Your mission in Cryptark, should you choose to accept it...

Games
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Bastard.

Ah, I’ve only had the Smart machine gun and although it comes with less ammo, you almost never miss so it’s good against fast enemies or enemies off-screen.

The nuke-nades override a lot of munitions! ‘Fire and forget’ is exactly the right phrase for it.

I’m a big fan of the Prism energy shotgun. Helix is nice but burns out fast. What’s the other one I used…? Uh, Vulcan? It spins up and shoots faster and faster.

I haven’t tried Rogue mode, mostly because I’ve no idea what it is exactly. Some info on the menu would be handy!

Yes! I thought I mentioned this in my previous post but yeah, the Gauntlet flail is perfect for cheap and (relatively) safe system kills if you can hit one of those nuke tanks nearby. So satisfying.

The enemies I hate dealing with are those Ironclad ones. They’re hard to kill without some serious firepower!

Oh and I think it’s also worth mentioning that the presentation is stellar, from the cutscenes, characters, script and voicework, to the UI, lighting, sound design and sprites. It’s a really impressive package.

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TotalBiscuit has made a short video about it

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I appreciate his (relative) enthusiasm, but I think he should have played a bit more to present a better view of the game’s uniqueness, as it really feels like that person wasn’t very familiar with the game, while it benefits from being presented past the initial “surprises” phase.

You have to explore 5 derelicts in this mode. The first difference is that the strategic layer is gone: you don’t pick which ship to explore and there is no money concern; all your upgrades and consummables, you will find them onboard.
There are also no ammo station (at least, I have never seen one!), which means weapons are to be switched when depleted, adding an interesting new layer of management (and much randomness).
Finally, there are no saves between levels, so make sure you got plenty of real world time (never went past the 3rd level for this reason!)

I have troubles with enemy names. The ones I hate most are the Cryptark only… “Vipers”, I suspect they are named? They are quite tough, dash you like the spikedogs, while shooting everywhere.
Also, the wheeled dudes are hilariously weak if you got a melee weapon. Suddenly, if you don’t, they are the worse then.
This is part of what makes the game so great: sometimes, enemies like Leviathans, the big slow ships slowly hunting you through walls to trap you in a force field, are hilariously armless. But what if the level got nukes? Now they are a deadly concern.

I was really surprised on Tom’s stream, as we were greeted immediately by lip-synched quality voice-acting. I didn’t expect that. I could say that about the whole game, actually.

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Aye, and in the first two minutes he says ‘WTF will remain as the main critique format for the big games and things like that; stuff that needs more attention’ O_o

Rogue sounds interesting! I might have to check it out when I’m time rich and feeling adventurous!

Yeah, I think I know which enemies you mean. I was like ‘Oh you’re having a laugh!’ at my screen when they started showing up!

The Ironclads are the big things that shield up if you so much as look at them. They fire three spread shots and are like Juggernauts but a bigger pain in the arse to kill.

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With the cancer thing, he has a limited time to spend on games. Never mind he receives several dozens (hundreds?) of games per month in hopes he makes a video, the fact he selected Cryptark from all of them it’s positive.

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I learnt finally to use the shield, now the game is a bit easier! Somehow I didn’t ‘grok’ it at first, and I believed that I couldn’t hold it indefinitely so I was trying to use it just before I was hit, silly me.
I almost finish the fourth level of my last rogue game.

In general terms, I still feel I would prefer if the game was less roguelike. The game is short, replayable and designed to play it in one session. I would prefer a longer experience with more emphasis on progression, a bit easier and to be played in several sessions. For example, instead of 5 stages, I would prefer if rogue mode was longer, with 8 or 9 stages. But also the difficulty should increase more smoothly, right now the first ship is level 1, the second is level 3, and the third is level 5. And obligatory: allow to save the game between stages!

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There’s a pretty good Let’s Play of the various modes of Cryptark (and some other roguelites) over at Something Awful. Sorry I’d link it, but I’m on my phone. I’ll put one in later.

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This one?

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Sometimes you may make more money that way! The time-money bonus is quite huge, often above 70k if you spend a few minutes on the derelict. It makes for another decision on some ships: depending on the layout once you joined, should you go for that “destroy every systems” side-missions (time-consuming, but also one of the highest money rewards, consequently) or rush the ship. Depending on the other side-missions (for instance, if they are health or repair kit usage restrictions), I’ll often go for the rush rather than try to complete all objectives. It also depends where I am on the technology scale… Dear, this game is so smart.
So many cool decisions to make before you even launch out of your little salvage ship!

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Yes, that’s the one.

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I finally ‘groked’ how to use shields. Somehow I understood how they worked wrong and was being foolish with them. Now the game it’s a bit easier. In my last attempt I almost beat the stage 4 of Rogue mode.

But in general terms, I actually would prefer if the game was less roguelike. The game is short, replayable and designed to be played in one session. I would like a Rogue mode with 8-9 stages instead of just 5, a bit easier or at least with a smoother difficulty curve (the first three levels are difficulty 1->3->5, I would prefer 1->2->3->4), and with the ability of saving the game between stages (how this isn’t an option :S the last two stages can be pretty long!).

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Unfortunately for me, this is one of those games that, while I love watching other people play it, I would suck horribly at it if I tried to play it myself.

