Despite being in Early Access it is already a quite playable and fun game with a lot of potential to improve and I believe in Black Forest Games (judging by Giana Sisters) that they will make Dieselstormers a great game.

A few hours in I could already see the promise of this game, perks as well as upgradeable equipment.

However, the shared screen sidescroller should have died with consoles. I know it is trying to keep the feel of 2D side scrollers like contra and metal slugs, but we aren't as limited by hardware anymore.
It should be individual screens. We have the technology.

That being said. Keeping it as recommended because the single player option is still great and I plan on continuing to play.

Dieselstormers: A Tale of Two Orks

For every misguided youth of the last century who grew up on a healthy diet of Nintendo and Sega, run and gun platformers like the ubiquitous Contra were a staple of multiplayer gaming. Long before the days of online first person shooters with dozens of players from around the globe, technologically primitive children like ourselves would gather around our ginormous radiation emitting square televisions, fighting each other for a chance to wield the controller next. Everybody’s household on a weekend was sort of like Lord of Flies, except we had to blow into cartridges before the mayhem could begin.

Dieselstormers, the latest effort from Black Forest Studios, is reminiscent of those old school multiplayer shooters of the past, but without the broken controllers (and friendships). Despite having just entered Early Access on Steam, Dieselstormers is already quite polished for an alpha. Stylistically, the game stands out with a uniquely detailed art style and beautiful, colorful backgrounds. Weapons hit the various goblin enemies with a satisfying thud, and the controls are well executed with both keyboard and mouse and gamepad. Though a full featured single player campaign is already included, the real meat of the game is in the cooperative multiplayer experience, supporting up to four players at a time.

At the start of Dieselstormers, the player is taken to a main area which houses both their main crafting inventory and the mission selection portal. The first weapon given is a weak, ineffectual pistol, but with the completion of each successful mission another gun part and crafting piece is unlocked. Missions are short, generally taking around 5-10 minutes to complete. Multiplayer progress carries over to single player, so players are free to jump between modes as they choose.

Intriguingly, in multiplayer, your character remains alive at “death”, though with diminished powers and barely the ability to push enemies back. Upon a player finding a health pick up, the deceased will be revived. What’s most interesting is that death is not necessarily the end if both players die, as long as some sort of health can be found.

Of course, it must be remembered the game is early access and is still a bit buggy at the moment. During our multiplayer sessions, we had a few crashes and a bit of slowdown, but considering that this is an early alpha, the game shows great promise. Despite the minor issues we encountered, we found Dieselstormers to be quite enjoyable.

For the adventurous, the developers allow work in progress levels to be toggled in the options menu, what they call “construction site mode”. As the developers jokingly proclaim on the options page, “unfinished content can look like an ork’s backside and play like its underpants. You have been warned.” It’s nice to see a developer with a sense of humor, and of course Dieselstormers plays quite well, even in its early state. Of course, it’s not Black Forest Games’ first foray into the platformer genre, having developed the recent Giana Sisters titles. Expect Dieselstormers to only improve as time goes on.

Dieselstormers succeeds in bringing back that old school platformer vibe, and is the kind of game you can play over and over again with your friends, whether it be in bite sized sessions or for hours on end. Pick up one copy, or grab four for some intense side scrolling co-op action. It is available for Early Access purchase on Steam.

For more game reviews and in-depth information make sure to visit Feed Me Pixels.

-Evilhippie

This game is a RPG action game with guns and gear. Play with up to 4 friends in co-op multiplayer mode or you can play single player. The graphics are beautiful with music that suits the game. Tutorial is helpful with easy to learn controls. Randomized levels makes the game replayable. Goal is to reach the boss at the end and kill the boss to obtain loot drops. I am looking forward to the full version of this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euQE_jOwGtA&list=UUoI2I6avZGKSGu2MvmXw3eg

DieselStormers promises to mix Metal Slug with Diablo. Calling out Diablo is a tad stretching but Metal Slug is certainly in there. It's a refreshing title in the genre, I don't remember being able to blast orcs and goblins on a diesel-punk styled armor. I'm playing with mouse and keyboard and it feels good, the movements and actions feel fluid with the exception of one bug here and there. For an Early Access I can say it is a very good start, with a lot of work in the future.

