Neon Abyss 2 Preview

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Fast Facts

Back to the Beginning Again

Neon Abyss 2 is an action platformer rogue-like which was recently released in early access. In it, I descend floors of an augmented reality to fight bosses and take out a variety of different enemies. Is the game any fun? Find out in this Rapid Review.

For starters, there is nearly no story content in the game. Some semblance of an introduction is shown at the beginning of the game to depict why the main character is fighting these creatures, but the plot was not necessarily moving, and it did not develop after the introduction. Unsure whether this is something that will get better as early access progresses, but this certainly is not a selling point yet.

Though disappointed by the lack of narrative focusing around the plot, I did find many items to be somewhat generic. None of them necessarily fit a theme or had background which tied them to the game in any way. Guns were somewhat interesting, but as a whole, the game did not emphasize a certain theme or style that was particularly memorable. 

Given that the narrative and general theming were underwhelming, I looked to the gameplay to provide the bulk of the value. Thankfully, I enjoyed many elements of Neon Abyss 2. My main character was simple overall. I mainly walked around, jumped, and used weapons. Some characters had abilities which gave them access to unique abilities or moves, and I could also leverage special items in certain scenarios, but the core gameplay loop was simple and I enjoyed it. My character was responsive, and despite the limited types of options, I always felt capable of handling the scenarios I went up against. 

Event Management

In any given run, I could encounter a variety of different rooms, and this variety increased as I played more games. The most common room featured enemies for me to fight against. Like I called out above, these enemies and the rooms do not typically have themes, so most of them felt somewhat similar. However, there were additional rooms which stood out. I got to bounce a volleyball on certain targets, play basketball, and even play a fishing minigame. I appreciated these rooms as more got introduced to me, but throughout the game the fights with enemies were clearly prioritized, and held the crux of the gameplay.

The enemies themselves were fun to fight, albeit a bit forgettable. Many of them functioned somewhat similarly, and when I had a ranged weapon, it was often easy to handle most enemies in the same way. That being said, the simple nature of the game was fun, and there are toggleable difficulty options too which can increase or decrease the difficulty as needed.

Though I had no issues with the difficulty, I was disappointed that many fights played out similarly. Part of what made the fights seem similar was that weapons and collectable abilities were simple. Though guns were varied, each fit into a category. The category detailed how weapons scaled. Most times weapons scale by having a large quantity of any given item. For example, one weapon shot tennis balls which damaged enemies on screen for a while, and when interacting with a creature, one of the items that can toggle weapon scaling, the lifespan would increase. Others were even more simple than that, where holding more coins would increase weapon output. 

Impacting of the Items

Though this is a novel concept, and I appreciated being introduced to different play styles with different weapons, it made it challenging to alter weapons in the middle of the run, and it also compartmentalized runs which revolved around a gun of a certain type. As a result, runs followed a similar trend. Find a gun worth using and increase the associated scaling. This was compounded by the items. Many items relate to a weapon class. Moreover, for a weapon which scales using coins, using coin related benefits was logical. As a result, many of the decision making when selecting a new item was predetermined. If one item was in the class I was using, I would almost always select that item. When two items were in the same class, the items rarely differed significantly enough to make me consider which one was better.

There are a decent number of pieces in Neon Abyss 2 which did not necessarily stand out, but I still had a lot of fun with the title. I think the biggest piece of this stems from the boss fights. I enjoyed these a lot. Each was genuinely unique, featuring patterns which are distinct not only in this game, but across others I have played in the genre. They were fair as well, and felt rewarding to face.

Rounding out the Package

In addition to the gameplay, Neon Abyss 2 has a decent art style. All attacks are clearly telegraphed, which is the most important to me. The main characters, while fine, did not impress me significantly. I did appreciate that there are free customization items which are unlocked daily, and that there are different characters to select from. Overall, the visual selections were fine. The soundtrack was pretty good too. I did not notice much of the soundtrack as a whole. However, occasionally, I would see myself humming themes from the game, so that was nice. While the theming was lacking, overall the presentation of Neon Abyss 2 is sufficient. 

As a whole, Neon Abyss 2 is a fun game, but not one I recommend immediately. It is fun to run around with powerful builds and dismantle enemies, but the core identity of the game seems to be lacking something to bring everything together. In terms of content, this game has a lot, and I played it for enough hours to get value. However, before recommending, I would want enhanced theming for the different game elements, and increased variety within any given run.

You can find and read our reviews on OpenCritic.