Angelstruck [Review]
Blast you way into heaven in Angelstruck.
Angelstruck. Credit: Feral Paw
Developed by two-man Turkish studio Feral Paw, Angelstruck is an adrenaline-pumping arcade twin stick bullet hell shooter with a roguelite progression loop. Though a lot of what’s in the game maybe mechanically familiar, it feels great to play and is addictive in that “let me try just one more time” way.
You’re an angel of hell shooting your way to heaven. You’re on a platform that’s rapidly rising from the depths, battling hordes of heavenly and demonic creatures with your trusty machine gun. That’s the narrative breadth of the game, and it’s perfectly fine. This is a game where you run around shooting lots of monsters.
Angelstruck. Credit: Feral Paw
Angelstruck takes place on a single screen. Your platform is rapidly moving, but you’re not really going anywhere; all that is in the background. What’s important is wave after wave of enemies will appear and attack. These waves aren’t randomized, allowing for some memorization and muscle memory to develop. Eventually, you’ll fight a giant boss before moving on to shoot even more guys. I enjoyed the bosses, though I found the first boss far more difficult than the next couple I was able to reach. Bosses have patterns you can learn and overall are very fair.
You run left or right and can also jump and dash. The dash feels great; it gives you temporary invincibility and damages enemies. Firing at some enemies while killing other enemies with your dash is just super cool. You aim in any direction and fire with the right stick. You’ve also got a secondary weapon, a shotgun spread shot by default, that will power up as you kill enemies. You can buy new secondary weapons later on.
Angelstruck. Credit: Feral Paw
You have infinite ammo, but not infinite bullets in your clip, so you’ll have to reload frequently. I’m mixed on the reload mechanic—a Gears of War inspired timing bonus. Nailing the timing gives you a satisfying temporary boost to rate of fire. Miss, and your reload will take twice as long. I think the penalty is just too harsh. If reloading was a little faster and the penalty was a half increase, I think the mechanic would feel a lot better. In Gears, there are moments of respite by using cover. Here there’s no such thing, as you must run and dodge all the time, so having to think about timing a reload and then failing it gets stressful. Also, the timing indicator confusingly appears in two places, the aiming reticule and a gauge that appears above your character’s head. The gauge should be eliminated because the reticule is far easier to read.
During your run, you’ll earn experience, and each level you gain will earn you a perk. This works like what you see in Vampire Survivors, where you’ll have a choice from several at random with a limited number of rerolls. Like Survivors, these perks are upgradable if you choose them again and when fully powered up can synergize with other perks.
Angelstruck. Credit: Feral Paw
Between runs you can purchase permanent upgrades with currency you earn. There are several tiers and they get pretty expensive. Earning currency is too slow. It would have been far more gratifying if each individual upgrade had multiple tiers with increasing cost so that the player can feel like they’re earning rewards more frequently, even if the boosts provided are in smaller increments. I always wanted to play again to see if I could make it a bit further, but it does get disheartening after a while when I fail several runs and still can’t afford a new upgrade.
Angelstruck. Credit: Feral Paw
Angelstruck is a great looking game, featuring 2D illustrated graphics with attractive animations for explosions, beams, bullet trails, and more. Landing shots on enemies feels great, especially when they die with a satisfying, fiery pop. Enemies that attack by throwing themselves at the ground or at you leave cool energy trails in their wake. The screen is just always full of bright moving bits—it’s truly eye candy.
I’ll continue throwing myself into Angelstruck’s meat grinder. The game scratches my arcade game itch. I just hope that the developers spend some time tweaking the permanent powerup progression.
Angelstruck is available now for PC and Mac on Steam.
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: Steam Deck
