Galactic Vault

I have very mixed feelings about this game. It’s definitely a better FPS than a roguelite. The gunplay feels good, the color identity is very well executed, and the fact that our weapon changes visually when we buy upgrades adds a nice touch to the game. My first impressions were very positive, but the longer I play, the more flaws and limitations I start to notice. 1. Melee upgrade in the attachment upgrade room I have to admit that I practically never use melee, because the range, speed, and damage don’t really encourage me to do so. Not to mention the melee upgrades themselves, which didn’t really add much to my runs. A separate room dedicated to melee upgrades would be a much better solution. 2. Shared reroll price Considering how slowly the economy builds up in this game, having a shared reroll cost between rooms makes rerolling become not really worth it after a short while, especially given the types of upgrades available (more on that later). Shop pricing is also too high. 3. Quality and quantity of upgrades I got the impression that the developers intentionally tried to prevent the player from becoming too overpowered, which in my opinion (especially on the hardest difficulty where hordes of enemies rush you) is a mistake for this type of game. Upgrades like reduced magazine size that grows with each enemy killed are interesting, but something like a small damage boost at the cost of not being able to move forward while shooting because it's pushing you backwards feels like overkill. If it could be used in some kind of Jetpack Joyride–style gameplay, it might actually increase the fun factor, but unfortunately that’s not the case. There are too few upgrades that allow a run to feel truly unique, and too many that simply increase damage or firerate by a percentage without adding any additional effects. In my opinion, the game should allow for more abstract combinations where, through the right upgrades, a player could turn a shotgun into something that essentially functions like a one-chamber sniper rifle. Yes, there is an upgrade that makes your weapon fire a shotgun-like spread instead of a single projectile, but from my experience that upgrade ruined runs more often than it defined them. 4. A wall of text that doesn’t say much Addon descriptions are very often presented as long blocks of text, but they rarely clearly explain what they actually do. What is Luck? What is weapon handling (especially considering that, by default, weapons have almost no recoil or bullet spread)? Why not add icons and provide a detailed description when hovering over a given upgrade? This would speed up the item selection process (fast-paced games need to maintain their tempo somehow). An additional option could be a question mark icon next to each stat in the menu that explains how it works. 5. Price to Quality This is the studio’s first game, and there are several oversights for example, enemies sometimes spawn in the hall the player is leaving, which causes them to get stuck behind the door and makes them impossible to kill (blocking the ability to complete the room). There’s also a default project Unity background scene visible in one of the rooms. In its current state, in terms of both content and quality, if the game had released as early access I probably wouldn’t have had an issue and would have had much higher expectations for its future, but since it’s a full release at full price, I’m approaching it much more critically. 10$ could be much better choice for many reasons. 6. Variety The activities within the rooms themselves are quite decent, capturing a point, shooting cargo, fighting waves, or clearing a room, but I definitely feel there’s a lack of greater variety in the rooms or their types. A few platforming elements, environmental hazards, or boss arenas could have more variants, because right now it feels like I’m doing the same thing and same places every time. The enemies are quite generic and don’t stand out much, aside from a few exceptions. That would be fine if the game (as I mentioned earlier) focused more on greater variety in each run by progression. I realy want this game to be "my next balatro" but there is just not enough content (or content is not that well exectued) to be there. I hope that devs will improve this game in future, I really do, it could be realy fun, but just not yet.