

Visuals, Story, and Performance
The brinepunk art style has potential, but only the final Aztec-inspired zones, with their striking red-and-white pyramids, stand out; early areas feel bland. Performance is solid, with one crash in 25 hours and no frame drops, even in chaos. The story, though, is a bust. Books offer vague phrases or Easter eggs, like one saying, “How many expeditions is this now? 33? That’s 33 too many,” nodding to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It’s a cute reference but not actual lore, leaving the world feeling empty.

Final Thoughts
Abyssus has fun co-op moments, but repetitive runs, shallow builds, and no exploration or story make it fade fast. At the current price, it doesn’t match the lasting variety of other roguelikes. As a new release, it has room to grow, and updates could make it great. I’ll check back then, but for now, I’d suggest skipping it unless you’re after a short co-op romp.

Roboquest with doom movement. Great boss design, engaging gameplay loop, and very cool theme of brinepunk. A great addition to the list of great rougelike gems.

Love this game. Hot on the heels of Deadzone Rogue, < came out a day or two after> follows basically the same gameplay loop, but with 4 player coop, and a fun steampunk / nautical vibe.

Pros
great atmosphere
nice sounds and vibe
graphics / art is well done
there are secrets! although minor they make the game significantly more interesting to me
many things to unlock
- although the game has only a few weapons, there are mod options for primary fire and secondary fire, that when combined with 'blessings' and upgrades via an in level forge, combine to make the guns feel constantly different, unless you're rolling into the same choices every time, personally i think its more fun to experiment.


Cons
level progression is virtually the same every run. rooms are pulled from a random pool, but ultimately you'll be doing the same things in the same levels every time.

this can feel a little different thanks to brine options later (i'll get to that) but its not a huge difference


Suggestions/ Requests:
there are a bunch of ways to make the game more challenging, that you can unlock, using brine, they make the game more challenging and some more rewarding, but i think it would be better if rather than on/off switches for the options, once unlocked and enabled, they should be randomly applied by some sort of catalyst, like time spent, or levels cleared, etc. something to make it feel a little more fresh and rng rather than just giving you a cookie cutter experience.

Obviously more content is the big ask, More levels, more enemies, more guns, all welcome, and more rng progression. think of Remnant II for a good example. same worlds, same levels, but every run is drawn from the pool and arranged in a way that feels a little more mixed up and fresh.

also when you defeat the boss, and you sit on the throne and become the boss, for the love of god make that an actual thing. give him the loadout of the guy who sat, and let us deal with that nightmare the next time please. OR

imagine this: you sit on the throne (maybe this randomly happens or doesn't?) and instead of turning into boss dude, it makes a warped fishfolk version of the character with a skin that corresponds to weapon of choice, and colour corresponding to the primary or secondary fire blessing, depending on which dealt more damage in the run, and that newly spawned fish assassin has mini boss rooms in the upcoming runs. defeating it give you a new kind of permanent boost/gift

I guess thats about it, loving the game, and looking forward to seeing what comes next in it.