Dust & Neon Review: A Flat, Functional Action Western Roguelite

screenrant.com:

Can an entire game stand on the novelty of one unusual mechanic? New cyber-western action-roguelite seems to think so, and while its active reload system is slick, the surrounding game is a largely over-simplified affair. The minute-to-minute gameplay is mostly solid and coherent, but there are much better western games and much better roguelites to be found elsewhere.

has a very streamlined feel throughout, even down to the narrative. Mad scientist Dr. Finkel has created a series of cloned robot cowboys to pursue a cadre of nefarious bots who have taken over four different zones against a mech-Western backdrop. He remains in his bunker while the player heads out to do his dirty work, though he’s always there to greet them on return with a random line of dialogue, but rarely any other info or assistance.

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There’s also an AI who features in a tutorial and pops up throughout each level at gated bottlenecks whose name is, unimaginatively, «ROB.OT.» It’s an example of ’s quirky tone, which seems to grasp for something on the level of but doesn't have the worldbuilding chops to elevate its vision, instead relying on western clichés and puddle-deep humor to move its stagecoach along.

At least ’s gameplay is immediately graspable, a matter of scrabbling around in a fixed isometric view which is at times visually reminiscent of . Players duck behind cover, pop out to aim, and blast anything on the screen that moves. When a gun is out of bullets, it needs to be manually reloaded, one single bullet at a time into a nice gun animations which takes up 1/5th of the screen. Each randomized weapon features clips of varying size, so some guns may need to