Meritous

So, last year, I was telling a friend of mine about Roguelikes. He then said that it reminded him of a game that a friend of his wrote, called Meritous. Hm, ok, I went and downloaded it. And ... It's not really a roguelike. It makes me think of a combination between a Roguelike and a SHMUP (Scary idea, innit?). Everything's randomly generated and, on normal mode, you only get 3 lives. After that, save is gone. But the fighting involves you dodging enough bullets and lasers for the game to be called a bullet hell game. Don't fret, however, you get a shield. And a charge up attack that attacks the entire room.

The attacking mechanic is quite simple, but has a bit more depth than you'd think. You hold the spacebar down to charge, then release it to launch the attack. The longer you hold down the attack, the stronger it is. Also, though, the longer it takes for you to start charging up again. The attack also, if it's over a certain power, destroys bullets. So, it's a nice balance in offense and defense.

The game, actually, has a bit of an RPG element. As you kill enemies, they drop increasing amounts of crystals which you can use to upgrade your Shield, Total Charge Power, and Charging Speed. Further, you also encounter bosses, find upgrades throughout the map, and find treasure chests that upgrade you after certain rooms.

I found it to be a very fun game, but not in large doses. An hour here, an hour there, etc. Probably took me 10 hours or so to beat the game all told, over months. My only psuedo-complaint is about the monsters... Which are really just semi-different looking blobs. The sound works great, portraying the atmosphere well. And one of the elements of the graphics is the color. The more danger you're in (The more monsters that are around), the more greyed out everything is. As you clear monsters out of an area, it turns a more lively blue. When you enter into mob encounter rooms (Sort of like Arenas in Roguelikes; a room with a buttload of monsters and little cover), it starts off deep red, then pales as you clear the room. It's a very well done mechanic and, frankly, it's awesome. It's a great effect that more games should do something similar to.

It's a great game for freeware.