I last spent significant time with Neon Abyss 2 back in March, when there was a public playtest. That initial impression had my expectations high, and so I was looking forward to spending more time in this neon-infused mish-mash of futurism and mythology.
What is Neon Abyss 2?
For the unitiated, Vewoo Games’ sequel is a side-scrolling run ‘n’ gun platform game with some of the funkiest pixels around. It offers a unique cyberpunk setting that blends ancient mythology with a bold colour palette and tongue-in-cheek futurism. In short, it’s super stylish and lovely to look at.
Neon Abyss 2 also boasts a roguelite structure that sees your progress feed into a growing range of unlocks, which in turn expands run variety with each new attempt. That might be because you’ve unlocked a new weapon or trinket, or because you’ve just got access to one of the game’s unlockable characters.
Each run takes you into the eponymous Abyss, a strange underworld full of floating mechanical monsters, giant emoji bosses, and much more besides. Therein you must advance through five stages, each one ripe for exploration and looting, with a satirical boss battle waiting for you at the end.
Neon Abyss 2 for two
The big focus for me this time around was on the online co-op play – the big addition in this sequel. I’ve tried the EA version alone and with Kieran by my side, and overall I think things are on the right track.
The Steam review score is currently “mixed” in part because a number of people experienced teething issues, but I think some patching has been done on this front, and apart from some connectivity issues, the actual gameplay was smooth on my side.
Resources are a shared commodity in Neon Abyss 2, which makes for some on-the-fly decision making as you both try and create a winning build from what is offered. The build development side of things didn’t feel as coherent in co-op as when I was playing alone, however, we still got to make enough decisions that our characters felt sufficiently different – plus having a buddy with you makes things better, right!?
Credits are shared out between players, but health and shields are not, so if you’ve got a friend who likes to grab up all the gear first, you’ll need to keep an eye on them here. (Isn’t that right, Kieran?!)
All in all, I thought the two-player co-op worked pretty well, as you are actually quite independent of each other and can explore at your own pace, without being rubber-banded to wherever your buddy is all the time and pulled out of your immediate focus.
Neon Abyss 2 actually supports up to four players, but I can imagine that four people bouncing around together might be quite distracting. I mean, it’s quite busy when there’s just one of you…
Guns and stuff
Both Kieran and I struggled to enjoy the more traditional melee weapons, however, Neon Abyss 2 has some fun guns. During last night’s final play-through, which was just little ol’ me on my lonesome, I had a staff that fired electric bolts into an accompanying grey cloud, which in turn would zap nearby enemies with chain lightning. That was cool. Today I had a poison gun that stacked with each shot before exploding. Less cool, but certainly solid.
Some of the starter weapons are pretty tame in comparison to the ones you’ll find during a run, so make sure you dig out a new weapon as quickly as possible – this is done by exploring every corner of the level, in particular the challenge rooms. As you explore, you’ll also find shards that open doors, keys for chests, coins to spend in the shops, and other secrets that require unlocks for you to find.
There’s already a fair bit packed into the Early Access build, but I’ve yet to really dig into the deeper progression. For example, I’ve tried playing with a couple of different characters, but there are several more to try, and there are lots of item unlocks that I’ve discovered but that I’ve not encountered in-game yet.
Bossing the changes
I’ve battled against a bunch of different bosses now, and they all poke gentle fun at the world of contemporary social media. For the most part, I thought they were solid, but maybe a little too predictable at times. However, there were some fun animations and variable attack types that made them feel a little different from run to run.
The aforementioned attack variety stopped the existing bosses from feeling repetitious, but naturally this is one area where I hope to see more additions in the months and years ahead.
There’s a new faith system, although it requires an investment over time, with new build-defining abilities/pathways that can be unlocked with special points. In-game there are also vendors linked to this same system, which you can unlock in each level and that whisk you off to a special store with loads of items in it. Here you can swap some blood for cash or even take out a loan, although the lender will then follow you around like a Hatchimon, grabbing up your gold until you’ve paid your debt.
Speaking of Hatchimons, those adorable little critters are back, and once again they will follow you into battle and help out where they can. That said, they work slightly differently here, as you can combo them up. The new system worked fine for me, but Kieran (who played the first game recently) was less pleased as now you have to hatch several and combine them to get something decent.
All-in-all, Neon Abyss 2 has kept me entertained for a few hours, and as a co-op game in particular, I think there’s potential for this to evolve into something special as more variety is added over the Early Access process. As a solo game, however, it’s hard to claim that it’s a clear improvement over the original just yet, and I’m looking for more polish before making that sort of argument.
There is time, still, and this is not the finished article. Vewoo has work to do as they grow and expand this project into a game fit for a cross-platform release, just like its predecessor. It’s off to a solid start and I’ve enjoyed my time with it thus far, but you should only dive in if you’re prepared to roll up your sleeves and help it find its final form.
Neon Abyss 2 is out now on PC (Win), and we played the game via access provided by the developer and their PR buds. If you’d like to find out more about the game, our launch day interview with Vewoo Games can be found right here!
