izigame.me

I really wanted to like this game. It caught my attention when it released about a year ago, but I held off based on some of the reviews I read. After a year of patches, a significant 75% discount led me to finally try out Dust & Neon today, and I'm sad to say I've had a very mixed experience.
Let's start with the good: when you're in the thick of combat, dodging for cover, blasting at enemies, and frantically reloading, the game feels utterly fantastic. There is no denying that the core gameplay of Dust & Neon is simply FUN -- it genuinely gives the best twin-stick shooters around a run for their money in terms of game feel and handling. The combat toes a perfect line between methodical elimination and explosive termination, with the pace ready to switch on a dime, and excellent sound design makes shooting, swapping, and reloading guns feel impactful. The pistol/shotgun/rifle trifecta works well, providing you with just the tools you need in any combat situation, and a variable accuracy system urges you to be deliberate with your shooting when you really need to land those crucial shots. The game also looks fantastic -- it's maybe not the most original, but the Borderlands-esque aesthetic is crisp and clean, serving the setting well.
Now let's touch on the bad: literally everything else. The music during missions, as far as I can tell, is a SINGLE generic western track. The metaprogression is utterly abysmal -- an endless sea of +5% this, +5% that, pushed slowly upward by a Skinneresque drip-feed of currency. Not once did unlocking anything actually feel significant or interesting. The game also calls itself a roguelite, but it has none of the cool itemization, buildcraft, or synergy systems the genre has come to be known for. The only 'upgrades' to be had are temporary stat modifiers that last for a single mission (or two, if you're really lucky). They're so boring I never bothered to purchase a single one --more +5% XYZ, whoopee. The biggest letdown of all of this, though, is the guns: despite leaning into procedurally generated firearms, every single weapon in a given class feels EXACTLY The same. Different manufacturers, affixes, and traits do little more than tweak stat numbers on the guns. There was a huge opportunity to take inspiration from games like Borderlands, Gungeon, and Voidigo to create cool and unique guns, but every weapon, be it common or legendary, does absolutely nothing to change gameplay. They're indistinguishable from one another.
There IS an excellent core at the heart of Dust & Neon. I cannot deny that there are moments of brilliance during combat and a pristine sense of polish to the overall controls and gunplay. The sad truth, though, is that you will see everything the game has to offer within 15 minutes of playtime. All of the systems built onto the core combat are uninspired, sluggish, and banal, and that's a damn shame considering how fun the combat really is. I would gleefully welcome a Dust & Neon 2, overhauled to be a true roguelite or a bespoke, hand-crafted campaign instead of the sad, weird middle ground the current mission system finds itself in. Until then, though, we only have Dust & Neon 1, and it's sadly not very good.
I simply cannot recommend the game for the full $20 retail price. I purchased the game for $5, and I don't feel bad about that, but I would avoid this game unless it's on sale for 50% or more -- and only if you're really interested in it. I may or may not revisit this for a mission or two here and there, but, after beating the second boss, I really have no urge to keep playing. Dust & Neon absolutely has its high moments, but they're too few and far between to spend that much time chasing. There is an absolute wealth of excellent twin-stick shooters and roguelites out there -- in the current landscape, Dust & Neon simply doesn't cut it.