I was getting ready to sleep on this game. Played the first couple difficulties, thought it was fine, but not exceptional.

I was wrong.

Once you get into the reincarnation difficulties the game really opens up and becomes a mad house of crazy builds and ridiculous effects (Playing with all of the modifiers enabled). Too many to keep track of, but if you slip and lose control, your run is over.

My advice: Treat the first 3 difficulties as a training ground for finding characters you like and builds you like to play in so when you get into the madness, you can focus on the long game. Every con I've found with this game has an equal part pro that makes it special and fun.

Examples:

Con: There's a lot of reading. Way more reading than I was expecting to ever do, and some of it is confusing and doesn't make sense.
Pro: The effects generated are not like anything I've ever played with before in other games and provide unique playstyles that warrant paying attention to.

Con: The maps are quite stale and boring after awhile.
Pro: The familiarity of the maps help keep you able to move and fight without getting stuck or lost when you can barely focus on what's going on around you.

It's quite overwhelming at times, but I see that as a positive for keeping me engaged while I play.

While I appreciate the character DLCs, I don't really like the direction this game has taken for replayability. Having seasonal mechanics tacked on seems like the easy approach but doesn't add much to the overall game. They really should take the Dead Cells model with the stage scheming and add more branching zones and tilesets to make things feel fresh. Add more variety to the rooms per stage, like with the recent anxi desert change. Stick to one overarching mechanic that players can keep grinding on instead of adding seasonal ones that shift character useability and run approach every 4 months.

Subsequent updates also seem to be introducing some lag to the game. Tabbing out, even in singleplayer makes the game hang for a split second. Entering one room in multiplayer after someone else causes the game to hang at times. If the devs really do want to stick to the seasonal plan, then expand the skins to include the characters as well and make them limited to events! Soul essence is already a persistent currency that players can acquire with a grind.

An interesting roguelike shooter both alone and in co-op, but it quickly gets boring.