In my opinion The Rare Nine is a mediocre 2D zombie game. There are plenty of better games out there for the same price tag.

- It’s nice that 9 characters are included. However, 6 of the 9 must first be unlocked. I would have liked to try playing the different characters, but I simply do not enjoy playing The Rare Nine enough to try to unlock everything.
- Thankfully you get plenty of item drops. You will need them.
- I thought it was funny that memes are hanging on the walls.

- No clear objective. There is no explanation in the game, you just spawn in a room, try to open the correct door, kill zombies, and proceed to the next (almost identical room) by opening random doors. I managed the reach the Leprechaun boss but my attacks did negligible damage, and his movement and attack speeds were much faster than mine, so I died after using all my items. I don’t know if I’m trying to survive as long as possible or how I should beat the game, but honestly, I’m not that interested to find out.
- The zombie hitboxes are unclear to me (perhaps because their arms are fully extended?). Attacks look like they should have hit often don't. This is especially frustrating when playing a melee character. The attack cool downs are quite long, so a missed attack will often lead to zombie bites.
- Character balancing is very strange. For example, the character with the chainsaw has about half the attack range of a punching character. As far as I could tell, both the punch and chainsaw does the same amount of damage, so why would anyone want to play Mr. Chainsaw? Furthermore, the second character is clearly overpowered compared to the others. Why? His attacks are basically bottle throws that send bottles from one side of the room to the other, penetrates enemies, and kills them all in one hit. It’s like playing the game on easy mode (still got destroyed by the boss though).
- No enemy health bar only a “HIT” notification. Most enemies die in one hit, so it’s not a big issue. But sometimes they take more hits (at least from what I could tell). Some kind of health indicator would be nice.
- The game feels luck- rather than skill-based. No indication where zombies spawn (or how many will). You can only hope to encounter as few zombies as possible, that they spawn in a manageable fashion, and that you get enough item drops that, so you can use them liberally. There is no real way to avoid damage in this game, so you better spam that med kit and adrenaline shot.

Very little interests me about this game. The graphics and audio are average, there’s no clear objective, and the gameplay isn’t fun. As it stands, I have no intention of playing The Rare Nine again.

Garbage controls ruin somewhat playable game with pixel graphics.

Needs separate controls for attacking left and attacking right in order to be able to deal with the hordes of zombies.

TL;DR: This game is very fast, reflex heavy, and challenging, but without a specific set idea on what your doing, and cheap deaths. Its hard to really get under the surface of this one.

Pros:
-Fast Gameplay
-Great Music

Cons:
-Game Difficulty is a bit brutal
-From the beginning there's, no stated idea on what you actually need do as far as objectives goes
-Needs a seizure warning, there's a lot of aggressive lights blinking/flashing

The Rare Nine, while not boasting with its graphics, the extreme action pace is reflex breaking. I've played a lot of game that have demanded precision and fast reflexes before from Ninja Gaiden to F-Zero GX, but only this game now holds the crown for single-handedly killing me so fast in multiple sessions by just walking right out of the first rooms door. I am now a humbled game reviewer, realizing that a game can always be harder.

Story: No story here as I've seen but it seems like a simple story of zombie/Hell-portal apocalypse and 9 survivors of what i think is an office building are fighting through the building what what they can.

Gameplay: The gameplay as I've hinted at above is extremely fast and very difficult, you are to fight your way through zombie hoards and find the next room to go through. honestly i don't want to sound like im complaining but I'm my case its way too fast. I'll give this game its just due though, that tough difficulty and fast gameplay does make you feel every time you die that you can definitely buck up & git gud as they say. There's replay value because trust me after a few deaths you will be saying to yourself "hmm...nah, let me do that again". I will say for a slight note sometimes you can have full health and with-in one sec die from a hit, I’ve had this multiple times with just one enemy hitting me, I’m not sure if that is one purpose or not but it is discouraging (whats the point of feeling comfortable with full health or close to full heath if I can dying instantly).

-As the title states you chose from 9 characters (although only 3 at first can be picked, the rest has to be unlocked), Every character has different weapons, attacks, and pre-set items so be careful on what you chose since chosing a character is also slightly akin picking a difficulty to start the game with.

