Vampire Survivors

The part of my brain that enjoys roguelikes has been fried from over-stimulation, leaving me feeling like I just played the closest thing that exists to a gambling-less slot machine. The power curve is very unsatisfying. Most runs take about ten minutes to ramp up, give you 3-4 minutes of feeling strong, and then fill the screen with so much crap you may as well be looking at a Jackson Pollock. For all of this, the gameplay is minimal. There's a point in pretty much every run where you no longer need to dodge and can just afk, and it happens earlier than it should. I also find there's very little run variety. Items for the most part do very similar things with the occasional dud and gamebreaker thrown in, and most characters play as carbon copies of one another that feel arbitrarily nerfed/buffed based on their starting stats and items. There are some unique gimmick characters like Babi Onna who only fires her weapons while moving, but these are maybe like 4 characters in a cast of dozens. As it is however, this straddles a very awkward space where it's too involved to be an afk/clicker type game, and too much of a brainless flashy colours number-go-up game to lean more into its roguelike, compendium unlocking elements. It's cheap and it'll flood you with enough sensory input that for a while you can forget that you're going to die one day. At a similar price point, I'd rather just drink a beer and watch TV instead.