Negative reviews say the game is bland compared to others in the genre... is it?

[eqalidan]

the negitive reviews more or less say the game is bland, that it plays the same from the start to the end, along with the game being balanced around overclocks and them being very tedious to get.

personally I love this genre, but i'm also looking at 10$ for a game that may need a major overhaul before it gets good, and that 10% pulls be out of getting a few other games i'm waiting on sales to pick up with gift card money.

I 100% expect the devs who make this to make a great game in the end, but it seems like at least right now, its not so much great, and given how much of the genre I played, not worth it.

so i'm wondering if your thoughts/experience line up with this or is there something they were missing. negatives tell me everything I fear, while positives are just posting drg memes or seem to be brand new to the genre alla they were drg fans.

[mercenaryai]

I have played 3 runs so far, and so far the problem felt not in that it's "bland", but that it's not giving me the feel of power and meaningful progression.

The first two runs were disappointing and tedious, I left a negative review. By the third run, I unlocked the overclock for the first gun, so it became somewhat more enjoyable, and I lasted until the boss fight (and died when he had ~40% HP).
It redeemed the game from being refunded, but am still not convinced it's worth playing over, say, HoT or VS itself.

Visually it's one of best games in the subgenre, and the DRG memes are amusing at first. But in terms of pacing/balancing, it's really not there yet. And might not be even going in that direction (I never played DRG, so don't know how much they try to "fit" that experience into the DRG:S, and if the two clash).

If you've also played most of games in the genre, and are spoiled by the best ones' good pacing, balance and variety - you'd probably have to come in with low expectations.
I came with high expectations based on the visuals, and that it releases after we have VS/HoT/DmD etc, and suffered for it.

[SP00KYGUNNER]

Currently it feels like a much worse version of "Swarm Grinder"

[subjenna]

It's not the worst in the genre (looking at you, Death must Die), it's just that I expected much more from the IP. Have you played Army of Ruin? That one gives a constant feel of progression over 50+ hours.

[BlackjackGT]

In the demo I most enjoyed the digging mechanic, but ultimately nobody even talks about that. I thought players would be sharing tips on digging techniques, and the best kinds of paths to clear etc.

Instead, it's all "upgrade everything DPS," "overclock your weapons," "go for luck and digging speed" or just kind of exploit the "kaboom" bugs to clear the screen. It's like the cool digging mechanic is just a moot point, which seems a bit sad for a game where your character is only ever seen with a pickaxe, no matter what cool weapons we have.

I guess digging is more compelling in side-scrollers where you can at least dig to create traps, drop objects on pursuing enemies (Dig-Dug still), etc.

[GeminiEclipse]

The weapons are very bland until you unlock overclocks. Even then some overclocks are bland. The enemies are pretty bland after a while. There's only one final boss from what I've seen. And a handful of elites.

The digging is interesting for pathing, but pretty frustrating with some weapons where you have to look at what you're shooting.

I'm not opposed to unlock for weapons and powers, like in Halls of Torment. But in this game is just feels bad to get a new weapon or new class. Like "Hey you had fun, now go power level a weapon to 12 and then end the run so you can get back to having fun."

[𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘢𝘥𝘳𝘦]

i dont know exactly what the game lack, but you definitely barely every feel OP, im 7 hours in.

the strongest imo so far was the gunner, but only with awkward weapons where you had to manually aim (it shoots forwards only)

so yeah, thats i guess why its in early access, so the devs can get feedback and adjust in future patches.

Missing: the feeling of being OP after some lucky EXP eplosion or some few legendary upgrades

Synergies of some sorts.

[se05239]

The constant swarms when you're fighting every boss are not fun to me. It's stressful and forces specific builds if you want wins. Gave the game a negative review mostly for that.

I am hoping the developers will see reason and tune that stuff way back or remove it outright.

[eqalidan]

Originally posted by BlackjackGT:

In the demo I most enjoyed the digging mechanic, but ultimately nobody even talks about that. I thought players would be sharing tips on digging techniques, and the best kinds of paths to clear etc.