***One major problem i have with this game though that made it hard for me to really make any progress is that this game really needs a seizure warning. The fast movement along with constant flashing from combat or when you die is definitely enough to give a seizure as i had to stop playing the game to relax myself. Please devs create a warning of sometype.***

Controls: the controls are straight forward, basically Left and Right arrows to move, the letters Z,X,C for attacks (Z=Normal Attack, X=Special/Rage attack-this needs to be powered up to use by killing enemies, C=A Slower Strong attack), and A,S,D for your item usage (A=bleeding meds, S=Poisoned, D=???(Never found out)). The problem i have here is that the gameplay is so fast its hard to find a comfort point with knowing what button does what in the midst of combat, since everything is so frantic. To mitigate this i would like to have controller support, on keyboard I’m not that fast with key binding but on a controller i definitely think i could be more sure about my button presses and mapping.

Graphics: I love the retro art style, the details with the blood and signs, are giving me nostalgic thoughts looking back on games just like it in the past such as Slaughter House, on sega master system.

Music: The music is actually pretty good, going from the main menu's eerie Michael Myers Halloween-esk piano melody, to the safe rooms peppy low key beat to the all hell breaking loose chiptune music in combat is smooth. Too bad i can never live long enough to actually enjoy it lol.

I would like to give this game a good thumbs up but as i had problems even getting far into it do to the light flashing moments in the game (As I've stated above an seizure warning is really needed.) Right now i'll have to wait until this is fixed for me to dive deeper into this game.

***I’ve come across 2 bugs, one was the game suddenly popping a message up with it saying it was "Fatal Memory Error:Out of Memory!" and then crashing and the other is the game crashing to a white screen (I have taken a screen capture of this error. this is a link leading to an imgur posting of that screenshot, https://imgur.com/a/PQODT ).

Indie platform game with the '' story '' or the pretext of being in a world with zombies, where you and your group are locked in the top of a building and you have to find your way to the exit to save yourself.

Pros: -Good ambience, makes you put in the desperate situation.
-Great variety of characters unlocked and to unlock.
-Each character has different abilities that make it special and differentiate it from others.
-References to memes and current issues in the scenarios that give a funny touch.
-The bosses are very different one from another and these can touch you at random.
-Much diversity of objects that can improve your character.
-System of injuries where your character can be injured temporarily or permanently, from bleeding to breaks.

Neutral: -It is addictive but over time it becomes repetitive.

Cons: -The sound when you hit the zombies is repetitive and irritating.
-All the zombies have the same models but they are changed 1-2 clothes.
-There are no different types of notable zombies, this without including the bosses.
-There is no background in the story, you only appear to kill zombies.
-When you pass the room the zombies are in front of the door so you necessarily take the hits.
-Graphics that leave more to be desired, a basic pixel-art.
-It has no difficulty. You want to win? Break your head against the keyboard.
-Animations bugged, sometimes the character makes the animation to throw something but does not throw anything.
-The sellers of the stores are all the same, they only change their colors.

It is a simplistic game, and although it is in beta, it is very incomplete and for the price of $ 10 it is not worth it at all. To buy it wait for an offer.

Just to let everyone know, this is in Early Access and a lot can happen up until the release and some of you may not experience the bugs I came across. As mentioned the game has around 20% - 30% of content in the game right now.

The game itself is an "Ultrafast and explosive action platformer" you are able to travel the vast corridoors of a skyscraper as you slaughter zombies with 2 attack moves. Or a 'Rage' move that attacks in both the left and the right direction.

"Wow, I love hardcore games, like a Hotline Miami 1 & 2, love platformers, and I just wanna do something a little bit different, but with similar hardcore."

I believe that Top Eben has done a great job to make The Rare Nine a Hardcore platformer and has done something differemt, although a bit rough around the edges. He has made his dream come true and made the that he wants, with some polishing, this will be a game I will play a lot.

Positives:

• The game is fun and is very hard which would be fun for hardcore retro players, which will give a sense of achievement once gotten to a specific milestone.
  
• The 8-bit music a.k.a Chiptune, is really fun and great to listen to and really brings back a nostalgic feeling.
  
• Artstyle is fantastic and a lot of detail has been put into the game making it more enjoyable to look at while slaughtering zombies.
  