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It’s only scary from the outside. I have two left hands with unresponsive wrists and the reaction time of something that was reanimated by the doctor Frankenstein, yet I still manage to not suck totally at it, because it is mostly about your planning (be it the gear, the priorities, or even on what front the fight needs to be lead) and the game gives you all the info you need to make the proper decisions. On that front, a lot of let’s play are probably giving a biased impression, because watching somebody excruciatingly thinking about what to do for 30 minutes before actually starting to play might not be very interesting.
That said, I leave every session with an unusually elevated heart beat. So, if an exicting game sounds scary: stay away!

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That’s part of it too. Games that I find stressful, even ones I like, I tend to not go back to. Darkest Dungeon is a great example. I like it, but barely played. Kind of hoping to pick up the iOS version. A lot of changes have been made since I played it.

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I was snarky, but you are totally right: I avoid stressing games as well, because that sort of excitement tends to turn to anger when I lose in my case. For some reason, I haven’t felt any rage playing Cryptark. I can’t really explain why that is. Maybe because the game doesn’t go into game over right in front of you: you foresee the end coming (usually, I quit failed campaigns on my own because I can see the death-spiraling in front of me).

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I completed Rogue mode, yay! The gods of randomness gave me a relatively easy configuration for my last two stages, otherwise I think I wouldn’t be able to do it.

Salamander is my favorite suit. Not because the starting flamethrower, but the shield + gauntlet combo is super good. I prefer much more the gauntlet than the spike. And I like the sprint with the burning effect, it’s pretty good too.

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Congrats! I wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the game yesterday but… I can’t seem to see your longer post anymore. Did you delete or edit it?

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Uhhh… what the hell, you are right! Did the forum eat my post?

I have a copy somewhere…

Here:

My first impressions of this game are good!

Nice graphics, with a fairly distinctive art style, the colors combined with the black outlines reminded me of comic line art.

The game works very well as an action game. Controls are tight, there is a good variety of weapons with different pros and cons (70 of them counting items!) and importantly, it isn’t superfluous. Do you want to have a second mmg to kill things twice as fast, or do you equip a shield and play more conservative, or do you equip a weaker energy weapon that in exchange don’t use up ammo. And if you equip a shield, what type, etc.
There is a good variety of enemies too, and fighting each feels different. It isn’t the same a small zippy enemy that wants to ram you, that a bigger enemy that attacks after a spinup phase, that a tough enemy with shields you have to avoid to damage him, that a enemy that uses cluster grenades, or another that has a beam able to push you around. Each one needs different tactics. Same with the ship systems, I really liked the idea of somehow converting them in impromptu static mini bosses, each one with a unique mechanic (avoid the rotating laser fire, or do a qte or hit the weak points or whatever).

But the variety doesn’t stop here.You have the different suits you can unlock with different perks. The suits together the variety of loadouts allow enough freedom to allow different gameplay styles. You can play fast and aggressive, melting everything with 4 weapons installed and trying to do quick runs to get the time bonus, or more carefully, trying to advance in a way that you don’t attract many enemies at the same time, trying to block all the damage with the shields.
Each spaceship you explore have a different ‘theme’ going on depending on their type, so some have fewer but tougher enemies, another is full of traps and laser trips that trigger alarms, and another is full of small drones and maybe it has a bigger chance of finding new types of items; each type also usually have similar ship systems.After that you have the roguelike facto, obviously the layouts and enemies in each levels are random.

This could make a decent action roguelite already, but additionally there is a nice strategic layer going on here. First you have the economic management, where you have to balance loadouts vs money (each bullet fired has literally a cost in the game), and risk vs monetary reward.
And also, choosing what spaceship explore from four options feels meaningful, not only because each one has a difficulty levels and different rewards (in money and artefacts), but I noticed lots of times the extra optional objectives are important. Really, if you want to earn money doing a run you have to try to get a pair of them (with the consequent risk, of course). Can you really beat that ship without destroying a repair system? Can you play with a cheap loadout? If the extra objectives seems hard, would be better to ignore them and instead go for the quick path to victory? You will win less money that way but you surely will use less ammo, items and will get the time bonus. From all the options which is the most efficient one?

Finally, the idea of the ship systems really spice up things. Having to choose what are the ones to attack and the ones to ignore, planning your point of entry, what path are you going to use and in what order are you going to destroy them, it’s all very interesting. It’s the final feature that makes it an unique game, and not just another Enter the Gungeon/Binding of Isacc/Nuclear Throne clone.

What I feel it’s missing, it’s some more options to customize the game, and the same with the difficulty. The game is so rigid. You can’t change the length of the game. You can’t change the difficulty of the game. You can’t save in rogue mode, not even between levels.
I would like to determine how long want a campaign (4, 6, 8 levels) instead of the fixed 6 ships. And for god’s sake put a difficulty setting, I’m so tired of games that think it’s something ‘not for this type of game’ and ‘the game is intended to play as it was designed’. Thanks god it seems it’s very trivial to give yourself more money editing a save game, maybe with 650K it will be ok, with that extra 150K you should be able to max your hull points in all the runs making it a bit easier, as the game is perhaps too hard for more casual players, at least the first 8-10 attempts. And in the other hand if you happen to be someone who love the game and are going to sink 150+ hours into it, the game will conversely be a bit too easy, eventually, so an extra hard mode would be nice.

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Ahhh, I feel better now because a) I’m not crazy and didn’t imagine a great post like that, and b) it’s back for everyone else to see! :-)

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Another good thing about Cryptark: the engineer character. He’s got a pretty great voice.

Correction:
“Most rogue-likes [rely] on discovery because they want to create a sense of exploration.”