Beyond the Long Night Review (Cooperkid)
Big thumbs up from me
Charming roguelike that changes each run, but has a selection of handcrafted rooms, so you can get a feel for where traps, secrets, puzzle solutions and enemies will be located on repeat playthroughs
Pros
+Chill music
+Nice pixel art and animation (even the grass is dancing)
+Characters are likeable and remarkably zen seeing as their whole world and existence ends each day
+You can have unique builds quite quickly and get given a new super power at the start of each run
+Enemies can set off traps and harm each other. Sometime it's fun to sit back and enjoy the chaos
+Achieve stuff even on short runs as unique stories unfold and new items get unlocked
Meh
~A lot of roguelikes have a fast travel option, but the schtick of this game is the rooms gradually get filled up with fire as you explore forcing you to push forward. So tactical exploring is a necessity and teleporting around would make this unique level destruction idea redundant. Personally I quite like it, but does mean backtracking a fair bit. At least the slain enemies stay dead.
~It's pretty difficult. There are some bees in the first area that seem OP and snipe you with an undodgeable bullet so you always need to be aware of where they are.
~The game does actually save your run as you quit (which I love), but the game doesn't say "save and quit". This might lead people to thinking they are having to throw a run when they have to leave the game.
Cons
-Some power ups are straight up bad. There's one where you become a bomb and blow up, losing a heart each time. I just reset my run when I get this.
Tips
+Try and get the ghost bullet upgrade (my fave). You can hide behind walls and kill enemies without facing them and also cheese some of the switch puzzles.
+Activate "highlight enemies" in the options. It certainly helps (especially with the aforementioned bees!
+Try to head towards the question marks on the map. They are always rooms that will improve your run.
+You can blow up some walls with bombs. The wall to the left of Guitarboy at the start always has a secret
+You can cheese some of the more challenging switch activated doors by dropping a bomb on the switch and activating when you get to the door
+There is a character that can permanently add certain info to your map, so you can strategise where to head to each run
Try to save up 1000 coins for the cow man. (You only need to do this once). Then when you find a missing cow you can heal yourself for one heart and get a free item
Still on the fence? Watch Olexa on Youtube who's a big fan of this game and a great guy