GoNNer has a really nice presentation with its graphics and simple gameplay explained by simply paying the game.
However, as all roguelike should fear, It cannot escape the clutches of repetition: the game is fun for a least two hours, then it becomes incredibly boring since there is no variation whatsoever between different stages ( the background and enemies of each segment are different but got similar attack patterns and there are very few types of them).
So, to summarize: graphics and design fun but it gets killed by poor level design, few enemy types and the claustrophobic repetition ... but still can be enjoyed if you are a fan of these kinds of games.
It's a pretty looking platformer that is 30 years backward in terms of gameplay. This is the kind of annoying style of platform that was prevalent during the 80s and early 90s, in the veins of early Castlevania and Ghost n' Goblins. It's basically a game that doesn't want you to have fun, by designing the controls and levels to put you at the most disadvantaged position. To be fair, the controls aren't as bad as Castlevania 1 or Ghost n' Goblins i.e. they are responsive but they aren't intuitive; it does what you want it to do, but you can't do much with it. And to be fair, this game is a ton less frustrating than Castlevania 1 or Ghost and Goblins.
Even so, we are in an era where platforms have evolved into something genuinely clever and interesting (such as Braid and Blackhole) and not resort to limit the amount of control a player has in the game. The way this game is made, it feels insulting to a gamer for example, if I wanted to play an annoying platform like Castlevania 1 or Ghost n' Goblins, I would play Castlevania 1 and Ghost n' Goblins instead of this.
GoNNER could've been something pretty, special and interesting, but instead, the torrid gameplay cheapens the experience. Despite my misgivings, GoNNER isn't a bad game, but it's no fun playing it.
AWESOME GAME! I can't praise it enough!
Excellent controls, excellent sound, excellent enemy design and animation...
Just a class act! And it's on LINUX, MAX and WINDOWS too! What are you waiting for?!
P.S. - I could not get the game to work on my XUbuntu laptop but finally figured out how.
Anyone having problems might want to try the -force-opengl switch from command line on Linux!
I do enjoy a good rogue-like but I don't think this game has been fully thought-through by the developers, there's some odd and conflicting design choices.
Get hit once and you loose your ammo, gear, and weapons - they all scatter individually on the ground, and you have to collect them all again to continue fighting.
During the levels this works OK. However, during boss fights this feels utterly impossible, and for all practical purposes - a single hit in a boss fight means more or less Game Over. I think loosing and having to collect your gear is poor game design. It only makes you irritated and is kind of pointless since you'll most likely die anyway trying to collect them all (so why bother having it).
There's also the very annoying thing of not being able to shoot diagonally, whilst the enemy creatures sure can do so. Maybe I haven't unlocked the right weapon yet, who knows with this game, it doesn't tell you anything.
Visually when there's lots of enemies attacking you, it's very difficult to distinguish your character from everything else on the screen, and especially after you get hit and loose all your gear, you can't really see where your own character is positioned ... but the attacking enemy sure can see you.
It's a confusing game. It wants to tell a story somehow, yet plays like a high-score/leaderboard game. To me it doesn't really work. It works in a roguelite but not in a roguelike, in my opinion.
Also, some people call it a Metroidvania, but should a procedurally-level-generated game even be called a Metroidvania? to me it shouldn't.
It's a pretty and appealing game visually speaking, and is surprisingly relaxing for a roguelike because of it, but unless you're into high-score/leaderboard games, I'm not sure this is for you.
Played it for a few minutes. Because the game refuses to spell anything out other than some controls, it is hard to feel incentivized to continue to play. Due to procedural generation, and lack of a user interface, it is hard to feel progression, or feel that you are growing as a player. Art is nice and minimalistic. It isn't clear that there are one hit kills, but it will feel like it.
If you want a straightforward gaming experience, look elsewhere.
The game runs on my laptop from 2012 with an Intel i5, so it should definitely be able to run on your own system.
Again, it is not very inspiring to play.
