izigame.me

So, what I expected going in was a fairly standard coop optional survival crafting game. What I got was a relatively short linear adventure game. I beat the main campaign in about 12 hours the first playthrough, but that included a lot of running around aimlessly and trying to figure out how to get some collectibles. Overall, the movement feels good, the shooting is better than you'd expect for a projectile shooting pistol in a game that doesn't completely revolve around shooting mechanics, and the story is relatively basic but interesting if you're willing to go out of your way to read the data entries and hunt out the optional stuff. The art isn't going to blow anybody away but it looks nice enough and has some cool vistas, and the comedy lands just often enough for the over the top satire (if you think about the stuff on TV from the first Robocop movie you're in the right ballpark) to be mostly charming instead of obnoxious like it very well could have been. I also really think the music is excellent, as the main theme lends an energy to combat that would otherwise not be particularly present.

I think the game suffers from being pretty small, as the achievement for beating the game in under 4 hours is extremely doable if you vaguely remember where stuff is. It's a barebones game in a lot of ways and very little of the fun is emergent, so a second playthrough is going to feel stale basically immediately. It's also pretty limited in what you can do in combat, with most encounters being trivialized by having the bile throwable that locks enemies in place or the electric fruit that stuns them, if they aren't encounters you can win in a couple shots anyway.

The DLC is okay, but if you're expecting a lot out of it you'll be disappointed. It felt about 2/3 the size of any given base game area and didn't have a whole lot new to do, and while the upgrades are nice (especially the infinite stamina) they don't do enough to make me consider trying the game again with them unlocked.

Overall I'd recommend the game if you want something to kill a weekend with or to have a fun romp with a buddy in the evening, but not if you want a singleplayer game that you'll be able to stick with for a while.