#etherloop

[killapenguingaming-blog]

Ether Loop review - Dodging RNG

I must have died to Ether Loop's penultimate boss, a giant spider who spams the entire screen with so many projectiles that even my recently upgraded CPU can't keep up, a dozen times before getting lucky and beating it (and subsequently, the game). Some real-life things over the past month have resulted in my entire gaming setup being rearranged, and one major upside to that is that I can now incorporate 4K PC screenshots into my reviews more easily than ever. Yesterday afternoon, I became convinced that I'd never beat the spider boss and decided to start making some 4K screenshots to get this review ready for Ether Loop's January 21st release, only to get on a run of destiny and have every item drop during those 16 minutes be exactly what I need. That speaks to a fundamental truth that acts as both a positive and negative: runs can feel drastically different thanks to the vastly different quality of drops, but only because most of Ether Loop's procedurally generated drops are untenable. Read the full article

[killapenguingaming-blog]

Ether Loop impressons: Brisk bullet hell

It feels a little strange putting up Ether Loop impressions considering that I've already managed to beat the game, but in all honesty, the only reason I managed to beat this chaotic twin-stick bullet hell shooter so quickly is that it randomly glitched out during a good run and caused bullets to pass through me instead of causing damage. Ether Loop does a lot of things right—most interestingly, its per-run upgrades can stack in fun ways that cause each playthrough to become markedly different from others—but these kinds of glitches do cause problems. For example, if an enemy drops a heart pickup when you're at full health, it can't be used even if you take damage immediately afterward. At its best, this game can be bullet heaven, the kind of significant challenge perfect for banging your head against and speedrunning. At its worst, though, it earns the title of "bullet hell" and can play downright dirty. Ether Loop's steep difficulty curve causes its occasional cheap shots to be incredibly deflating. Read the full article