Entropy Survivors is a isometric bullet hell roguelike where you simultaneously control a powerful mech and a sharpshooting space frog.

The premise is you take on the role of two beings at once, trying to make your way through hordes of enemies before a final boss to move to the next level.

The game boasts weapon upgrade systems, a varied mech upgrade systems, challenges, creative abilities and the option to play solo, or 2-4 player with online co-op!

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, the developers have added in their own tab. Zoom functions, damage camera shake, enemy contrast, auto fire, button remapping, subtitle options. There is a great selection of options which caters to most people with accessibility issues which is great to see.

Gameplay

There is no doubt that since the introduction of Vampire Survivor, the genre has been flooded with clones and Survivor-likes trying to capture the feel and enjoyability of the original. To stand out from a crowd you will need to innovate pretty well to ensure a good chance of players interest.

So what makes Entropy Survivors different, well for instance, you control two things at once. A frog riding on top of a mecha, where both of them will be attacking the enemy. The frog will be your ranged combat, using a variety of guns to shot from up high, whilst the melee combat using a variety of hand based weapons, will be solely done by your mecha unit. Just like most survivor-like games, the formula sticks to the basics of surviving wave after wave of more enemies than you expected, with new variations and mini bosses coming at you every minute as you level up collecting the experience from their fallen corpses.

During these battles, you will also be picking up randomised power-ups, which aim to make each battle unique and engaging. Power-ups range split between mecha versions and frog versions with each providing some unique abilities that are a joy to combine when you use that particular attack. My favourite is the Hacking tool for the frog which turns enemies into allies, combined with the solar pulse for pushing away hordes for the mech. After a number of levels facing more and more enemies, it all accumulates with a big boss at the end for you to defeat, before moving back into the hub world and choosing another level to do the same thing again.

As mentioned previously, the combat is the main switch up here. The left and right sticks control your movement and where you aim, with your left trigger being the robot’s melee attacks, to keep away hordes close by. Pressing the right trigger slows down your movement, meaning hordes can close in, but allows your frog to fires the ranged weapon using the crosshairs. This balance of close quarter attacks and ranged ones works superbly and one I enjoyed being creative with. After any battle, you are brought back to your Hub world, where its here that you will use the experience, collectibles and money to truly make your play style your own.

Of course the spice of life is variety and its here that the developers have really let loose. There is a number of different mecha types that have their own unique class ability. From the Army type which lets loose a slow moving tank, to a samurai that unleashes a fog of war on the battlefield, to a Jet mecha that allows speedy ramming whilst being invulnerable. Each mecha can also be upgraded to their full potential allowing for a even more powerful class attack. The different mechs are unlocked by completing a variety of challenges, from using a specific weapon or killing a number of enemies with a particular power-up, pushing you to unlock as many as possible with each run.

This is then replicated with all the guns and melee weapon in terms of unlocking but also their own plethora of specific upgrades to choose from. You do this by using specific collectibles found on the battlefield. But wait, there’s more, as not only do these exist, but there is a huge skill tree to use which upgrades all elements regardless of choice.

These range from more health, quicker reloads and longer class abilities, higher crit chances and experience pick-up areas increased etc, making your characters truly powerful. Again that’s not all, remember the power-ups earlier, well you can also upgrade those, from better percentage chances to appear, to buffing those particular power-ups stats like damage and time of use.

It may seems to be quite complicated but after a few matches, you will soon be upgrading everything in a bid to become more powerful, survive the wave and move onto the next one. There are 5 worlds, each with about 5 levels to complete before you can complete the game. Now If you are playing solo, this will mean working your way through the game sequentially, however, thanks to the online co-op feature, you can jump into any players game regardless of level.

Why is this good, well for instance, say they are on world 3, level 3 and you are on world 2, you can still help them out, and if you both complete it, not only do you gain experience, but you also get the level completed in your own world. Thus making the progression a truly unique experience to yourself and encouraging you to allow others to join in on your own game.

Whilst solo is fun as hell, co-op is where its at, as seeing the combination of two to four different mechs class abilities and different power-up choices play out on the battlefield is just a joy to watch. I actually enjoyed jumping into randoms games, as we all worked together to survive and kill the boss at the end. What’s a nice little touch, is should you complete an end levels boss, that doesn’t fully complete the level.

