Bullet-hell games have been around since 1993 with Batsugun. In this shooter micro-genre, your main objective is to dodge dense waves of projectiles while shooting back at various enemies. It is extremely hectic and designed to stress the player out, but there is a bizarre art to it. It can be oddly beautiful and represents wonderful game design when done right. The genre has gained immense popularity in recent years, with titles like Returnal and Saros pushing it into the mainstream—both developed by Housemarque and published by PlayStation.
Kickstone Studio (a Chilean team, which I think is the coolest thing ever) is the latest developer to tackle this niche genre with MineGeon: Renegades! I have spent quite a bit of time with the game so far, and it has been pretty fun for the most part. Having poured countless hours into roguelites and bullet hells over the years, both have slowly become some of my favorite genres. Naturally, when I got the chance to check out a new entry, I jumped right in!
Gameplay:
When you start MineGeon: Renegades, you are met with a beautiful pixel-art opening reminiscent of something out of Guardians of the Galaxy, which I really liked. You have four characters to choose from here that play differently, but it feels like the game never wants you to know that you can change characters. I mostly played the gunslinger class here, as he felt like the one to do the most damage from far away. I just really wish it were clearer to the player that the characters you choose from the start are playable later on, instead of finding out two hours in!
The Tank class here, Marshall, can just become stronger and punch things, which feels pretty typical for a tank. The Gunslinger, Trevor, can shoot a lot of bullets at once to damage things in rapid succession. Lastly, you have the support or engineer character, Ari, who focuses on gadgets and support! This is a good range of abilities and different playstyles, letting players approach encounters the way they want to.
Gameplay is the most important part of a game like this. MineGeon: Renegades is most similar to Enter the Gungeon. That isn't a bad thing; in fact, I think it is a very good thing. Enter the Gungeon was a popular indie bullet-hell game released in 2016 and developed by Dodge Roll. The game consists of bullet-hell elements and harder levels the more you play, requiring you to roll and dodge through enemy bullets. The only issue, though, is that every run feels a bit too similar in MineGeon: Renegades. I wish each attempt felt distinct enough to keep me fully engaged, though the core gameplay was still enough to keep me playing at times.
The reason I harp on the variety of runs is that roguelites are defined by them. Individual runs need to feel different enough that the player wants to keep coming back, never knowing quite what to expect!
MineGeon: Renegades is also fairly typical in how it lays out its stages. Players are presented with a map where you can explore different rooms to restore health, pick up new weapons, and eventually challenge a boss. This structure works just as well here as it does in every other game. It is straightforward, which I appreciated given that some of the other mechanics were less clear.
Gunplay feels pretty limited for the most part. By that, I mean there doesn't feel like a wide variety of weapons, which is a crucial element for a game like this. I kept going back to the assault rifle, as it felt like the most balanced, all-around approach to combat. I just wished there were more weapon variety right up front. You can acquire special types of weapons, but they felt a bit too difficult to obtain. There is a sniper rifle, but my personal approach to these games relies on staying at short-to-medium range—that felt like the only reliable way for me to survive these runs!
You can also acquire passive items, such as the "orbital strikers" shown below. These items orbit your character and deal damage to surrounding enemies. They can be upgraded as well; while that process wasn't entirely self-explanatory, having a cool passive item dealing extra damage was a welcome touch!
Another core component of the game that isn’t explained upfront is mining. Yeah, you heard me right: MINING. Mining is the main way you upgrade various elements in the game, but once again, the game never really tells you how it works. The more you play and return to your ship, the more things start to click into place, though it certainly would have helped if the game were clearer earlier on.
You can also use the resources gathered throughout each run to upgrade your home base (which is your spaceship), but I never felt a strong incentive to do so. This could have been the coolest system in the game if it had been fleshed out more and properly explained to the player.
Inventory management was another pain point. I kept running out of space in my inventory—and while you can upgrade your capacity, it still felt like a hassle given how heavily the game encourages you to collect resources scattered across each level. You can also upgrade your pickaxe to mine faster and deal more damage to enemies. However, I rarely found myself swinging a pickaxe at enemies when I had guns at my disposal!
The core loop of dropping in, gathering different elements, and making it out alive has the potential for a fantastic gameplay system. Unfortunately, in its current state, it just doesn't feel that satisfying.
Should you play it?
MineGeon: Renegades is an attempt at a very popular genre, clearly made by developers who are familiar with it and genuinely love it. The game almost lands the spaceship, but it ultimately falls flat because of its weak onboarding. If mechanics were explained to the player directly, the overall experience might land better than it does. It is filled with beautiful pixel art, wonderful music, and fun characters. If you enjoy bullet-hell games, I could recommend giving it a shot—though perhaps wait until you have nothing else in your backlog to play!
VERDICT: Maybe
Reviewed on PC
Review Copy was Provided
Available On: PC
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