Pros
- refreshing new theme to the genre
- being able to change your loadout is awesome, you don't have to create a new character, just simple modify your weapon for a different play style, that also encourages you to explore for loot
- the movements are fluid and feel good
- without being too spectacular I like the art style, there's no big revolutions in designing goblins and orcs but they have done a good job
- the soundtrack

Cons
- I understand it's early access and this should come in time but I missed a sort of introduction to the lore, giving it meaning
- I wonder if they could have made multiplayer PvP happen, they're aiming specifically for single player and co-op but you can't go and not notice the absence of PvP in this genre

Early access but very playable, though it has the potential to become repetitive. Took a bit of work to get it running smoothly, and it suffers some slowdown when the screen gets full. That said the screen gets VERY VERY Full, Bullet hell style. It also causes me a memory issue so it has to be restarted every coupla hours (i barely squeek by the min specs)

Can only customize guns at the moment, but my first upgrades turned my peashooter into a blue gel spewing firehose.
Lots of fun right now, could be crazy good when optimized.

EARLY ACCESS REVIEW (Subject to changes)
Playthrough video bottom

A game that takes place in a world where mankind greed for goop has turned them into orks, Your goal as humanity's last line of defense is to fight back with armor and guns, Lots of guns.

Right off playing the game you'll be hit with music that has an epic vibe to it and the art fits the theme of the game quite nicely. After doing a quick tutorial of learning the controls which feels really smooth and very easy to learn. Alternating between 2 types of dashes, how to pull yourself into vortex with shift, and customizing your weapons. You can either play the game with a controller or a kb+M and pref kb+m is better atm. I logged onto the multiplayer found my friends and started the journey with our guns vs a sea of orks.

The gameplay is a run and gun shooter with co-op capabilities of up to 4 players. The single player could be pretty tough without friends so make sure ya bring a partner for this one. The goal of the game at the moment is to reach the boss and kill him to obtain randomized loot drops. From the look of things this game will be turning out really well as stuff is being added since it is early alpha, right now you are offered randomly generated levels and yes, the levels of the area randomly goes up and down also. There are 3 types of things you can modify on a gun at the moment as you find them. Frames, engines, and the barrel.

The game 2 of us maybe 2 times but the game played smoothly for the others, besides that there isn't too much problems except that we had a blast with it I posted a playthrough video below for you guys along with what is in the game at the moment. Cannot wait for additional content to get our hands on. Also the devs are very interactive with the community and that deserves support.


+ Artstyle that is well done and fits the theme of the game
+ Music that gives you adrenaline to pull triggers on every orc.
+ Game offers randomly generated levels, drops, and contents = Replayability.
+ Even after death, your teamate is useful for tackling little goblins
+ Customizable guns, change frames, engines and barrels.
+ 4 Player co-op multiplayer
+ Multiple paths, anyone can travel bottom, top, middle, and rooftops
+ Destructable armor pieces as you take damage
+ Cool concept with the line showing where your party is, if someone lagged behind you can port them for lagging
+ Devs that keeps in contact with the commnuity is a plus in my book and deserves support.


* Stuff I can't wait to see and waiting on

- Can't wait for more bosses
- More rare drops from orks that will make us take our time killing every orc top down.
- Locations other than the town
- More armors and the customization
- More orc varieties
- The destructables!
- More stuff to stop our speed run madness to give us the challenge ;)

Gameplay Playthrough Video with me, SujiEun, KashraFalls, and MLG KOY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrwHnMbo_tc&feature=youtu.be

Video review - reserved for when the game is completed :)

Excellent game! Has all the features where you can grind for hours and hours.. hopefully they keep adding new gun types. I'm about 25 hours in and I can sometimes beat the medium difficulties (challenge rating 50).



Its a game you can really get into due to all the various navigational type moves. Your not just running, jumping and gunning, but there is also an unlimited dash and an energy type hook. Holding either Jump, Dash, or Hook each give you a limited amount of jet pack type hover time. So combining all of these techniques effectively gives it an easy to learn lifetime to master type appeal.


The missions offer challenge ratings from 1-100 and they did a really good job with the different elements that increase the difficulty (i..e not just different types of orks with more HP, but they get more aggressive, have better weapons, plus navigating through the city environment gets increasingly difficult.

You develop your character by finding gun components and materials. Your gun is made up of a barrel, frame and engine and you can combine any piece into your gun to change its properties. In addition to costing materials to change components you also use them to buy perks. Buying a perk unlocks 3 random ones and you choose one... they also get upgraded if you get the same one again. An example of a perk would be something like increased rate of fire when moving.

The backdrop is really well done. I hope they add a few more color motifs (maybe a yellow nuclear fallout type sky)

The game in general so far is alright. I plan to play it some more which is why I bought two pack copies as I plan to play this with someone else and see how that works. I definitely would not say it's worth $18.99 for one copy and $29.99 for two when the sale is over. Maybe they will add a ton to this game in which case it would be worth that but only if they plan on never adding DLC. If they do plan to add DLC then yes this game is over priced for what you get judging by what they plan to add to the final game and what they currently have. I do love the visual style of the game and you can see a lot of time was put into detail. I don't regret paying the sale price of $17.99 because that's basically $9 each which is about what I feel it's worth right now ($8-$10).

