Madshot is an acrobatic, fast-paced platformer shooter with rogue-lite elements that will have you battle against eldritch monsters from another dimension as you traverse through the ranks of increasingly difficult monstrosities of ever-changing lovecraftian landscape towards Cthulhu.
It Goes Deeper
Every stage (Encounter) is random together with the pathway/route of the map on the branching path you can choose for every run (akin to FTL). The theme of the Encounters and enemy types depends on the stage/level you’re in. One level consists of one whole map and a number of Encounters until after the first Boss fight. From there on the theme of the stage will move onto another section of the wretched world.
Use Your Wits
To progress and beat each Encounter, you would have to fight off various monsters and types of them until the portal to the next Encounter node opens. You have to rely on your wits and competence to fight off these tricky monsters with your weapon or anything in the area you can interact with. Using these items could be the difference between life or death as you may find yourself in need to reload and that enemy head could just be enough to stutter or kill an oncoming enemy, or the shield that was dropped by a dead enemy could block off an onslaught of enemy attacking you.
Pick Your Poison
Deciding the right Encounter (stage) to go on the map next is vital as the rewards from them will help you along the way. The branching paths on the map can either give you a Store where you can buy stuff from that will improve your current run or give you an Encounter where you have to defeat enemies before getting the reward of the room. Rewards can be Alteration, a perk that varies at improving you from increasing your attack rate for every kill streak to gaining health when you inflict critical damage to many others.
Other Possibilities
Other stage rewards could also be Gold, increase in Max Health, Enhancement for your Alteration and Aether, a currency that is kept when you die which you can use to buy and upgrade your Transmutations, a bonus for your whole run, depending on what you have equipped. Using the Aether you can upgrade more slots to carry more Transmutations. Which can help increase your starting health or increase your attack rate amongst others. You unlock more Transmutations by completing challenges called Rites.
There’s Always Someone Bigger
The variety of enemies, their attack types and the way they differ in look from each other is a positive note. As there’s a fair amount of variation, fights do not get stale. With the “Abominations” or boss fights helping to eradicate normal enemy encounters if it ever gets stale.
Final Thoughts
With the somewhat varied stages and fights you get with each Encounter, beautifully grotesque artstyle for the stages, enemies, good controls that isn’t complicated and the unknown possibilities of how each run will play out, diving deeper into what wretched horrors await you will always have you begging for one more damnation. Keep your eye out for Madshot to see what other unexplored corner of this eldritch world it will go to in its way to a full release.
Hailing from a small Island. Huge football fan. Drinks too much tea.
Survival, Roguelikes, Turn-based or Indie games in general are my go to genres but I like to dabble in all kinds of genres. I tend to have a soft spot for Shmups and Hidden Object Games once in a while.
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