Alright. Megabonk is Megabonkers! This is a 3-D Survivors game. The first I've played from this perspective. Does it feature the hallmarks of a good Survivors game though? Escalating pace? Check. Tension? Check. The ever-looming sense of impending doom? Check. Ridiculous characters? Check. Cool-assed abilities? Check.

I think Megabonk gets a lot of things right. The selection of attacks, tomes, and buffs is pretty substantial, and they're all fun to play with. The selection of characters is quirky and cool. The pacing is on point. Your ability to create a pretty god-tier character is definitely present. And there is an okay selection of permanent upgrades which may be earned as well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3713629420

You are, in typical fashion, on a timer to complete each level, after which, you're basically competing against an active death clock which has already chimed. In order to complete each tier of each level, you need to find the level boss portal, activate it, defeat the level boss, and step through the portal. The first time you defeat a tier level boss, you simply unlock the next tier. Tiers are this game's difficulty modes. After unlocking the next tier, subsequent runs allow you to actually step through the portal after defeating the boss and enter the next level of a biome. Of which there are three biomes that I'm aware of. Tier one, you need to defeat one boss to unlock tier two. Tier two, you need to defeat two level bosses to unlock tier three. Additionally, after defeating the available tiered level bosses, you unlock challenge mode for that tier, which presents even more difficult scenarios.

Also standard for the genre, you will collect coins to level up and be able to open chests/purchase abilities from vendors. Leveling up offers you a random selection of three weapons and tomes, which you will choose one from. Or decide to reroll, skip or banish choices if none appeal to you. You get a limited number of each reroll, skip, and banish; and can purchase extra skip and banish slots in between runs after unlocking that part of the store. Weapons all have cool effects. I personally liked Aura and Dexecutioner best. Mixed with Aegis and Axe, this is a pretty epic set of weapons. Tomes are ability upgrades, such as XP boost, Shield, HP Boost, etc... You receive two slots for weapons and two for tomes initially but can upgrade your slots via the store as well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3713629443

Throughout your run, you will find statues, chests, merchants, etc... which will grant or sell you abilities and buffs. You can also find microwaves which allow you to duplicate abilities. All abilities stack, so this is particularly useful. Best I can tell, "moldy cheese" is one of the most useful abilities. IYKYK. :)

In between runs, you can access a store which you will unlock and then purchase things such as weapon and tome slots from. You can also purchase unlocked tomes, weapons, and abilities which will then go into your active pool of things you can find during your runs. Additionally, you can also purchased unlocked characters, skins, and hats. Things are unlocked by accomplishing certain benchmarks during runs. Such as killing "x" number of enemies with a specific weapon.

The characters available in this game are pretty cool and often funny. Megachad, a shirtless dude aura farming; and the goddess Athena are my personal favorites. Although Calcium, the skateboarding skeleton is also super cool.

So, what does this game get wrong? I think it relies too heavily on RNG to build the ideal characters mid run. If you end up with a less-than-ideal combination of weapons and tomes, your run is doomed, and since everything is RNG based, you could reasonably end up with a long string of mostly useless runs. There are also times when, despite having a good combo of stuff, the RNG doesn't give you the opportunity to level the gear up enough to really have much of a chance against the level boss, much less the two sub-bosses you will typically also have to fight. It does seem to generally skew on the side of giving better odds of receiving level ups on gear you already have, but until you have your slots filled, it's definitely hit or miss. Additionally, you can purchase the ability to deactivate gear in the menu. In theory, this reduces the RNG pool of gear to give you better odds of being able to control your builds to an extent. However, many of the items can't be deactivated, which limits its usefulness. All in all, this is probably the most prohibitive aspect of the game.

For me personally, I also reached the point about twenty hours in where I really started to get bored. Not because the game is boring. It's not. But due to there only being three biomes, and despite the level layouts being randomized, it does get to the point of it being more of the same on repeat. Unlike Vampire Survivors, for example, where the devs have regularly added new levels to keep everything fresh. That, coupled with the requisite RNG based runs had me reaching my threshold for Megabonk around hour twenty. Outside of adding some funny hats, I haven't seen any evidence that the dev plans to add anything else, but he really should consider adding a couple new biomes at the very least.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3713629448

Ultimately, Megabonk is a fantastic game that never quite reaches its full potential. There is a ton of fun to be had here though, and ten bucks seems like a more than fair price for the content you receive. I just wish the dev would add more to the game and really let it the game shine. Still, it's definitely worth a look and at a core level, it's one of the most fun games on Steam in my estimation. It's just not AS fun as it could be.

In truth, the game can be fun. However, if we're talking about the genre this game is meant to be in. it's not fun.

it needs some serious rebalancing and rework as it feels almost rushed.

The difficulty spikes way too much per level/stage, I'm having a hard time trying to stay alive and build a strong set of gear within 5 minutes. it's becoming more frustrating than fun.

as the game is. I can't recommended this. The graphics look fun and unique. but it's not worth it.

If the devs make some changes and make this game more supportive for you as the player to explore more builds and do whatever you like. then fine I will retract my opinion.

but the changes are needed;
1. Rebalancing
2. allow more freedom to build what you like and be powerful
3. allow endless modes
4. If you are inspired from RoR series, then you should know they make the final boss beatable in some way.

Fun