That aside, there are a few glitches but it's early access so it's not even worth mentioning! I like the controls and I love that you can access other windows on the computer because this game doesn't force you to keep the mouse in their game window or to be in fullscreen. Basically you can go back and forth with instant messaging, check your facebook if you have one or do other things while playing this on the side. The visual cstyle and everything looks really nice, aside from some textures feeling out of place with lower quality. The lightning/light orb does get annoying as it bounces around a lot where I'd rather it mostly follow me, so that is quite distracting. This game seems meant for multiplayer, as I'd imagine it would be really fun with others playing with you.

All in all, I'd suggest buying it but mostly if you have friends who can play with you at this stage of development. Also I'd only suggest buying it during sales because $18.99 is overpriced where the game stands at the moment.

This game is pretty fun, controls are tight and unlocking weapons is rewarding, but I am a little disappointed. The only reason I bought the game was for local co-op, but at the moment it is pointless. My co-op partner cannot craft guns, or use ones that I create, taking most of the fun out of the game. Also while playing at any time the drop-in co-op player can just press start to be re-spawned, regenerating to full health, completely deflating any sense of challenge.
I think this will be a fun game on release, but at the moment it will be put aside until these issues are addressed.

Not going to go into extreme detail, because there are plenty of videos and descriptions out there already. I will say that this game is looking amazing so far! I haven't played much but what I did play has a nice feel to it. I'm a sucker for 2d shooters, especially ones that make you farm for upgrades that will allow you to progress further, and maybe that is what attracted me to this game. But I feel that this has A LOT of potential, and I hope the Devs keep at it! Graphics and art style feel unique, and the combat (ranged and melee charges) has a nice weighty feel to it that give it that addicting feeling.

But please, optimize this game or something, as I'm hardly able to run it on the lowest resolution settings when there are 15 goblins on screen :x

Keep at it developers! I've been looking for a great side scroll/2d style shooter, and this definitely hit the spot.

Now before I begin, I must say this is a fun game, and a good concept. You play several different levels and each level gives you different items. Those items are always materials you need to make your own gun. You can also find extra materials throughout each stage. As you progress, you get better guns, and can kill bigger and badder enemies. The game somewhat resembles Shoot Many Robots, but with more customization of guns, and no armor or any other sort of gear. Just guns.

That being said, this game definately has its flaws. One of the main things about this game that I had a problem with was that there are very little explanations for what you are doing. What is that glowing ball that they call an arc? Why am I fighting? Each stage has a difficulty level but I don't know my own level, if I even have one. Another thing that bugged me was the stages. They all felt randomly generated, but not in the good way. Some stages just felt like no human in their right mind would think the layout was a good idea.

The game does try and give you slight explanations for everything, but it doesn't really make much sense. If you look by the lack of explanations, then we can look at the gameplay. I do like the gun customization, but I don't like that there is no other gear to get. You won't get any armor or customization items besides the guns. The only thing that makes you and your co-op partners distinguishable from each other is the color. Everything else looks exactly the same.

Overall, the game is fun, but it doesn't have what you would expect from a full fledged game. lt is in early access, and is the reason why I still recomend it. I can see a great future for this game once the problems all get fixed.

First Impressions:

"DieselStormers" has a lot of potential. I like the fact that you can upgrade your gun parts to customize its abilities as well as make it more powerful. The green and red arrows available when comparing part stats is a nice touch. I would like to see some sort of button prompt for when you're ready to go on a mission...once you have a map selected and run past a particular spot of your home base, you'll automatically embark whether you're ready to go or not. The controls were my biggest hurdle...I actually got acclimated faster to the gameplay mechanics than I did the control scheme. In its current state (as of 10/8/14), it's a fairly good side-scrolling action platformer. I'm looking forward to trying out the multiplayer aspect as I have not had a chance to do so (yet).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU44F3jTLgA

Sluggish, crashy, and unplayable in it's current state. But, from the 10 minutes or so of gameplay I could stand, holy ♥♥♥♥ does this game have a lot of promise.

If the concept interests you, keep an eye on this game. Just don't buy it right now.

Recommended for the promise this game shows. It was worth the coupon to grab a 4-pack with me and some friends.

Overall I'd say 6/10 so far, but it's improving as development continues. I have only played single player so far. Currently, there are 4 level types. Each level is a randomly generated map that consists of buildings which you can traverse through, over, or under. Enemies show up to get in the way and sometimes drop crafting materials. Sometimes you can (or have to) dash to the end of the map without really shooting anything. For bonuses, you can perform some extra objectives. The mission select screen displays 6-8 missions with randomized objectives and loot, and difficulty ("challenge level") based on your recent performance in missions.

