Loopmanceris one of the latest in the lineup of roguelite and roguelike games. It puts its own twist on the formula by setting itself in a cyberpunk world. For the most part, the game’s impressive style and visuals carry it, along with the fluid combat and electrifying action. However, in its own genre,Loopmancermight find it difficult to carve its spot amongthe roguelike/roguelite greats.
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It has quite a number of issues, both technical and fundamental, which prevent it from becoming as memorable as the genre heavyweights. A lot ofLoopmancer’s problems revolve around its core gameplay. This cyberpunk side-scroller roguelite has some quirks that a lot of players might want to watch out for before they play the game.
7Less Artificial Difficulty
Artificial difficulty has always been a constant design shortcoming for a lot of video games. Sadly,Loopmanceris no exception here. It incorporates a lot of metrics that only increase enemies' HP bars or armor, or damage numbers as the player’s progression increases.
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Loopmancer’s collection of cybernetic criminals, mechs, and other enemies just don’t offer enough variety or synergy with one another to provide players with creative new challenges. More enemies or enemy moves and enemy types would have spiced up the challenge without a need for bumping up numbers.
6More Varied Weapon Playstyles
In addition to the lack ofcreative varietiesin enemies forLoopmancer, weapons also notably suffer when it comes to nuance. There are a lot of melee weapons inLoopmancerand about a dozen unique guns, but most of them play out the same. Weapons typically function like slashing weapons, while guns vary usually only in range.
Their differences are not drastic enough to increase replayability. This is one game that would have benefitted from a lot of RPG elements to shake up its playstyles and provide players with more meaningful choices of gameplay. Simple adjustments in value or new animations andweapon modelsmight be necessary here for some players.
5More Distinguishable Contrast For Enemies
Loopmancer’s style is certainly one of the most jaw-dropping cyberpunk backdrops in gaming, but even that can be detrimental to the user experience. There are lots of lights and warm colors in the game and they don’t exactly do a good job of setting the enemies apart. The enemies blend in too well with the background here, making some of their fast attacks difficult to see.
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Some projectiles also might as well be invisible thanks to the rather loud and busy background. A better color-coding or contrast blending for enemies and their attacks would have alleviated such an unneeded gameplay hurdle. In turn, it could result in less frequent or frustrating deaths.
4Better Weapon & Item Balancing
As mentioned before, there are many weapons inLoopmancer, but a lot of them just contribute to the illusion of choice.Certain weaponsare too overpowered for any other selections to matter. In other games, that wouldn’t have been too much of an issue, butLoopmanceris quite a difficult roguelite.
Guns also have a problem where the ones with a shorter range virtually have no advantage over the ones with a longer range, so it doesn’t make sense to pick the former. Over time,Loopmancer’s balancing issues will certainly be ironed out; players probably won’t have to worry about this too much.
3More Engaging Dialog & Story
One of the most common complaints forLoopmanceris that it’s a little too talkative for a roguelite game. There’s too much dialog in the game, but the additional issue with that dialog is that a lot of players don’t find it engaging. There are some interesting concepts or characters inLoopmancerto make the roguelite context more plausible, but a lot of other games in the genre have already depicted wittier or moreengaging stories.
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There’s also this issue with enemy dialog where the f-bomb was dropped way too much to the point where it becomes more juvenile than crass. All in all,the dialogand story could have been handled better, along with enemy reactions, to make them seem less like a caricature.
2More Animations
Despite the fluid and fast-paced action inLoopmancer, it can show a lack of polish in certain areas, particularly detailed animations. Some animations, such as throwing grenades, seem to lack certain movements that make the character’s action more believable. It also doesn’t just apply to players but also enemies. This makes some of their attacks harder to read, and even harder to dodge.
Some player animations also lack i-frames, much to the player base’s frustration. The end-step of grappling, for example, doesn’t offer split-second invincibility frames, letting players get attacked by enemies, thus resulting in rather unfair deaths, especially for melee builds. So apart from the additional attention to detail when it comes to animations, the game could really use a more balanced i-frame system.
1More Substance, Less Shine
For all its glitter, there’s really not much gold inLoopmancer’s environment. It’s a lot less interactive than its design implies. The bright and atmospheric cyberpunk backdrop is mostly just for show (and to make seeing attacks or enemies a bit difficult). There are exploding barrels or environmental hazards, but a lot of the pretty designs are left unexplored.
Ultimately, this can make the game feel a bit shallow or repetitive. Players don’t get a lot of exploration variety here compared to other roguelike or roguelite games. The developers could have at least done something more intuitive with itsripe cyberpunkenvironment in order to provide more avenues for players apart from just listening to dialog or getting railroaded between action sequences.
Loopmanceris available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, GeForce Now, and Microsoft Windows.
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