Alright, we’ve got a deep-sea roguelike on our hands today, guys. It’s called Feed the Deep and it’s entirely developed by Luke Muscat, the guy who brought us Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. From what we’ve heard so far, gamers are giving it very positive reviews, however, some have noted their issues with progression and exploration balance. Let’s go around the table and share our thoughts?
Cool, I’ll start. You guys know me, I’m all about exploring every pixel of the game and I love it when a game rewards my curiosity. First off, the procedurally generated caves are absolutely fantastic. Every playthrough feels different. However, having to constantly backtrack diminishes the fun a bit. Also – and this is a minor frustration – I noticed some imbalance in the shop items. Some tools, despite their relatively high cost in gathered gold, don’t seem to offer much value, especially in the early stages of the game.
Absolutely agree with you, CompletionistMaster. I was disappointed with the lack of exploration tools at the start, like they aren’t utilizing the unique art style properly. Speaking of which, the art style and animations are both fantastic! They’ve created this eerie, atmospheric deep-sea environment with just a dash of a cartoonish twist, which I’ve really been enjoying.
The art is lovely, indeed! For a speedrunner though, the back-and-forth gameplay is a bit of a buzzkill. It was also frustrating that lighter items slowed me down as much as the gold kernels, when in other roguelikes you balance inventory based on an item’s weight. But the thrill of strategically using bombs to pave my own path was an adrenaline rush.
Interesting views, folks. I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the atmospheric soundtrack. Cedar Jones has done a fine job in accentuating the sense of tension and suspense. Also, I think where Luke really shines is the intuitive simplicity of the gameplay much like his previous titles. It’s simple, yet engaging and the tension builds in pace with your exploration.
Agreed, the production value, graphics, and sound all elevate the gameplay, which can appear simplistic upon first glance. As we delved deeper, however, we experienced the narrative unfolding with our exploration. Although there’s more room for world-building. Ignore the backtracking issue, and you’ve got a game you’d want to replay just to experience the narrative progression differently or try new strategies.
I agree, but I think the levels could use some more complexity. Right now, there isn’t a real challenge to map navigation, nor is there much variety in challenges or puzzles. If the developer could ramp up the difficulty, that’d be great. Even adding a speedrunning mode, or challenges to complete game sections in a certain time would be welcome.
Yeah, the game’s potential replayability comes from its procedural generation. Still, for casual players, I could see the appeal to sprint through the game a couple of times, especially if there are more content updates from Luke.
Totally. Coming back to the comparison, I feel the game maintains the DNA of Luke Muscat’s previous simple-yet-compelling game design philosophy. The fresh take on the roguelike genre is a testament to his creativity, although, like you guys mentioned, there’s room for improvement in terms of balance and exploration.
But despite the minor hiccups, it’s definitely worth a play for the environment and narrative alone. I’m eager to see how Muscat will take all this constructive feedback and elevate the game even further.
Well said, CompletionistMaster. On that note, let’s wrap it up. That was a stimulating discussion, guys, and I think we all have our hopes high for potential sequels or future updates to Feed the Deep. May this deep sea keep feeding us more intriguing adventures!
