It's fair to say that neon has become pretty played out as an indie aesthetic in recent years. That sentiment is perfectly exemplified by Neon Abyss, a new roguelike shooter from Veewo Games and Team17. What is otherwise a serviceable mixture of The Binding of Isaac 's structure and Hotline Miami's color palate refuses to take on any creative identity other than a generalized pop-culture vibe that ultimately drags a promising title down.
Of all its inspirations, Neon Abyss cribs from The Binding of Isaac the most. It has the same dungeon structure, with small arenas, treasure rooms, and various passageways blocked off by stone walls and locked doors. Pickups include bombs, keys, familiars, and power-up items that stack to give characters crazy damage output by the end of a run. Completing a run and conquering the final boss doesn't mean the end credits, it just means unlocking a deeper, harder challenge the next time through.
Many games have tried to copy this formula in the past, and Neon Abyss nails it more than most. It's only when gameplay strays away from what's been proven in the genre already that things start to fall apart. Instead of completing little challenges throughout a run to expand the item pool, players get a boss currency that they can spend on a standard upgrade tree. It's a style that promotes grinding over thoughtful exploration. The first few encounters with a new boss or a harder difficulty only serve as practice runs, and roguelikes are at their best when every run counts.
This wouldn't be so much of a problem if Neon Abyss had more variety to its randomized dungeons. 90% of these rooms are the same nondescript stone chambers with the same bit of background graffiti and handful of enemies. More types of enemies do emerge as the playtime stacks up, but the levels never really change. In the middle of an intense run, it's easy to forget how many levels are left, which is a vital tool in other games for deciding whether it's worth taking on a combat arena or just challenging the boss early.
Items face a similar variety issue, even if their function ends up working out in the end. Only a small percentage of power-ups offer anything interesting beyond an extra jump, an extra heart piece, or the chance to avoid damage. Most are stat boosts, including a lot of damage buffs. While they do create a satisfying ramp of power, there's never a sense that your gameplay truly changes because of the powers these items grant. Even on harder difficulties, there's no strategy to defeating most enemies in Neon Abyss. It's dependent on the ever-increasing damage output and getting used to dodging projectiles, and unfortunately, not much else.
For a game like Neon Abyss, it all comes down to whether the carrot on the end of the stick is worth the hours of dedication, and the biggest strike against the game is its lack of identity. Even if someone wanted to dedicate themselves to Neon Abyss, there's no world to dig into and appreciate. Instead of an intriguing theme with items and weapons that back it up, everything feels generic at best and cringeworthy at worst. When the most unique pickups in a run are a Donald Trump minion that gobbles up coins and a Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce joke, Neon Abyss's vapid nature begins to overwhelm any joy brought on by the gameplay.
Neon Abyss will satisfy the craving of anyone looking for a competently made roguelike - just as long as they're fine with immediately forgetting about it once they're done. While the shooting is fun in small doses, the dearth of variety in several areas and unremarkable meme aesthetics lend to the game's ultimately ethereal nature. In a genre with so many trailblazing entries, Neon Abyss fails at even making a mark. Most players would be better served starting a new save file on an old rougelike favorite than diving into this dungeon for the first time.
Neon Abyss is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Screen Rant was provided a copy of the game on PC for the purposes of this review.