Talented

Alright. [i]Talented[/i] is an interesting and unique take on the Survivors/Bullet Hell/Roguelike genres, fusing aspects of each into a cool little pick up and play game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420775011 Initially, you will only have the Archer class unlocked, but after surviving twenty days, you will unlock the next class (Wizard), and so on. Additionally, as you play a class, you will level it up and unlock new challenge levels for said class as well. And on top of that, you will also unlock new abilities that will be added to the in-game upgrades. For such a minimalist game, there are actually a lot of gameplay mechanics to spruce things up. As far as the actual gameplay, rather than running around a map trying to survive endless waves of enemies on a timer, you will instead be standing at the center of the map, with four paths leading to you. North, South, East, West. From each path, enemies will keep pouring in until your clock runs out, or as it seems to me, until you kill a specific number of enemies. IDK. This isn't super clear to me. Either way though, you need to survive twenty nights of this. Each time you survive a night, you will be given upgrade points and sent to an upgrade tree, where you can link upgrades. Most will be simple buffs, but at certain intervals, more powerful upgrades and even special abilities will unlock. You begin with one special ability, but you can end up with up to four in a full run. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3405020138 For enemies, their attacks are bump attacks. For you, your attacks are ranged attacks and abilities. Keeping up with escalating enemy numbers, speed, and attacks will eventually devolve into a degree of key mashing. WASD are your attack keys; 1,2,3,4 are your special ability keys. Depending on your class and attack speed, you will almost certainly be using both hands in addition to some degree of key mashing. I didn't mention it before, but in between nights when you are given the opportunity to upgrade stuff, your enemies also receive a couple upgrades, Which increases the difficulty as you progress through the nights. Also, while you are fighting, and separate from your class level ups, you will level up during a run as well. The game is set up to where you will be constantly both upgrading your classes while also unlocking new classes, abilities, and difficulties, and while there are definitely plenty of things I have yet to see in the game, I'd say that is pretty much the gameplay loop. It's a fun game that you can easily pick up and play for twenty or thirty minutes here and there or enjoy a longer session. I don't think it would be well suited to gamepad or Steam Deck due to the faster pacing necessary with the actual command prompts. I just don't see you both mashing buttons and mashing the D-Pad or what have you. So, my advice is to really just buy this with the expectation of playing with k/m exclusively. I'm sure somebody will have sorted out a good gamepad control layout, but I think it's gonna be inaccessible for most people, played that way. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420775003 Anyway, Talented is a game priced as its contemporaries are priced, and $3.99 retail is going to get you a ♥♥♥♥ ton of gameplay hours if you want them. I think it is well worth the asking price. And personally, I intend to pick this game up here and there to kill some time between longer gaming adventures. Definitely worth a look. [b]I received this license via our IndieGems Curator program.[/b] [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]

So, first time playing this within the first hour I thought it was a bargain. Then I started to unlock additional combos and realized that this would have been something i'd have paid 3-4x for. It's not like the generic survivors games, with the typical same upgrades - each class has multiple interesting, innovative, and creative upgrades you can choose to dramatically change the playstyle and game experience. I'm 12 hours in and feeling like I haven't even scratched the surface. Worth the buy. If you're not convinced its worth the money, you can refund it - but within the first hour you'll know what I do, that this is a time sink I'll have trouble peeling myself away from. If you like roguelikes/build creation/new and innovative ideas, this is the best $4 you'll spend this year.

It's a really fun game and I would play it more but I ain't buying the coming DLC if the dev does not add a Save and Exit mid run basic ass feature... Buyer beware: a run could take up an hour or so to finish.