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This little game is an absolute blast.
I didn't have high expectations but Maniac is some genuine run & gun mayhem. The reviews and the description on the store page make this game out to be a roguelike old school GTA, which is fairly accurate.
However, while in GTA you get a variety of missions and side quests that advance an overarching story, Maniac has just 1 mission. Stay alive for 20 minutes and kill & destroy as much as you can before a nuclear strike hits the area.
Don't be fooled by the (dare I say) "cute," even "cozy" graphics, Maniac is incredibly violent and bloody, people scream in terror and pain, lots of death and things blowing up, you get to steal and destroy all sorts of vehicles.. it's really quite sensational. I have to admit I was blown away by how mindlessly fun this game is.
I'm hopeful that the developers plan on releasing more content for the game, the potential for DLC, expansions, sequels, etc., is virtually limitless.
Also it plays great on Steam Deck.
I highly recommend this game.

For the price it’s a fun game. Is it as deep as Chinatown wars or have the same attention to detail? Nope, not even close. But it is fun.
That said, I do feel the comparisons to vampire survivor are unwarranted as VS is a deeper game. The upgrades are more complex, there are more characters, more stages and the characters are more varied in their abilities.
I think the dev here has really stumbled upon a great idea for a roguelike, they just need to push things further. The city needs to be far more detailed and thoughtfully laid out, the characters need to be more differentiated in skills/abilities, there needs to be more cars/weapons/enemies added, different weathers or time of day for visual flare, etc. After all that is accomplished I guess they could go the extra mile and maybe have a whacky over the top story for a sequel like many roguelikes are doing these days - but assuming arcade is the way they wanna play it then they just need to focus on breadth and depth of gameplay systems.

A simple but fun and addictive roguelite mix of the first two GTAs and the original Postal.
You get dropped in the middle of a city as one of several colorful maniacs and try to wreck as much havoc as you can before you're either taken out by the increasingly tougher waves of government agencies trying to stop you, or survive for 20 minutes, after which they just decide to flat-out nuke you. To achieve this goal, you can obtain a variety of weapons and upgrades as you level up, as well as stealing vehicles to further increase your survivability.
After each round you can use the money you obtained during your rampage to buy permanent upgrades for that character's abilities to make the next run a little easier, allowing you to try and take on some of the more challenging achievements that this game has.
Not bad for a €3,50 game that I decided to pick up on a whim. 👍