Can confirm the balancing is whack. Permanent upgrades are also basically useless (very miniscule difference for a high price)

There's no point where you're overpowered which is the most fun part in these types of games

Idk, when i got super mario 2 on the nintendo, i never wondered if i'd still play super mario 2 in 6 years.

I have never played the original DRG, but I really enjoyed the free beta or whatever that they had for Survivor last year, and having even more fun now with the early access build! I have not had this much fun with this type of game since Brotato.

If it's done well, it's an excellent process. It lets smaller studios start getting paid earlier, which helps significantly. It also lets them establish a strong feedback loop with their player base.

Factorio is an excellent example. The player base provided instant feedback on the gameplay, as they brought in more features. They also weren't afraid to change things that didn't quite work as well as planned. It also helped guide where to focus efficiency efforts.

Unfortunately, a number of big companies have jumped on the bandwagon. They don't quite get what early access is good for, and just use it as an excuse for bugs, as well as to drum up cheap advertising.

Depends on the developer tbh.

I dislike it too, but not always. It's usually dependent on how long they start in EA. If you read their "how long will this be in EA" and they say anything more than 1 year, or they make vague statements that don't give you a time scale, it's almost always a pass from me.

Genre also matters. Roguelites are great EA games since normally they just flesh out the item pool. Crypt of the Necrodancer was great in EA. Survival games tend to stay in EA forever.

You have to know what you're buying into. It's not a finished game.

I've been like that for years now. You do not need it. Fuck FOMO.

The only times I didn't wait were games that had millions already, like Valheim, V Rising. And while they were pretty polished honestly, I hate that I have to wait years for updates. Don't get me started on Project Zomboid's abuse of the early access title.

The one time I bought a Early access that was 100% absolutely worth it was Against the Storm. They made Early access like a conversation between player and dev. Baldurs Gate 3's early access (for like two years straight) was also like this!

But the 10 other times I did early access, it was a major headache and not worth it. Do it because you WANT to help the dev. Don't do it if you just want to play something.

Especially since there's so many polished games out now.

The original is 4p and I think I would need this one to be as well.

I’ve played a ton of vampire survivor / brotato clones.

This one is interesting because it doesn’t last forever and you’ve gotta extract in time but that also limits what kinda builds you can do. I got all my characters to about level 15 or so and called it there.

It doesn’t feel great to find a really good combo but have to restart before you can do it all over again.

Also a lot of the tasks are like “get this weapon to rank 18” but the game is basically over by then so you’ve gotta put everything into that one weapon. All of that is fine but you’ve practically gotta do it for all the weapons and it gets old fast.

The original is not a roguelike, although it has some elements in common. You go into a procedurally-generated series of caves in a team of 1-4, shoot a bunch of bugs, mine a bunch of rocks, and complete the mission and return to base after ~30 minutes. You can use what you got in the mission to buy permanent upgrades for the four classes. The only penalty to dying and failing the mission is that you don't get much of a reward from that specific mission