The game survived the ban hammer from gaben himself! you know it must be a pretty damn good game then

10/10

Paranautical Activity is an interesting little game. Similar to games like Binding of Isaac, only a first person shooter, with voxel graphics. Never thought I would enjoy this, but it's a fun game. It is fairly hard, and the guides on steam are ?outdated? so some items will be a mystery until use.

Happy to see it return on steam. Here's hoping for more guns, rooms, loot, monsters, updates, and much more hours of fun.

I should probably have seen the Early Access reviews before purchasing it, but this is where you get a bit more savvy about positive reviews than negative ones.

And frankly, this game isn't too bad. It's just not... fun and doesn't feel too interesting. Think Doom and Binding Of Isaac, but with a worse Health system, weapons that feel powerless at times, and surprisingly bad frame drops at times.

Paranautical Activity (Deluxe Atonement, for its re-release after the minor controversy), is a rogue-lite FPS game, that seems to take notes from Doom and Binding Of Isaac. Yet, it seems to do it in ways that work against the game. While it does use some of the things (fast paced shooting, randomized rooms and floors, varying stats on each character), it doesn't use it well.

Weapons feel quite good to use, although some of them feel rather weak. The shotgun, from my point of view, felt like the biggest let-down of all the weapons, with the bow being powerful and one or two-hitting enemies, with no problem.

Power-ups feel nice too but with next to no proper explination as to what they do, when you pick them up, leave you to guess what they do, for whatever situation you're about to plummet into, with said power-up.

Enemies are... alright. Mostly tedious to deal with, since some range from simple "fire a bolt, wait for a while, rinse and repeat" to "'bullet hell'-like spam". Surprisingly, the most annoying enemy I faced was the floor sharks. Why? Tank-y characters can't dodge well, and with the floor sharks, I've ended up being juggled by them, shooting them with a shotgun that did abysmal damage, until I either died or completed the room that way.

Levels are pretty much the same square box, with randomised preset props, and enemies are dumped in when you enter. Nothing to write home about, except for what could amount to some problem with moving under staircases. Ended up getting stuck there, which has broken the flow of gameplay, quite a lot. There also seems to be some odd dissonance with the enemies that spawn in some rooms? Sometimes you get enemies who spawn in there, who get stuck in parts of the level geometry and just kinda... sits there.

The characters have different spawn weapons, health and speed, meaning that you have some variety in what you can do and can't do. And by variety, it boils down to how far you can get with the fast characters. I mentioned above that the tank-y characters are slow, and even the extra health they have, just makes them a sitting duck until they die. Along with some of them getting weapons which would be ideal for fast characters, since they promote "attack-retreat" tactics, they work against the character, requiring them risk taking hits, which they most likely will, to pump in shots that don't feel like they do much. Compared to the bow or the sicle, the shotgun feels like the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ pistol you throw out the window, as soon as you see anything remotely non-pistol like.

The bosses are... okay. They look interesting, but their design and looks are pretty much meaningless, since most of them just fire shots are you, non-stop until they spawn enemies or do some third thing that makes them slightly different from each other. And, honestly, they could be interesting if most of them didn't feel like the same boss. They just move around the area and shot, not really doing anything else, than the animation their set. Which sucks, cause the bosses I fought, looked really interesting.

The game itself, is it worth it, even after all that I complained about? For some people, if you've run out of rogue-lite games, akin to Ziggurat, it could be. If there's some more tweaks to the game, such as a revamped health system, characters and weapons being buffed, as well as some changes to make bosses less dependent on luck or power-ups, it can be a very fun game. Also the font is pretty damn ugly to look at, in the menu. And the menu looks really amateurish, which is kinda sad, considering a lot of indie games do a lot to make the menus look presentable.

Was I satisfied with the product? No. I felt like I bought a game that could've benefitted from more time in Early Access, especially now that we have a new dev team who works on the game. Hopefully, some future patches can make them game more fun to play and less annoying to deal with.

Do I recommend it? As you saw above, I don't. If you want to jump into the genre of rogue-like or rogue-lite or whatever the cool kids call it, look for a game like The Binding Of Isaac, Ziggurat, or look up some games within that genre on your own. If you really want it, prepare for a game that you may dislike or find too tedious to keep playing.

Voxel FPS with Quake-y movement and randomly generated rooms.

