Time Wasters

What is there to say? Cheap, fun, and the characters are varied enough to keep it fresh.

Screen melting fun! Game is easy to play but hard to beat at first; until you get upgrades. I like that if allows you to keep playing after defeating the final boss. Some weapons are a lot worse than others and are kind of unplayable unless you get lucky with early upgrades.

Developer claims they have always been transparent about AI-generated content in this game, but a simple look at the Wayback Machine makes it clear that's absolutely untrue. There was no mention of AI on the store when I bought this and the developer has made it clear they support and will continue to use AI slop.

+ Good value for money
+ Good progression system
+ Compelling challenges
+ fun bosses

- not a lot of content
- not much enemy variety
- one default map, with all the interesting maps and mechanics challenge mode only

Overall verdict: Would recommend

Game is more difficult than you think, but it is at its core a space-themed Vampire Survivors clone that also branched out to other game modes, which is actually quite good.

Wastes time

used ai art apparently

Fun-ish. Interesting concept. Needs way more content but it's only $5.

Just not fun.

epic, well balanced gameplay and fun diffrent level

Don't waste your time.

Literally its name

+You get to pick your own crew
+Some meta-upgrades are ingame skills, so you don't have to spend skill points
+Choose your zones to fight in, e.g. extra money or defense turrets, and when to open your 'piggy bank'

-Some ships are harder in the beginning
-It will take time to unlock all meta-upgrades
-Screen can become cluttered with projectiles and laser beams
-Without upgrades, you sometimes die because you couldnt see the danger, or crash into something

Bought it before finding out about the AI f**kery. Game's fun enough, but just support more ethical alternatives.

Simple but fun bullet heaven.

I love trying out different combos of heroes. I just wish their were more maps and a update with even more heroes. Excellent game.

A delicious waste of time.

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Wasted a lot of time. great gameplay loop that keeps you coming back, it can get quite challenging and the upgrades feel like worthwile progress.

Vampire Survivors with space ships :)

lovely bullet hell,

First pushing A.I artwork, then getting rid of all your media presence, and next A.I generated trading cards? Wild that you think so low of your own consumers.

Time Wasted Indeed, I need to finish my life on this note
Didn't even consider this was not only a time waster but was just ai made, waste on all fields.

The game itself is fine, nothing too special but not terrible. Doesn't scale well as well as similar games I've played, instead it just kinda insta-kills you until you unlock the right abilities, and a lot of the challenge modes are pretty bland. It's like a 5/10.
However the devs not only using gen AI to lower costs for art, but trying to keep it on the down low for as long as they could and doing their best to silence discussion about it is really shady, as if it wasn't enough to utilize gen AI for images in the first place.
Unfortunately bought and played this before I was savvy at spotting AI images, and there was no disclaimer at the time - thought the art style was just really generic.
Would refund if I could, but will be erasing this from my account regardless.
Don't support poor business practices people, yeesh.

While the gameplay is decently fun, the lazy and blatantly obvious use of generative AI is severely disappointing. Your money is better spent on developers who actually put in the effort to create something worth playing.

Haven't been playing long, but I love it, the stages, the Captains, the skills and attacks, there's so many variations that you can't get tired, you don't just play the same thing over and over again, 10/10 would recommend
WARNING: THIS GAME IS ADDICTING

Purchased based off of enjoying their previous titles before seeing the AI art notice on the store page. I asked them to consider replacing it with real art, either when they get the resources or by asking the community, as it would be good for raising good will. The developer responded passive aggressively and refused the possibility of updating the game regardless of success, so I don't feel able to recommend the game.

Hopefully someone else does a good twinstick bullet heaven, it really is a good idea.

Great game.

Simple yet addictive gameplay - lot´s of fun

I'd give this game a neutral score if I could. It shows a lot of promise but the lack of variety in both level design, layout, and items just makes every playthrough follow a distinct pattern. It's also obvious that some weapons are a lot better than others and it's even more obvious when going through each character's solo challenge.

Overall, I'd only recommend on a sale.

