▲ Recommended
3 hrs
ADHD: The game
The game is... too easy/fast: currencies appear, they get utilized for 3-5 minutes, then they're not needed anymore. At least the main currency ZEK stays until the end, but at some point it gets an absurd profit spike.
About currencies: each of them is attached to a mechanic of their own with their own gimmick. They're quite varied, but most of them dont stick around for too long. 5-10 minutes and they're obsolete. It's an interesting concept to diverse from simple crystal spam for 2 hours that somehow didnt get stale throughout my playtime. I can only wish for upgrade refunding, since in some cases some upgrades are getting in the way of getting bigger profits (spamming short links to generate more crystals, but then laser spawns in and removes some of them)
The most important part, the progression, feels like a roller coaster. The progression spikes are here and there: at the start when you get to max out your basic control upgrades in just 2-3 rounds, then after maxing out everything with a newly unlocked currency (EGO), then getting to a specific upgrade through trial & error which gives you x1000 to ZEK gains (greedy god). Also some of the upgrades have their costs... ADAPT TO YOUR CURRENT BALANCE. If you'll ignore some of the upgrades for some time - it'll jump right to where your cash stacks are sitting at, from 100K to 10B, in a single purchase. ADHD Enforcement alright XD
Funny how a game with 3 sets of colorblind accessibility options doesnt have a mid-round pause menu. Which also means no "end round early" option. While you decide the time limit yourself - you lose the ability to fine tune it mid-game since slider represents "% of your current ZEK" instead of "% of maximum possible time you can get", so slider moves 1 pixel from the most-left position = +30 seconds. Plus some of the upgrades extend the minimum time limit and some extend the timer while playing, so its gonna be ~30-50 seconds if not carefully AVOIDING the upgrades (which you cant toggle off, that would be very welcome).
small annoyances:
- after round ends - upgrade tree camera defaults to its pre-set zoom/position, just stay where you were how you were, damn it
- portal config slider's hitbox is way too large, 3.5 notches big
- "synthetic digestion" tutorial popup appeared at least 4 times, idk what finally got rid of it
- parasites sometimes get completely immune to clicks, they just stand there and after some time run off
- audio gets ♥♥♥♥'y when connecting a lot of crystals per second. It would've been funny at end-game, but it happens consistently on mid-game already. I think demo had an issue, guess dev didnt find a way to fix it
- lags hard when a lot of EAT's appear from a long chain/on end-game upgrade tree. I dropped from 120 fps to 45
- after finishing the game
[list] - background has a weird edge on the left
- crystals dont respawn, game restart fixed it
[*]"new game" should have a confirmation prompt
[*]2 achievements are seemingly broken? "Unfortunate greed" and "Just one more link", im trying to do what they say, im sure i did it during my playthrough as well, but they dont trigger, idk, might be some hidden condition i guess
[/list]
Alternate title: "Game about feeding a black hole" if it was better.
It's a nice little something to get distracted by with diverse mechanics, interesting visuals and game-breaking sounds xd. It needs more polish, but since game just released - im sure it'll be fine.
Also price without discount might be too high for it, i'd advise to get on sale.
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