Game: Danger Gazers
Genre: Action, Shooter, Shoot-‘Em-Up, Top-Down, Roguelike
System: Nintendo Switch, Steam
Developer | Publisher: ShotX Studio | Ultimate Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $9.99 | UK £ n.a. | EU n.a.
Release Date: October 5th, 2020
Review code used with many thanks to Ultimate Games
My first foray into a genre I’m not familiar with and I’m glad I picked this game. As a roguelike fan, it really is fun. Welcome to Danger Gazers, a post-apocalyptic, top-down shooter.
In my travels through the maps, as pictured above, I’ve come across bandits, cute companions and the elderly dead. Each path has it’s pros and cons. For example, I’m assuming the Random nodes will eventually give me something good, just got to keep trying.
The icons are quite easy to recognise, the skulls are obviously enemies. The yellow building icon is the Shop, the spinning top is Baraban, a gambling table. There are also caves, elderly dead, elite enemies, bosses, stash and companion nodes to explore.
Your Choice of Poison
Picking which node to move to on the map is difficult. If you pick the wrong one, you might end up dead, losing ammo, losing health or even losing your gun. Learning which nodes use shards, which you gain by killing things in the enemy maps, will help in the long run. Wasting a node because you don’t know what it does, continuously, is a bad thing. I had to write down the prices of things so I didn’t keep messing up.
You get to start by choosing one of the three unlocked characters to start. I honestly don’t know how I unlocked Mr Smooth on the left. Each character has their own pros and cons, as you can see with Dash. His bullet speed is higher, but his pickup radius is smaller. So, you get the trade off of speed versus safety. Since sometimes you’ll need to run up close to enemies to pick up fallen loot.
Each character has it’s own trade off, I’ve gotten used to running with Mr Smooth, aka Shield, who has higher max ammo for your secondary weapon. And to be honest, I don’t know what his con really does, it simply says Lower Companion R. R. so I’m not losing anything with him it would seem, to me anyway.
Replayability Rules
Each area map, levels, events and loot are randomly generated to keep the experience fresh each time. Which makes it fantastic to keep playing. Other roguelikes will offer more story, or more upgrades etc, but ShotX Studio have managed to hand us a simple but effective roguelike in Danger Gazers, and I, for one, am really enjoying it.
I’ve managed to unlock one new relic so far, as we appear to start with one for Hard Mode already unlocked, in case you find it too easy. The relic I’ve found will give my character +1HP, which is going to be really handy. Unlocking more is going to be fun, finding out what else we can play around with.
Together with Friends
This game also has co-op. I hope my friends think about this one, it looks like it will be really fun to play with others. It’s hectic and makes me nervous to play, but that’s probably because I’m not good at shooting games. I find using the right stick awkward to aim with, but I’m slowly getting used to it.
All in all, I’d say Danger Gazers is worth trying. For only $9.99, it’s a cheap, fun thrill, especially if you can convince your friends to join you.
Check out their website here
Final Verdict: I Like It 