I did have a demo lined up for today but I ended up playing another game. Some demos just look more fun. This week’s game is something I truly enjoyed despite the difficulty. Somehow I always find myself back at enjoying Rogue Lites. I have no issue with them it is just that there are so many of them it is easy to get flustered from the genre. Adding an arena shooter to your Rogue Lite makes me wanna play your game. This week is GOBSMACKED.

Ash & Adam’s GOBSMACKED is an FPS rogue-lite from… Ash & Adam’s Games. The demo is available on Steam and has no release date yet.

You play as a goblin out there duking it out with robots to hear the audience chant your goblin name (or whatever I never completed the demo).

GOBSMACKED started out at 75 sensitivity and my DPI is 800 I moved my mouse slightly and I did a whole 360 and more. You are immediately introduced to the pre-game store where you can choose your load out. A crossbow, flamethrower, and a saw blade are offered in the demo. Special abilities can also be purchased to extend your life in the arena. The deeper you go into the demo levels the more lethal traps and tougher enemies will spawn. it gets a little tricky to navigate such a fast-paced game and insta-hurt traps. It is a little bit concerning but it is still frantic fun.

Once done with shipping it is time to get right into it. You are given a specific number of enemies that reside within the arena and you have to show them the fucking door either by destroying them with your fists, foot, weapon, or grenade. Enemies are sometimes up high and down low so jumping and climbing are needed.

After the room has been cleared money will rain down from the sky for you to collect while being timed. The timer can be extended and afterward, you are given the chance to spend your money in the store. Rogue-lite stuff like more money when killing enemies, increased max health, and your obligatory health potion, ammo, and grenades.

Rinse and Repeat

There are exactly two songs in the demo and they are both pretty good. The combat music makes you want to shoot guns and kick the shit out of robots and the clear room/ collect gold song is fun and bouncy.

Ash & Adam’s GOBSMACKED is an interesting concept that works just enough to want to wishlist it. I played a few runs to make sure that I was doing it right and it was still really difficult. It didn’t stop me from wanting to play more but I was wary of the difficulty. The core combat is fun I like jumping around, climbing walls, and kicking or throwing robots off of tall structures. The weapons are fun, but the saw blade was a little wonky with the increased projectile making the saw blade pretty much a bust. I had to quit and start a new run because of it.

Other than that, the demo was fun. I like the combat and I really like the money that rains down and allows me to buy stuff to improve my run.