Haste

The negative reviews seem really nitpicky. What this does it does it really really well and it's very fun and satisfying. Not many games like it. I'm not left wanting after playing it.

Is this game worth playing? Yes. Devs found an amazing core gameplay loop. I think you should play this game purely for the core loop. I keep coming back to this game to run fast. Is this game flawed? Also yes. There are so many flaws. A lot of the game feels like it was put together purely to have a "complete game" built around this core loop, but not in a way that necessarily enhances the experience. The story is... there I guess; the permanent upgrades are so expensive you ask why bother; the roguelite elements are fine, though some item pickups are much more interesting than others and a handful feel essential so I'd rather I could collect items and make a build going in. The random terrain generation works great most of the time and keeps each level new, but on the occasions where it's flawed, it's really flawed, and you notice it. I would have liked to see more tailored level design in the main story. Where the design is deliberate though, it's a bit hit-or-miss. The final boss is difficult in a frustrating, rather than fun way and it seems to require a specific special equip (cowl) to be beatable. But for all of the game's flaws it's still very fun and worth picking up. I hope they improve on the experience and make a Haste 2.

Haste is a good game, but it does outstay its welcome after a while. It feels very good to play, super fast and smooth, but I don't feel like the rogue elements work too well in this game. It's fun to upgrade things during a run, of course, get various upgrades and whatnot, but I feel like the perma upgrades are very lame. Like, the game has 10 Shards (worlds) that you can go through, and after doing like two Shards, I can afford one perma upgrade. That's like a 5th of the game for one upgrade. Feels way too expensive. That said, I love the artstyle and music. Many fun character designs here and I like the different character interactions. The music is nice, upbeat and flows very nicely, complimenting the gameplay. Always feels great when you're going fast. There also isn't much to the gameplay, but that's kind of the point: just go as fast as you can. That said, bosses are very easy and there's not much to them. Out of all the bosses, there was really only one I liked. Either way, it's a fun game with very satisfying gameplay. Nice game to play between bigger titles!