Movement is good, but shooting is unsatisfying. Rooms are randomly generated, but there isn't a lot of variety and floors/runs end up feeling the same in the end. Menus look rushed/unfinished. In the end, it's a shallow game that is alright for the first few goes, but fails to introduce any real variety.

Don't buy it.

Paranautical Activity is a game that combines Doom with Binding of Isaac. Which is a good concept in theory, but it's execution is disappointing. The problem is that it removes most of what makes Doom and other twitch fps so good. It misses cool weapons and enemies. Also the level design is bland. It's basically Binding of Isaacs boxes attached to each other where you clear a room to go to the next one until you find the floor exit. So no keycards and secrets. The room design is really bland. Same goes for the presentation. It's voxel style graphics just don't work for this game. Also the music is annoying. Hopefully in the future some company picks up the concept and does a good execution.

This game gave me a massive case of "meh".

People keep saying this is like Doom and Binding of Isaac. I have Hundreds of hours between those three games (Doom 1 2 and BOI) and this is nothing like those. Not every FPS with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ graphics is like Doom (BTW doom was not a Volumetric Pixle game it used sprites and was the graphical equivalant of Crysis for its time) and not every Rogue-lite is like Isaac (which is the KING of Rogue-lite).

Combat feels slow and boring (strafe, shoot, rinse, repeat), I mean you have to keep moving but it does not feel fast paced, just lame. The optimization is poor at best. Someone explain to me why skyrim runs at 4k resolution no problem but this game bounces between 50 and 600fps constantly. Weapons are uninspired and EXTREMLY limited. Powerups require cash and you rarely have enough for anything decent unless you save and gimp yourself.

If you want a FPS rogue-lite that doesnt run like crap and play like an autistic version of the two games everyone seems to be equating this to, try Eldritch. Or if you want to truly play a game like Doom or Isaac, just get those games, they are both infinitely better.

Developer threatened to kill Gaben.
10/10

Not balanced at all, some bosses have attacks that are too random or there are too many projectiles to even dodge. Has hardly been updated over the half a year or so that I've owned it and would have been a waste of money if I didn't get it through Humble Bundle. It advertises the difficulty of BoI and Spelunky but in Binding of Isaac you can beat the whole thing with half a heart without taking a hit, it's all skill. This game requires you to be lucky and not get a boss who spawns eight different enemies that shoot projectiles faster than you can move and that you can't possible see at the same time because half of them will be standing behind you at any given moment.

From the author that threatened to kill our lord and savior, Gaben, comes the game that survived His holy Banhammer. The best mix of binding of isaac and doom ever.

"Needs more explosions, not blinded enough by particle clusterf***s"

- Micheal Bay

If you’ve paid even the slightest attention to games in the past few years, you’re now very aware of what a roguelike is. Even games that have little to anything to do with the traditions of the genre have introduced randomness as a mechanic in order to take advantage of the buzz the term now generations. However, as ubiquitous as roguelikes have become in the last few years on PC, there have been few to try it in an FPS, and fewer still that succeed when they try. Paranautical Activity was actually one of the first as it went through Early Access, but controversy stemming from the game’s original developer delayed its full release to just recently, when a new publisher bought the rights to the title. It’s a good thing too, because Paranautical Activity feels like Doom made in a different age, and certainly deserves recognition for setting the standard of what a procedurally generated shooter should be.

Want to know more? My full review has been posted over at my new home, TechRaptor.net ! http://techraptor.net/content/paranautical-activity-review-explosive-turtle-action

No support for my video card?
Game is pixelated, the FOV is messed up. Blackness everywhere for every enemy, I tried every solution.


It'd be good if I could play it.

unbalanced, mismatched, and unfair game, i bought this because i love old school shooters and rouglike games so this game was an easy choice but when i started it up i died within 5 seconds. Okay... ill try again and realized that this game can be incredibly unfair espicially with the shark enemies that not only travel faster than all the characters, but the fact you literally have to stare straight down to shoot them kinda takes away the fun. This game does shooting and movement very well similar to quake 3 but its rooms are crammed with so much stuff i cannot freeley move 3 feet without knowing EXACTLY how the room is set up. The weapons are also poorly matched with the stats on the characters, are not fun to use, and frankly useless with more interesting characters locked behind ridiculous challenges that only a die hard fan of a $10 arcade game ( probably not common ) can achieve, developer is also a jerk so yeah, don't buy this.

