Octogeddon

[thepaulhoey]

This is George "Plants V Zombies" Fan's latest game, it came out on Steam the other day.

 

Overall I'm enjoying it, the art is lovely, the soundtrack is incredibly catchy and fun and the gameplay is interesting and challenging without being too frustrating. I haven't completed it yet, it's not a typical level by level affair in that if you lose all 3 lives you're at the start of the game again and creating your octopus from scratch again. I'm also not going to call it a roguelight because it isn't really. I'm mixed on this and I think I'd have preferred a level by level affair where I create my octopus before each level. My main reason is that playing the earlier levels can get incredibly boring, going from a 6 tentacle wrecking machine taking on a screenful of enemies to a 2 tentacle rubbish octopus taking out rubbish enemies is a big change in pace. There's also a bit of a fear to experiment more as well, as decisions are something you have to stick with for this play through. OK you can replace what's on a tentacle but if you just spent 900 coins on something you don't want to replace it one level later, there's no good way to try out an upgrade. In PvZ for instance if you buy something you find out in 2 minutes it's useless on this level and you can try again. Another issue I'm having is that I'm in the middle of a run with really bad choices(the game gives you 3 random upgrades you can buy between each level), 5 levels in I still hadn't gotten anything that could fire a projectile and it just made things really tough. That's not to mention the upgrades I unlocked using shells that I'm yet to see. I just quit now because (item/enemy spoiler)

I had an option to buy the angler fish about 4 levels ago when there was no invisible enemies, haven't had a chance since and I'm on my second level with invisible enemies now so it's incredibly difficult. I really don't think you should have to buy a useless upgrade levels before it's needed for fear you won't be able to buy it again.

. Honestly I feel like I'm playing a bonus mode rather than a polished campaign, I think a traditional 25 or so levels with you building your octopus before each one would work better to have you learn about the upgrades and level, then have this go from start to the end with random upgrades thing be a bonus mode.

 

It still gets a recommendation from me, but I think there's a slightly better game hidden in there.