AI slop.

The runs are completely predictable with identical level layouts and enemy placement every time. While there are different weapons available, they don't add much variety and you'll likely stick to the same proven loadout repeatedly.

The core concept shows promise, but the lack of variety holds it back. The gameplay becomes repetitive and boring after just a few hours. All achievements are easy to obtain, thats a plus i would say.

Bottom line: Worth considering during a sale, but wouldn't recommend it at full price.

The name is right, this is a time wasters, but a really good one. Waifus, big numbers on the screen and lots of big powers, what more a person can ask?

A mighty fine TIME WASTER 10/10!

Time Wasters turned out to be an immensely satisfying surprise hit for me with its balanced pacing, lively aesthetics and responsive controls.

The starting captain defines the ship's main weapon and support characteristics. Amass gold from destroyed enemies to earn one of 3 random upgrades on level up. Hire additional crew and install weapon upgrades to fill all slots that complete each build.

Visit the store to spend secured time cubes on more advanced upgrades. Prioritize selections with complementary powers to maximize arsenal and defenses — while there are no truly bad combinations some really do work immensely better than others.

Salvaged space cubes enable permanent upgrades for the same upgrade paths. They make subsequent runs easier without having to level them up from scratch each time, but don't alter abilities.

Outposts provide various instantaneous boosts (damage, repair, gold, etc.) Most recharge on timers, others remain constantly active when in range. After each main boss fight, an outpost will typically come under attack, and failing to defend it removes its benefits for the rest of the match.

Completing the main campaign with each character unlocks their solo mission, challenging a single pilot to replay the same 120 waves without weapon mix ups or help from additional captains. This in turn unlocks their unique loyalty mission, altering gameplay drastically with variations that include a tower defense setup, a concert in space, cities to defend, planets to colonize, a pinball machine, rescue mission, etc.

Certain solo or loyalty missions can be more challenging but once captains receive enough upgrades the game tends to become very easy. To end a round, enemies swarm up and clamp around the player to block off any way out. Projectile damage is minimal. Through progression, enemies don't really get much stronger, they mostly become faster and more numerous.

Beating the final boss leads to the optional endless mode that replays enemy waves in enhanced form. Not everything scales linearly. Bosses in particular become ridiculously easy to beat with upgraded ships — some can be destroyed in just a few seconds, occasionally before they even enter the screen! Good to loot more space cubes for permanent upgrades but these become tiring since they can literally run for hours.

Positive

• Swift and highly maneuverable controls
  
• Colorful vector-like visuals and smooth animations
  
• Plenty of VFX with insane amount of particles on screen
  
• Switch between auto and manual aim on the fly
  
• Auto aim simplifies interactions while suitable for most occasions
  
• Good selection of complementary weapons and support systems
  
• Great pace, not too fast, not too slow
  
• Fair difficulty with good progression
  
• Near flawless performance (even on older hardware)
  
• Relies heavily on audio cues to communicate vital information (shields depleting, taking core damage, etc.)
  
• Clean and very effective UI
  
• Enemy ships fill up and change color as their health declines
  
• Select upgrades at opportune moments (no imposed popup at each level up)
  
• Plays great on gamepad (KBM also supported)
  
• Very decently priced
  
• Plenty of content when completing all challenge varieties, otherwise a bit skim
  

Negative

• Enemies have limited behavioral range, will mostly swarm the player
  
• Majority of original content locked behind repetitive playthroughs
  
• Some levels do not provide space cubes and thus no progression
  
• Permanent upgrades don't alter or improve abilities and only act as upgrade shortcuts
  
• Irrelevant title name (outside insistent use of "Time" across developer's catalogue)
  
[*] AI-generated character portraits, a blunder that tarnishes the developer’s moral compass more than the quality of the game

Engaging gameplay within the bullet heaven genre mixing asteroids with mining detail. A big tip is to upgrade your gold outpost early as it lets you get way more levels.

