Rheum

[b]While [i]Rheum[/i] has character and heart, the core gameplay is a bit too bland for me to tell my friends to run out and buy this.[/b] I like the artwork and universe, and some of the bullet patterns are quite remarkable. What I don't like is the mish-mash of enemy patterns that roll in, and the overall game mechanic structure is pretty ho-hum. [i]Essentially, how it works is after you kill an enemy it drops XP shards that you collect and fill a meter; when the meter is filled you activate it to gain +1 health and a random powerup.[/i] Okay, that's cool enough on paper, but the whole thing just feels underwhelming. The powerups all need to feel a bit more meaty; when I get a damage up, I should feel more powerful - and largely I didn't. I do need to mention that there are some nice attention to details such as you pick up more XP if you are not shooting, and when you activate the meter you can aim to fire the powerup icon into a group of enemies for some bonus/free damage. [b]Un...

Rheum is a solid and fun game with a few little issues I'll address below. If you need a summary, though: I like it! DISCLAIMER: Obviously what you're getting are my first impressions. There's more content (like extra playable characters) that I haven't yet gotten to, but these are the things that stand out to me within minutes of beginning the game! SETTING: You know what you're getting if you've seen the trailer! Biological horror shootemups like this are an under-represented genre that I'm always glad to see more of. GAMEPLAY: The game may feel a little difficult at first until you get the hang of manually powering yourself up upon absorbing enough Rheum (from defeating enemies). Once you start doing this consistently it's really empowering! Pressing the Power Up button will give you another notch of health and make a powerup icon appear at the bottom of the screen. Collecting the icon will give you a variety of bonuses with the particularly useful effect of cancelling nearby e...

Quick Score: 4/5 Notes: The UI is interesting, but also not super practical, I played for 2 hours before realizing there actually was a tutorial in the game. the tutorial should definitely be enabled by default for your first playthrough because i had a million questions and none of them were being answered. Bosses are fun, the 3 stages are all kind of the same thing though, and because of the power scaling the final stage actually ends up being the easiest aside from the boss. For 3$ the game is definitely worth it, you will get at least 2-3 hours of enjoyment out of it, maybe a bit more if you go for the achievements. Speaking of which, I would have liked to seen just a handful more interesting achievements. Such as a 1cc hard mode with TLB, or some score goal, etc.

This game is so much fun I've played a couple hours. I've recommended this game already to my friends. They tried it on my account first then said they might buy it. Art- Great artstyle. The pixel art is fantastic. The flashy projectiles can be turned down a bit. Got a little headache from staring at the screen for an hour. If you have a medical condition that doesn't allow you to look at bright flashing lights, DO NOT BUY!! It could be harmful to you. If you do not have a medical condition, pick up this game Gameplay- Really damn fast. The game play is nice paced and the enemies are just coming after you the deeper you progress. The power-up system is really neat. You gain XP and it randomly gives you an upgrade or bomb to use along with a random skill up. The bosses are fun and we'll designed. User Interface- The UI is really nice. It is nice and fluent and I have not experienced a single bit of lag, even on my crappy laptop. There are little customizations for the way you start t...

I'd say SpaceMyFriend has done it again but this is an older title (2018) that I've just discovered. I love his visceral themes and just the quirky nature of his games, and all the hidden little extras you can find if you delve deep enough. Bosses are hard as nails! Replayable. Rheum's a superb top-scrolling shooter which quickly turns into a bullet hell. Super challenging; has secrets if you can survive long enough to find them. Love the visceral theme, great little game. For more niche curation, follow me at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27440015-CSH-Picone/

For those who have played games like Lifeforce or Abadox, or wondered what Chronenberg's body horror would be like in a game, here you go. controls are fluid and easy to use, Although a focus button would be helpful, since it does share several bullet hell aspects. The music is nice, if understated to not be a distraction. The graphics are fitting for the game, and cartoonish enough to not make the experience nausiating.

Rheum is yet another of literally hundreds of lazy amateur 2D retro bullet hell shoot 'em ups infesting Steam and lowering the average quality of all video games everywhere. This one has an oesophagus theme, which is a terrible idea, but then again, so is reskinning a shoot 'em up template from the GameMaker Studio construction kit and pretending to be a game developer. And then inflicting that on Steam gamers after paying $100 to publish garbage through Valve's disastrous Steam Direct program. Yet here we are. Anyway this is a really badly made shmup. There's a slew of defects on top of the shallow, mediocre gameplay and craptastic "art". From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel "art" as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics. It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget or talent, regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is e...

Nice shoot 'em that will turn into a bullet hell during its bossfights. I especially like the upgrade mechanic where taking permanent upgrades makes you weaker for a short time. This way you always have to keep in mind the long term and short term implications of taking an upgrade. The bullets and patterns are always clearly distinguishable, never had problems with that. Only major complaint I have, is the lacking soundscape as there are very few sound effects in relation to what's going on on the screen, which feels very odd. If you're looking for a shmup that's a little bit out of the ordinary, give Rheum a go.

Deserves more atention

Pretty cool game. Hope you try it out.