Gameplay:
I really like the combat. It's your typical dual-stick style run-with-keyboard, aim-with-mouse sidescroller similar to the controls of Bastion or Crimsonland. The unique grapple system and dashing ability allow for a lot of maneuverability. It could use some polishing, but as a game control preciseness and intuitiveness freak, I don't have any big complaints.

With no story, it currently boils down to unlocking new components for your weapon and then farming the materials to craft said gear. Even unlocked gear costs money to craft if you replace it later, which I'm hoping they fix soon because it really cripples the fun of experimenting with different weapon pieces for crazy firepower and effects. Currently, with a very short total game time, I'm firing literal artillery shells (bigger than my character) that bounce, leavy sticky goo on enemies, and sometimes fire off their own mini-projectile launchers. FUN!

Graphics:
The game looks great, that's for sure. From BFG reps on the Community boards, it is an upgraded version of the engine than ran Giana Sisters. Sadly, it's not optimized and is therefore heavily taxing very good systems based on Community reports. The nice part is, even at the low res I'm running, it still looks very nice, runs smoothly (instead of low framerate, the overall game speed scales down; YMMV on multiplayer...), and doesn't shrink my screen real estate to the point where I can't see anything (looking at you, RTS games...). As a power user, I'd really like to be able to customize every little bit of the graphics for ultimate efficiency (min/maxing by turning off shadows, reflections, ragdolls, and speeding up corpse removal). Hoping they add that soon. Changing my NVIDIA performance settings didn't have a noticeable effect.

I plan to update this review as the game continues development. It's a good bit of fun now, but I'm really looking forward to a more efficient crafting system and the upgrades to allow armor crafting as well. They just added perks within the last week, and I unlocked (bought with materials) my first one without a huge investment from my modest pool of crafting materials.

Good luck to all, add me if you want some multiplayer!

Simple and fun with an emphasis to focus on cooperative gameplay, even if it is with friends. The controls are a little different than most games out there but within a few rounds under the player's belt they are easily mastered. The upgrade tables for gear and abilities could use a little more user-friendly interface, but given time, that too will allow the player to form an understanding how it works. Over all I find this to be an enjoyable game if your tired of the competitive grind of most other games on the market.

Love the looks, feels right. A bit rough around the edges, but shows a lot of promise. Go Team!

I like it... It still needs a lot of work but I enjoy the consept and theme. It is a little to early to tell where this game is going put I would say that if you are looking for a Co-Op action this sure is a game to follow.

I can sai I like this game for it's graphics and items customizing, of course it have bugs but hey it's still early access! This game is amazing now so i can imagine how amamzing it gonna be full version. Sure i recommend it i like it it's good!

Suggestions and Impressions after playing the early-access release version for one day:

Fix the video-options, when I fit the resolution on my screen (1600 x 1200), the shown and actual cursor coordinates are not synced anymore.
Include a shop system, dropping the same stuff over and over again is very depressing.
Reduce lag, this is a sidescrolling platformer. If actual 3D surrounding games can handle multiple players and their projectiles with my 3 MB/s upload, then so should this game.
Maybe you have seen these old samurai armors with banners on their backs. That would propably look nice on that physics engine.
Fix the muzzle coordinates: I can shoot through solid walls while moving against them / hovering against them in some cases, also close goblins are ignored by bullets from time to time.
Add a chat-room and player names.
Needs more pirates.
Ragdoll physics work well, sometimes corpses get stuck in walls and fall-animate untill despawn though.
Add foreground layer of ambience, like in Trine. Improves the athmosphere alot. (Or in this case, adds more smog to the atmopshere)
What are these flames in the intro? Copy and pasted effects? Then add at least 3 variations, and be it by how fast the
animation ticks, jeez!
Why are the guys so mobile, they wear plate armors and all, not that I'd complain...
How comes there is arc-energy providing infinite electric energy with superiour destructive and protective force, and yet people fight in oil-propulsed machinery?
This whole center of the screen arc thing annoys me, but it's tolerable.
Add dust and smoke on movements, random clouds in the air that look awesome when passing through, there is not enough smog for a post apokalyspe caused by smog!
The colors look flat and unintentional. (Sry but srsly)
Enough metal, not enough *clunk* *crank*
The guns sound awesome!
Some projectiles look too magical, fire-power mister! FIRE-POWER! Black smoke and orange spark-ticles, not some white
innocent orbs.
Too expensive for early access, but what did I expect?