Requires a little too much grinding to unlock the bonus levels for each character, and 4 of the character's loadouts are kind of crap. Other than that, it is satisfying to run around the map as your ship shoots at things. Would only recommend on sale, at around $3 or less.

it's kind of a grind in the beginning but later on it'll be a nice balance of bullet hell and bullet heaven

Addictive game with the exact same level becomes boring after a while. Not even the location of the planets are randomized. So have you gone though the level once you know how it will be the next runs.

Initially it looked promising, but with a few hours down the line you understand that its nothing like what you are expecting.

The scaling is just awful, its listed as a bullet hell, but theres barely any enemy bullets in the game. The progression just ramps up the enemy HP and increases their knockback resistance untill they basically kamikaze swarm you. This isnt bullet hell, they are just mindlessly ramming towards you.

From there "endless progress" is basically you maze running away from them, so the only viable options are weapons/crew with pushback and slow. Since we are talking about weapons/crew, the balance is just non existent. Some or useless in any stage of the game, others become viable at some point, but suffer dreadful early game, which leaves you with more or less half of them. Since you have to pick 4, the options for any progress are minimal.

I rarely drop a game before unlocking all of the content (or commenting one for that matter), but the final nail was a bug that basically shuts down your ship in place after using your booster, stopping it from filling back up.

a pretty active vamp-surv-alike that keeps you busy by giving you a few different stations to dart between. i was little mixed on it until i got the boxing gloves weapon, which are easily one of the funniest weapons i have used in a game like this.

This is Vampire Survivors, but in space. A great game visually and the overall game play is fun. I recommend this to...well...waste time.

This game is good.

Pros

* Tons of fun!
* Nice graphics - Has visual clarity
* Solid gameplay - Enemies and ship feel they're both the right speed for a fair challenge

Cons

* Early runs felt a little under powered until you could grind out more permanent upgrades. Doesn't feel good to have a run end because your ship isn't powerful enough to break through a wall of enemies. Also doesn't feel good if that run gives you nothing to help with the next.
* Like all games in this genre, balance of weapons is off
* Decision fatigue. You need to decide on 70+ upgrades during the course of a run, so each individual upgrade feels very minor. (Most games in this genre have this issue)

Neutral

* I never felt super overpowered. If you're looking for builds that can absolutely break the game, you'll probably want to look elsewhere

Time Wasters is another survivors-like that has enough unique characteristics to distinguish itself from many others in the genre.

You can play as a variety of pilots, each with a specialized weapon as well as access to power-ups unique to that pilot. You can also choose up to three of the other pilots to serve as co-pilots, allowing you to upgrade to super versions of their weapons and giving you access to their power-ups. While in the early game you can mix and match weapons and do well with pretty much any combination, later challenges require a more strategic selection of both weapons and power-ups.

One unique mechanic is that the environment includes several stations with their own helpful features (like giving you a money boost or causing an explosion that can wipe out many enemies), each with their own cooldown, encouraging you to keep moving to maximize their benefits. These stations can also be powered up, adding another layer of strategy.

After beating a regular run with a pilot, you unlock a "solo" mode where you don't have access to any other weapons besides that pilot's default. Beat "solo" mode and you unlock a unique "challenge" mode for each pilot. These are the most difficult parts of the game, but they are also the most interesting as they offer unique maps and mechanics that feel quite different from regular gameplay. This is where strategy becomes much more important, as many of these challenges can't be beaten by improvising and require a plan. It was quite satisfying to beat them all.

Time Wasters is a fun and engaging game with a good sense of progression and enough variety to keep me coming back until I had gotten all the achievements. Recommended.

Good little innovation on the bullet haven formula, Rapid movement and zone control adds some actual strategy.

สมชื่อ

GOOD

7/10

Decent rogue-lite, space setting is a bit unique. Good amount of content for price and some nice challenges, that aren't just grind mobs. Art style is clear and game play is very smooth. Recommended to all rogue-lite fans.

gud gaim

Can it be considered time wasted if you had fun? The game is what it appears to be, and it's fun. Nice weapon variety. I also like the idea of zones that spawn helpful items.