For all the negative reviews, I wish to state my appreciation for this game. I'm a huge fan of Binding of Isaac and similar games, and this one captured the frantic essence of that genre. A rogue like, class based dungeon shooter with crazy enemies and amazing weapons.

As much as my computer struggled with it (for reasons unknown, my rig can play most things at max, but this at about half) I fought through it and had an amazing time. I recommend this game wholeheartedly and look forward to more from the devs!

Check out my playthrough here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl_fNSy0Deo

@JayMeeeeeePlays

im in the middle with this game
i want to dislike it but its not that horrible
just dont go and pay full price its not worth it
get it on sale or dont get it at all

nivel de dificuldade altissimo, perfeito pra quem acha que todos os jogos de hoje sao faceis demais

Disclaimer: This review is for an Early Access game, which has changed since this review was written. I have no interest in reinvestigating the current situation, so take it with a grain of salt. The developer has released updates since this review was posted.

The game itself is not bad. I've found it decently enjoyable. Not a huge amount of replay value, but I got to the end once. The problem with Paranautical Activity is the developer.

The developers have continuously insulted and mocked people who bought their game. In addition, they have been less than honest. The game was marketed for over a year as having co-op incoming (and as of this review, the store page says the developers are still working on it), yet that feature was suddenly canceled. The developers insist they have been working hard on bugfixes and content updates, yet have not released anything, even missing a promised deadline by over two months (patch is yet to be released as of this review). Furthermore, the devs have been silent on the forums (when not aggresively insulting the people who bought their game) and insist you should visit their website, where they will keep people updated; visiting their webiste reveals no new news in two months, and the last message was just an apology for a delay (that has still not been resolved). And when fans have the nerve to say they aren't being treated fairly? The devs say people are "entitled." Do not buy this game, do not support this kind of rude immaturity from developers, do not support Early Access games that are deceptively marketed.

Wow! I did *not* expect this game to be so addictive and absolutely satisfying. A long-overdue and well-executed fast-paced, circle-strafing, old school twitch shooter feel with a lot of elements very much like Binding of Isaac (a very good thing, and I mention the likeness only to its credit.) Different starting characters/builds with different stats and starting weapons to choose from, randomized/procedurally generated rooms and floors, health/armor/gold/bomb drops off enemies, shops on each floor, tons of unique personal upgrades to buy or earn at the end of each floor, etc. With even more content to come, and co-op multiplayer on the way (dear god yes!), I haven't been this pleased with and addicted to any indie title since FTL.

Most importantly, the core controls and mechanics are an absolute joy. The pace and precision of the controls and the action feel absolutely spot-on. This is something many games destined for mediocrity have overlooked in lieu of trying to do everything else. When it comes down to it, the core mechanics, the precision and pacing of the controls of any shooter are at *least* half of what we either enjoy or can't stand about them. And more often than not, we barely even consciously realize that, if at all. Paranautical Activity absolutely nails it in terms of *exactly* how a shooter like this should feel, and it's a feel that is too rare these days. As a pure gaming experience, this one is a huge breath of fresh air. Bravo!

Horrible support, you post a bug report or a suggestion and get banned from the forum without warning, checking the developer's post history shows only arrogance and ignorance, too bad.

would have expected more content from this game after 10 or more tries the rooms just feel the same, hasnt been a memorable update to the game if there even is one. only thing that sames to keep you going are the boss fights plz give some other incentives
ways that would improve the experience as follows;
- Make the main menu more presentable just looks quickly hashed right now.
- More weapon variety and costumization with weapons than the 4 you can use now.
- Give the world of Paranautical Activity a personality e,g charm, character instead of a dark dreary boring rooms even binding of isaac has personality not only through it's art style but through menus/enemies/environment etc.
- Don't ever resort to normal text font for the shop items or anything other than your own, if it isnt worth it to you it isnt worth it to people to play.
- continue with the funny name approach with the guns
- update more regularly atleast month to month bases if it cant be done weekly or alternate weeks.(more reason for people to play everytime there is an update)
- maybe even the option to play with friends online/local co-op through the game (easier said than done i know)

at this place in time i hope it gets improved but right now it isnt really worth it to play
the points are coming from a fellow artist and game developer wishing better for this game