Recent reviews by Molag Bal

3 major problems I ended up having with the game contributed to me not being able to recommend playing it, especially if you like trying to earn all achievements in the games you play.

1: Every level takes longer and longer to complete & with nothing new introduced past your 3 abilities, which are accessed pretty quick, the levels increasing in length just makes the whole game feel like it's dragging on.

2: Boss fights becoming annoying very quick since almost all of the bosses attacks block your shots, except your Death Ray ability.

3: The way to clear levels is by destroying a set amount of asteroids, the requirement increasing every level. The problem is when they spawn off screen to move to the playable area they collide with each other and, as a result, you only get to catch a glimpse of them floating on then off screen immediately at the top or bottom of the playable area, outside of where you can shoot. Thus contributing to the levels length dragging on.

I've spent a lot of time grinding out boring achievements in game, mostly X-Box before moving over to Steam, but this one is one of the more boring ones I've tried to do. Will I finish it, possibly, but with 3 Hrs at review time I still have 6 stages to go and at this rate feel they will take a few more hours alone to complete.
The game is not bad, just boring and repetitive. After the first boss fight you've seen everything it has on offer and each set of levels before each boss is a repeat, but longer, of the first 5.

Came out in 2011. It is not 2025 & you cannot play it without creating an account...
Just... no.

Have spent the last 3-4 days since purchasing trying to troubleshoot:
1: There was a problem checking your account privileges, please check your internet connection and try again later.
2: No achievements unlocking.
To where I'm now past the point of getting a refund for a product wherein I cannot access all of the features I've paid for. When I say I've spent 3-4 days trying to solve it, that's trying dozens of varying solutions. None of which have had any effect at all. Ranging from logging into different Microsoft accounts to editing settings on my firewall and everything between.
Fix your game & if it's a problem on Microsoft's end then get on them to fix it because it is your product that people end up having problems with, not them. And given the amount of solutions for this same issue I've found, it also appears to be a long running issue with a lot of people.

When it comes to this style of game, Vampire Survivors appears to be the base line for how good or bad any other entry is.
You also know when the reviews for other games of a genre keep comparing it to a singular entry, that's the one to get and that is the case for Vampire Survivors.

Tried several times to find something to enjoy about this, but beyond the art looking decent, this is among the least enjoyable game of its type. You may enjoy it but I cannot. Top 3 issues for me were;
First: This is one of if not the only variant of this game I have played where your XP pickups on the ground DESPAWN...
Second: You become under-powered by the 3rd room and it only becomes worse if you don't collect enough XP before getting there.
Third: The only method I have found to grind out each room is to stand in a corner behind a building so the enemies can pile up on each other and file in a couple at a time.

Standing in 1 place is what you're supposed to feel good doing in this genre because you made a good build that lets you do it. It's not supposed to be because you're too weak to walk around without getting killed and missing out on all the despawned XP under all the enemies spawning right next to you.
If you've got some fun characters and items locked away behind a grind in here, I'm afraid looking at some current reviews that much like myself most people will not play long enough to experience them. It's understandable when making a game to not just copy/paste but 1 fun thing in most other games of this genre is the variety to use while grinding out more content and in Renfield you have 1 character with 1 weapon to start. 1.3 hrs in I've unlocked 3 or 4 new weapons and 0 new characters but nothing new to start a run with. Only new stuff to find while in a run.

Just can't get into it. Everything feels so stiff and janky. Constantly getting hooked up on the levels geometry, especially stairs during combat. Maybe things improve later on but with the short time I put in it really pushed 'Hard because hard games are "fun".'
The reviews are a lot of positive one and I'm sure it's deserved, but personally I cannot recommend it based in large part on the things I mentioned as for me movement controls is a large part of if i'm going to enjoy the game or not. It's not all the controls though as the inventory was fine, however the switching between ranged and melee weapons being bound to what they are was not helping with the movement issues.

Get Shotgun or lose

How to install mods: http://www.subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9Mod
Slipstream Mod Manager: https://subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17102

Hyperspace (Mod Base): http://www.subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35095

Recommendations to use (Don't use both at the same time);
Multiverse (Overhaul): http://www.subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=35332
Insurrection (Overhaul): http://www.subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=37167

Bought it 2 days ago and already 15 hours played. Played quite a bit on Xbox before that too but enjoyed it so much I decided that $20 (Canadian on sale) is worth it just to have access to mods.
https://thunderstore.io/?ordering=most-downloaded
I will admit I was a bit hesitant at first of the shift from 2D RoR 1 style to this games 3D style and I honestly cannot say why cause I don't know why, that was back in 2019 during the early access phase of the game so maybe it was me who was resistant to change for no good reason back then.
Also not only would I recommend this one but because they are both good I would also recommend you play the first one, you do not however need to do that in order to enjoy this one.

1 Shot to kill for the enemies and the player is a fine and challenging mechanic, however with how zoomed in the game is you frequently get killed by off screen enemies before you can even see them. The camera is so far zoomed in someone with claustrophobia that tries to play this game may have a real bad time.

I don't want to say this is a bad game by any means as I haven't made if far enough into the game to properly review it (Still on CH 1) but personally the level of zoom in the game ruins it entirely for me taking the 1 Shot kill/die mechanic from challenging to almost unfair levels and prevents me from wanting/being able to continue any more. If I'm dying repeatedly in a game because I suck, that's on me. If I'm dying repeatedly in a game because of unfair mechanics, I'm out.