The cheeky dev’s have put in a MVP element right after said big boss to see who truly is king of the battlefield! This fun mechanic doesn’t take anything from the other players, it’s just more of a boasting right.Fun here is off the charts and I can’t help myself returning for another wave of enemies just to see how far I get as you are always progressing regardless of failure.

Graphics

Visually this game looks crisp and bright, and packs a true eye watering punch when multiple abilities, enemy fire and environmental affects all kick off at the same time. I though there might be some huge slowdown when this would happen, but to my surprise it was a smooth as butter regardless of the number of effects happening on screen all at once.

Customization, seems to be the heart of this game, and whilst there is only 8 mechs classes to unlock, there is well over 40 skin variations to unlock to make each of those 8 mechs unique to you and you alone. Which is greatly appreciated when playing with others of the same type of mech. Being isometric, some games fall into having the camera away too far, but no issue here as you can choose to zoom in by a percentage to allow you to really see what’s going on. The UI is also really easy to see and gives a clear indication of what ability is recharging at any given moment which is a god send in the more hectic of battles.

Bright arrows showcasing of areas of interest or chests to grab hold of are easily distinguishable, combining this alongside bright neon collectibles like sword for your melee weapons and gun for you ranged ones popping up. The environment isn’t static either, with nodes randomly appearing about for you to stand over to activate which In turn will unleash a mini boss for you to defeat and claim a nice juicy power-up choice.

Whilst the hub itself is a purple techno world, the other planets levels on offer, range well enough to keep things truly fresh, from jungles, lava pits, canyons and marshes all visually different and equally challenging to navigate. Within these biomes are specific environmental power-ups that modify the landscape, like turning the land into one giant pinball machine, or allowing you to roll up all the enemies into one huge ball! Weapon designs is also nice and varied, with a collection of shotgun, mini-gun, flamer not including the spear, shield, boxing gloves of the melee set to choose from. Power-ups are truly unique in their visual range, as you can pick up garbage trucks, anomaly warps, bowling bowls and drones all pumping out some superb visual effects.

This would be all for nothing though if the enemy design and their attacking patterns are also not equally well done. Well again the developers have outdone themselves with a huge range of enemy variations based on their environmental stage, from a combination of bugs, mecha like drones, to huge hands, living rocks and samurai. Each keeps the games levels interesting and challenging which in turn pushes you into returning again and again to ensure victory!

Overall framerate and stability was superb in all of my gameplay, and I saw no tearing or odd visual pop-ins. The only thing I would say, is prepare you eyes when the battles get truly hectic when playing with others, as each mechs abilities compete to visually upstage each other.

Sound

The game is not voiced and prefers to use subtitles to provide context or move the story forward, which for this genre is perfectly suitable. Music wise the game prefers to utilise a background combination of musical instruments from bells to flutes, to electro synths music to engage the player and ramp the tension when required. This is there to elevate the fighting, but not overshadow the bulk of the sound, which is the games general sound effects.

Because the focus is solely based around the game sound effects, the developers have gone all out to ensure everything is turned up to eleven. From the variety of weapons and gadgets, scuttling of enemies across the battlefield, everything here has a meaty weightiness to it ensure the players senses are excited. When it does come to battling the enemies, bullets and fire power boom through the speakers, whilst area effect power-ups tear up the battlefield in an explosion of sound bites. The UI sounds are also equally impressive with their higher crisp tones ensuring that any point regardless of the battle you will always be aware of collecting a power-up.

My recommendation here would be a good quality soundbar to really blast out the death and carnage you are going to inflict.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Entropy Survivors is a " Must Own.

The price and fun factor alone of this game, truly puts this on my must buy category. And that’s not even taking into account the huge amount of customization, co-op engagement and visual aesthetics that make this a pleasure to play time after time again.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £8.39 or approx. $10 and depending on skill and patience would give you well over 20+ hours worth of gameplay. Once the story is complete however, there is still a huge amount of replay ability with challenges, skins, buffs and upgrades, not to mention co-op, to more than keep you going.

Entropy Survivors is such a fun game, that I can’t stop myself wanting to try another match in order to buff myself further or upgrade a particular weapon. For me at least, this has knocked off Vampire Survivors off the top spot and is now my survivors game of choice. Easy to get into and engaging to play, fingers crossed they add DLC to keep me from straying!

Entropy Survivors Review On Xbox