Genetic Disaster Review – More like a Generic Disaster

<p>Games with procedurally-generated levels have flourished in recent years&comma; with hits such as <em>Rogue Legacy&comma; Enter the Gungeon&comma; The Binding of Isaac<&sol;em>&comma; and more&period; The technology has been around since the late 70’s&comma; but we have entered a sort of renaissance where procedurally-generated levels and content are prevalent in the gaming industry&period; <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> is another procedurally-generated game that takes rogue-like ideas and mixes them with a formula that is fun solo or with friends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> can be played alone&comma; or with up to four friends either locally or online&period; <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> puts you in the role of one of four unique characters&comma; who must escape a mansion by completing each of its 10 &lpar;currently&rpar; levels&period; The interesting part of the multiplayer aspect of <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> is that the difficulty adjusts with the number of players present&period; This is an example of a concept used in <em>Diablo 3<&sol;em>&comma; whereas you have people join you the enemies grow in strength &lpar;or more are thrown at you&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;132561" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-132561" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-132561" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;17202104&sol;GeneticDisaster-Screen-1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-132561" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Genetic Disaster&comma; Team 8&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Additionally&comma; the manor adapts as well&comma; providing more loot for you and your party&comma; and it allows you to customize your character’s loadout as you explore&period;  You can provide whatever utility your team needs at the moment&period; Like other procedurally generated games&comma; you move room to room on each &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;floor” fighting enemies and collecting things like ammo&comma; coins&comma; and the occasional healing item&period; You may also find new weapons and upgrades for the characters that will change how they play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On each new Floor&comma; you may find upgrades&comma; a shop to use coins to buy things to enhance your run or challenge rooms&period; An interesting concept behind <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> is that the mansion you find yourself in will fight you as well&period; Various modifiers will be imposed in various rooms &lpar;more if you are playing with friends&rpar; that will cause you to have to deal with various traps or obstacles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first thing I noticed &lpar;as I tried both control schemes for a little while just to see how each worked&rpar; was that keyboard and mouse is not REALLY the encouraged method&period; At the time that I played to work on this review&comma; the options menu was inaccessible&comma; and the controls were not able to be changed&period; This meant that I was stuck with WASD controls&comma; when I normally use my left hand to work my mouse&comma; which is used for aiming and firing&period; This made using WASD to move feel unwieldy&comma; as this control scheme is made for people who use their right hand for their mouse&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I found this somewhat odd&comma; as the Steam page clearly states that the control schemes were &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Especially designed for keyboard and mouse&comma; and gamepad” which makes me wonder why they didn’t package multiple control schemes when it officially released&period; After giving keyboard and mouse controls a test run&comma; I tried it with my gamepad and I found the execution of those controls better&comma; but not to the same standard that I’ve seen in other games in the genre&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The inaccessibility of the options menu also made it so that I couldn’t adjust any settings for audio&comma; or display&comma; which I found to be a bit annoying since I tend to review games in windowed mode so that I don’t have to tab out while writing as I play&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Enter the Gungeon<&sol;em> &lpar;which shares elements with this game&comma; namely procedural generation&comma; and a similar control scheme for shooting and aiming&rpar; executed their joystick controls for weapon aiming very well&period; They also offered sensitivity options in case people had problems&period; <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> has neither of these things going for it&period; I found that while I could adequately aim and fire with the joysticks&comma; there was some level of awkwardness to it like it wasn’t as smooth as it should be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Honestly&comma; with games that come out of Early Access&comma; I have very high standards&period; I have seen the Early Access formula done very well&comma; <em>Dead Cells<&sol;em> is a recent standout&comma; but over the years <em>Divinity&colon; Original Sin&comma; Don’t Starve<&sol;em>&comma; and other Early Access games have shown that they could take a concept and&comma; with funding from consumers&comma; use it to create a finished product&period; I am not certain that <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> is finished yet&period; It feels like a good idea that hasn’t quite seen its full potential in execution&period; Maybe I feel that way because the multiplayer functionality was inaccessible so I couldn’t enjoy it with friends&comma; but it just seems like it is missing some things to really make it a worthwhile experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"tS8oEol1234" title&equals;"Genetic Disaster Trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;tS8oEol1234"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;tS8oEol1234&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Genetic Disaster Trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Enter the Gungeon<&sol;em> had interesting backstories for its characters and a loose narrative that gave you a reason behind what you were doing&period; With <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em>&comma; you are kind of thrown into it so you really have no idea what is going on&period; I think that for an official release&comma; <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> is disappointing&period; It is missing something that could really make it great&period; With that being said I think that with friends it could be a fun game to play&comma; but I’m not sure how long the fun would last before it got somewhat stale&period; At the end of it all&comma; <em>Genetic Disaster<&sol;em> becomes more along the lines of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Generic” Disaster&comma; with an interesting concept and aesthetic&comma; but no real meat outside of the concept of multiplayer to keep people interested&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A Steam review copy of Genetic Disaster was provided by Team 8 for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;