Nightmare Reaper Reviews

Easily one of the best "boomer shooters" I've ever played. The movement is fast and satisfying, and the weapons are unique and all have the potential to be useful so it makes sure that things don't get stale. I had so much fun experimenting with different weapon/mod combinations, and I think this is how the game is best experienced instead of getting too comfortable with the same favorite weapon. The story is nothing grand or too much in your face, but it's so interesting unfurling its mystery if you want to. The music is hype rock type stuff that brings me back to Painkiller days, and I love the pixel art too.! This is the first time I've ever wanted to do so much side content (the game is perfectly playable without it too) and the meta upgrades you get in the main game are fun to master. Even dying didn't feel too discouraging, to the point that it was fun! You just learn more about that enemy/situation that killed you, and can adapt relatively quickly to it happening if you see it again. The "rogue" nature of the game is essentially pseudo in nature, because the random generation needs to adhere to the theme/level structure of whatever level you're on, then you move on to something new even if you die later. You're always making progress or getting something out of it because you get currency/XP even when you die. Even if you find a build to "break" the game, I think it stays fun and there is always another fun weapon you're tempted to use around the corner. Amazing game, 10/10 and should be played by more people!

Pretty good "brains off" game. It's generally well made with allot of variety in levels and enemies that isn't very deep. if you're looking for a boomer shooter with roguelite elements where you can zone out shooting a bunch of non-christian enemies with occasional light puzzles and neuron activation via weapon statistic gambling it's a solid 30+ hours from start to finish adventure.

This game is absolutely amazing! The gameplay conjures obvious references to old-school 2.5D shooters and Binding of Isaac, mixed with rogue-lite progression and a lot of creativity and gripping art style. It might take some time to fully appreciate what the game has to offer, because in glorious style of the masterpieces of the past, it does not take you by the hand and treats you like a toddler. Instead, you have the same excitement and wonder you had in your childhood, when you finally find out a new mechanic, find a new secret, or have that jackpot for a gun which helps you breeze through the next levels. The music is outstanding. You start to crave the heavy riffs to maw through hordes of demons, it edges you on to kick ass. Very addicting. If there is one minor downside, it is the performance with some of the weapons, and some later levels. When certain weapons (mostly of the "random modifier" type) generate a huge amount of things to render on screen, the fps in later levels get a real hit, sometimes so much that aiming gets delayed. There is an easy solution though, you simply pick another gun. So I would really appreciate if the developers would get the performance another overhaul. Especially focussing on the situation when a huge amount of things are drawn on screen.

Probably one of the more terrifying games I have ever played. As someone who has spent time in a State Mental Hospital the portrayal in this game is entirely TOO accurate.

this game is like crack if it was awesome

This game is really fun. Lots of zany different weapons and powerups... a real blast

A doom-like, rogue-lite with looter shooter mechanics and so much more. This game absolutely blew me away. The variety of stuff included is incredible and you are constantly getting new abilities and weapons to tear the sizable roster of enemies apart with. The story elements are also intriguing, yet unintrusive (you are never away from the action for long). If you enjoy boomer-shooters you owe it to yourself to give this one a play, I highly recommend it.

Good Game, Dev hasn't been around since 2023 though, hope there's another project soon. Dev is incredibility talented and the game is amazing update: Dev is active i just haven't seen anything in the update section. Good Game responsive Dev, buy it, (My Bad i'm not in the discord)

I love being a mentally ill woman with the worst backstory possible delivering great violence on the world

Didn't make it to Steam's character limit, so here's a short version. Nightmare Reaper is simply too much. It's an interesting concept and a unique game that is clearly a fruit of great passion from the developer. Sadly, it's also an FPS that is an ocean wide but an inch deep, with a lot of content, but little to no cohesion. The randomly generated levels are one of the biggest pain points. There are 3 episodes, 9 unique themes/biomes within those episodes, and then 3 levels per theme. As far as I know, episode 3 has more authored levels, or at least more of them. Everything else is generated randomly, and since level chunks are not shared between themes, the pool for each level group is fairly small. It doesn't take long until you experience heavy repetition, and it's not like quality of said chunks is good to begin with. There is a lot of fairly dull corridors and bigger cube arenas, which may or may not feature mild verticality. The game's storefront screenshots are fairly representitive here, and also showcase the massive cubed tiles that everything is made out of. IMO one of the greatest elements of "classic 2.5D first person shooters of the 90s" is that usually offered fairly interesting levels to explore and navigate. This element is sorely lacking with Nightmare Reaper's approach. This could've been not that big of a deal if the game offered little exploration but compensated it with intense arena encounters, which is sadly not the case. Unlike arena focused shooters like Painkiller or Serious Sam, Nightmare Reaper enemies don't really spawn in or come in waves. There are some that hide underground until you approach, as well as enemies who can spawn ads, but aside from that, pretty much everyone is spawned from the start. This means that even when you get arena like level chunks, it all comes down to opening the door, and then either clearing out most of the arena within first few shots, or channeling all that meat within a tight chokepoint where you can keep pounding enemies until they stop coming. The only exception is the dedicated arena mode. There are 8 arenas that you unlock by exploring the hospital as the game progresses. It's more engaging in terms of combat than the standard levels, but it still gets old rather quick. One of the big contributing factors to that is how Nightmare Reaper handles weapons. One of the game's selling points is that there are lots of weapons, which is true, and diversity is further enhanced by random stats potentially making the weapon feel and play radically different. However, the game mechanics discourage variety. After you beat a level, you can only keep a single weapon. There is an unlock to get 2, but you only get it near the end of the game. In theory, I think it was meant to encorage you to try new guns instead of keeping the same ones for too long. In practice, it encouraged me to find one gun that is strong and versatile, because you can't rely on any one level having good and reliable gun drops. Once I did get a second slot, I got more breathing room and could afford to shuffle guns in and out more often, since now I could effectively have a secondary weapon that will cover a specific role and stay with me after the level ends. I think the game would be way more fun if you had more slots to play around with, and maybe a dedicated slot for melee, which is otherwise hard to justify using. The balance on guns in general goes out of wack pretty fast. Anything can be useful with the right stats, but the spread of shotguns, explosive, and some magic weapons puts them ahead of others, since it makes any modifiers more versatile by extention. A shotgun with shock or explosive ammo will easily cover groups of enemies but also burst down single targets, while getting any of those on a Garand or L96 is almost a placebo. I don't know how difficult the game might get if the RNG screws you, but I haven't died even once and only reached low health 2 or 3 times. I think this game will appeal to people who just want to boom. You can run around and turn enemies into chunks of meat with coins popping out of them and making that ding ding ding sound when you pick them up and the screen briefly flashes yellow. This part of the game is probably its highest point. You don't have to pay too much attention and get lots of positive feedback from moving around and shooting enemies, so if you enjoy something like Painkiller, Serious Sam, or Vampire Survivors, this might be down your alley.