• Multiple characters to choose from (3) and they all range in difficulty too which is a great way to spread difficulty in mu opinion, but they have their own art and moves which I think is a great thing to do. Furthermore, this allows for a different play style against the zombies and the bosses.
  
• There are 5 bosses spread out across the game, each of these could be found on every 10 floors which I believe is well spread out.
  
• There are various types of enemies that all look really good, this is fantastic and I hope to see more enemy variation in the future.
  
• Was very fast paced, although I do not like fast paced in FPS games. This was completely fine as this adds difficulty and challenge to the game.
  
• Settings allowed me to change audio to my liking. Also, allowed to change resolution, but supports 1920x1080 resolution which is always good.
  
• Allows to change language of the game (English and Russian), an improvement for this would be to add more languages to range to a larger audience of players.
  
• Shows controls in the settings to allow players to see what it is to help them understand how to play.
  
• The paintings on the walls of the skyscraper are awesome, saw a Pepe and a Slowpoke on them. Liking how Top Eben incorporated this into the game.
  
• In the latest update (0.1.3) there has been achievements added, this will be able to challenge players to get them all and pose a challenge to them.

Negatives:

• When I left the safe area through the first door, there were 3/4 zombies already spawned on me and I lost about 75% of my health which caused me to die momenteraly.

I really like this game and enjoyed the time there was no bugs, with the 20-30% of content, there is enough for me right now and hopefully soon more will be released to make the game to its full potential, but from what I see and have played, with some polishing. I see a really good game and I believe everyone should go and support Top Eben with this game and report bugs and things that could be improved upon.

Please comment what you liked/disliked about this review and I will use the feedback to help me with reviews in the future.

Thank you.

Total 💩. This game is an absolute mess that has apparently already been abandoned by its crummy developer. Says full controller support but my Xbox 360 pad has yet to work with this POS. Played with the keyboard and was aghast at just how horrible this game is.

Don’t expect this to ever leave Early Access and do not waste your time and money on this turd

Dear developer - Stop polluting Steam and video games in general with your crap. 🤮

Terrible controls

This is basically a game with countless number of zombies that you have to aimlessly kill. It's not that easy to play even for the easy level of the game. It has 3 characters with different abilities and more slots open for many others to come. The characters come with a difficulty level and by far, only two have Medium and one has Easy.

Now, about the game, the gameplay's all fine, music's okay, but the number of zombies that come at you and the damage they deal, is annoying. Most of the times, whenever a room is entered, a zombie is already at the door, eating wood off of the door, and when we appear, INSTANT DEATH. No warning, the zombie doesn't even give us time to move.

There isn't much to say about graphics, the game looks good and feels good.

There's not much to talk about these in-game. The game was fine.... well.. I think? ZOMBIES HAVE GOD MODE ACTIVATED. Merciless, brainless monsters with these powers need to be fixed.

The game is extremely fun but the annoying part is not being to get anywhere with it. The levels are hard even for the easiest option picked. This needs to be fixed.

And we'll end this short and sweet review with a sweet message:

Postat inițial de Ryan Mecum:

Blood is really warm, it's like drinking hot chocolate but with more screaming

If this game was slower I might enjoy it. There's no time to even understand what to do...

The rare nine is a ok game if it was 2-5 bucks but not even close to its 10$ price tag, it also is really repetitive and only has a few models also has no tutorial and took around 20 minutes to figure out of to use health items.

Pros

• 9 characters 3 at the start and 6 later on (Each character has 3 ablitys/ fighting moves)
  
• A lot of originality
  
  
  Neutral
  
  
• Has average graphics
  
  
  Cons
  
  
• Very Repetitive
  
• All zombies look the same
  
• luck based you have to choose a door to advance on each floor if you choose wrong zombies spawn which can easily jump and kill you
  
• Almost no story
  
• Charging full price for a game that is no where near compelete
  
• Not much content is mostly just a level replayed over and over again with slight differences
  
  
  In Conclusion there isn't much in this game to go on about it would be ok if it was around 3 bucks but at its current price tag i would never buy this with my real money
  
  

  This review was submitted for Gaming Until End, through the generous contribution of HellCow.