Chained Beasts

It's a great game. I've played it for dozens of hours now across the demo, playtest, and full version. The core gameplay foundation is excellent. Combat feels great, art style continues to impress me, and it's a great roguelike option for friends. The Risk and Reward system with afflictions is a big highlight. As you level up and heal, there's a chance to get handicaps. These run from small ones like being colorblind or dropping your weapon, to potentially run ending ones like losing arms or being constantly lit on fire. The thing that makes it so addicting though is that you're always in control of the situation that leads to these. Do you grind for more XP for one more level up, but be blind in one eye? Do you heal to max health but lose a toe making you trip when you sprint? It's even better with the addition of unique multiplayer afflictions. Ultimately it becomes a game about being more overpowered than you are horribly nerfed. That means each defeat is another attempt to try to skim out a little more HP, play a little more efficiently. There's also 10 difficulties that ramp each run up in intensity. The biggest issue with the game is probably just a lack of overall variety. You're going to get a fantastic 10-15 hours solo, more if you're playing multiplayer, but eventually you'll start to see the same afflictions and items in the shop, and each difficulty doesn't add TOO much beyond a few more mechanics/tougher + more enemies. For the price, though, I'd say it's well worth it for me personally with the overall quality of this game.