Instead, it's all "upgrade everything DPS," "overclock your weapons," "go for luck and digging speed" or just kind of exploit the "kaboom" bugs to clear the screen. It's like the cool digging mechanic is just a moot point, which seems a bit sad for a game where your character is only ever seen with a pickaxe, no matter what cool weapons we have.

I guess digging is more compelling in side-scrollers where you can at least dig to create traps, drop objects on pursuing enemies (Dig-Dug still), etc.

from what I saw of the game before release, digging was more a necessity brought on by procedural generation rather than a strategic element. and to be fair, in drg proper it kind of feels like that as well, if maps lasted a while, I could see digging being a funish mechanic, but the ai at least looked near braindead so i'm not sure how much better it would get without work.

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from the rest, this seems like its a wait and see game, I do have faith in the drg devs, shockingly enough, their track record with drg kind of earned them that right, will probably get it when it seems like they adjusted design a bit.

[subjenna]

Originally posted by eqalidan:

I do have faith in the drg devs, shockingly enough, their track record with drg kind of earned them that right, will probably get it when it seems like they adjusted design a bit.

This one is not developed by Ghost Ship Games

[ThatOneTigerBite]

I played the demo and %100 the demo. I also have over 10 hours so far into this EA. I can see why the game can be bland.

There needs to be tweaks to the game to make it fun because the fun in these game is the god-like power spikes you get throughout a run when you get a cool synergy or roll a busted upgrade.

Right now, it is tuned too difficult across all difficulty levels that any power spikes don't feel like power spikes, and in order to keep up in DPS you are pretty much locked into having to pray to RNG to give you a high crit build to stand a chance since the enemy health scales too fast to high. Hence you are shoe-horned into one build, one playstyle. Which is why folks are saying this game is bland.

In other survivor games you can get through a run with multiple builds and your play style changes depending on what weapons/upgrades RNG feeds you. E.g. in Vampire Survivors depending on what RNG feeds you early, you can play a keep away AOE build, a high dmg single target build, a knock back kite build, etc. and they all feel good to play since the game is balanced that way. Right now in DRG:Survivors, the game almost feels like it punishes any other play-style besides high dmg single target builds because you will %100 always get overrun and you will not do enough damage to clear a path before getting cornered. I've tried AOE builds and they are underwhelming given the unique terrain setup unique to this game.

[Tyyne]

Early Access so they will alter things I presume.

[eqalidan]

Originally posted by subjenna:

Originally posted by eqalidan:

I do have faith in the drg devs, shockingly enough, their track record with drg kind of earned them that right, will probably get it when it seems like they adjusted design a bit.

This one is not developed by Ghost Ship Games

wow... its amazing how fast faith dies, now I have hope that drg devs at least give a ♥♥♥♥ about how licensed versions of their games make their main game look.

[Metro]

Originally posted by elpadre:

Synergies of some sorts.

Synergies exist. Maybe you aren't picking the right upgrades.

[Tyler the inflator]

Originally posted by Tyyne:

Early Access so they will alter things I presume.

The problem is they need to change nearly everything for it to be not bland. Everything feels bad and boring.

[Korpah the Dutch Gamer]

Originally posted by mercenaryai:

I have played 3 runs so far, and so far the problem felt not in that it's "bland", but that it's not giving me the feel of power and meaningful progression.

The first two runs were disappointing and tedious, I left a negative review. By the third run, I unlocked the overclock for the first gun, so it became somewhat more enjoyable, and I lasted until the boss fight (and died when he had ~40% HP).
It redeemed the game from being refunded, but am still not convinced it's worth playing over, say, HoT or VS itself.

Visually it's one of best games in the subgenre, and the DRG memes are amusing at first. But in terms of pacing/balancing, it's really not there yet. And might not be even going in that direction (I never played DRG, so don't know how much they try to "fit" that experience into the DRG:S, and if the two clash).

If you've also played most of games in the genre, and are spoiled by the best ones' good pacing, balance and variety - you'd probably have to come in with low expectations.
I came with high expectations based on the visuals, and that it releases after we have VS/HoT/DmD etc, and suffered for it.

Out of curiosity, what are the other games that are described as "the best ones" ^^ not asking for a friend