STRAFE: Gold Edition

Got 2 corrupt saves in 20 hours of gametime. First time after 10 hours, second time after 20.... Happy i bought it on sale. No recommendation. As long you don't mind wasting time.

Fun game until you start replaying the same three levels over and over. It doesn't matter how many enemies get tossed into the first few levels, how varied the rooms can be, it just becomes repetitive and unmemorable and a proper game, with hand-crafted levels, will always be superior. Rogue-lites and proc-gen games are ultimately a diversion, not a pursuit.

This game lived up to the promise of being difficult. I enjoyed my 90's shooters and I don't ever recall running in to a game quite this challenging. If you enjoy the challenge and facing perma-death then this is probably for you. If you enjoy making steady progress in a game and seeing it through to completion you may be infuriated in a keyboard-thrown-through-your-wall type of way. The soundtrack is pretty awesome as well and definitely worth the upgrade to the millennium edition.

In its current state it isn't perfect, but it's seriously fun and addicting. I can't wait to see what they add in, or refine as time goes on with this game!

I was quite excited by Strafe when I first saw it, but the actual game falls far short of the mark. The game's performance (particularly when loading the next level) is bad. I've encountered a number of bugs including a few game breaking ones (I fell through the floor on level 8 and was then teleported inside a monster closet with no way out, forcing me to exit to the menu). Even when Strafe runs well, it gets repetitive really fast. You only have one of three weapons (shotgun, machine gun, rail gun); all other weapons are limited use pickups. The enemy variety is lacking in the early levels and, thanks to a lack of any progression mechanic between runs, you will be playing these early levels every single time. Worst, you can't get to the vendor to buy items until you have passed the first three levels again. Every run feels exactly the same until you reach levels 4-6. Strafe fails in the worst way a shooter can fail; because of it's half-hearted rogue-lite mechanics, Strafe is DULL.