Genetic Disaster – Co-op Craziness review

On December 18 Team8 Studio fully released their very first game Genetic Disaster. Sadly the game was plagued with bugs including some game-breaking ones. Within a month Team8 rolled out several patches solving almost every major bug and all game-breaking bugs. So, now it’s finally time to check it out!

Story

When playing Genetic Disaster it becomes very clear that a story was not the main focus of this game. The only information I could get on the story was from the official steam page. The 4 playable characters are trying to escape a so-called  “Mad mansion”. It also shows a picture of an evil-looking scientist when you die, who could possibly be the who runs the mansion. Other story bits might be added later since the developers are actively updating the game, but for now, that’s all we know.

Gameplay

Genetic Disaster is an Isometric co-op roguelike shooter that mainly focuses on the co-op aspect and its replayability. Shoot your way through ten randomly generated levels that consist of multiple rooms filled with a wide set of enemies, secrets and a ton of upgrades. You can play as one out of four unique characters who all have special abilities and different ways of playing the game. Combine that with over 65 unique weapons all with different behaviours and stats and you will never feel like your playing the same way twice! These two features alone make the gameplay heavily varied giving a unique experience every time you play.

Variety in its gameplay is definitely a big deal in Genetic Disaster. Apart from the massive amount of weapons and the unique characters, the levels and even the rules of the game change. At the top right of the screen the game has a timer that switches between special “rules”. These rules can be anything from bullets bouncing off walls, friendly fire or all enemies dropping bombs when they die. You will never know what rule is going to come next so you always need to pay attention to the timer. If you don’t, it might be the end of the game.

This feature is implemented flawlessly the timer is placed on the right side of your screen while every other part of your UI is on the left side. This way it’s easy to forget about it. This constant danger of a rule suddenly changing can create some very tense moments, really upping the gameplay. This mechanic also adds even more randomness for an even more unique experience.

Levels

One thing I didn’t expect to disappoint me was the levels themselves. Even though they are randomly generated, after only a few hours of playtime I started to notice patterns in room layouts and even some exact copies of rooms. The fact that the levels aren’t very different in looks doesn’t help either. All levels use the same tilesets which really isn’t enough for a game that generates its levels. It can make them look boring after playing for some time. You still never play the same levels twice but sometimes they can feel very similar. Luckily all the other unique elements outweigh the lesser variation still making the game feel different every time you play which always is a blast!

Graphics

Genetic Disaster’s visuals are also a very strong point of the game the game is fully hand-painted kind of making up for only having one tileset. The art style really matches the overall vibe of the game with some of its crazy and sometimes quirky designs, really blending the visuals and gameplay together in a nice package. From the enemies to the weapon designs they all just feel right. Even though Genetic Disaster doesn’t give you a lot of information about the playable characters, the designs show of some of the characteristics very well. Devil is a little hot head who likes to rush into his enemies, while Sneaky keeps his cool choosing his prey from a distance. Overall Genetic Disaster looks really good using an awesome art style that I would love to see more.