4089: Ghost Within

Could use some love.

I actually like the few enemies in the game but some form of strafing or something so you can dodge attacks.

More rooms, different kinda weapons, weird interactions like leech guns big attack doesn't leech, maybe some more music, I do love the constant sassy ship lady talking me to death, iunno just gameplay loop doesn't appeal to me.

Overview:

Gameplay:

Controls:

Graphics:

Audio:

Conclusion/TL;DR:

I, truly, am disappointed in this one. I expected it to be a well-balanced RPG game with a reasonable system for upgrading your character like in the predecessors of the game. The predecessors I enjoyed - this game I did not enjoy! The player is left to collect gems to upgrade and they become increasingly scarce? The player is so slow he can hardly dodge any of the enemy attacks? And you lose a STAT point randomly upon death??? WTF? This is seriously a great let down in my books.

It's pretty alright and is quite fun to modify (it's really easy to mod the game and turn into a shitpost-y mess), but the gameplay itself isn't super fun. With it being a roguelike stealth game, the roguelike aspect makes it hard to sneak at times. Stealth isn't really that good either. What is frustrating, too, is that you lose skill points with each death, especially since enemies later become bullet sponges that hit like a freight train. Guns don't feel satisfying to use.
The map layouts can also get pretty confusing and hard to navigate, but that is the price of a randomly generated map.

Very bland, generic and random. The RPG mechanic feels nice enough and the grappling tool offers good mobility, but movement feels sluggish overall, even with higher speeds it just doesn't feel right. In VR I couldn't play this for very long. The bad movement and overly simple and repetitive graphics gave me motion sickness after just a few minutes.

The good things about the game are:
+ Good exploration
+ Nice RPG elements
+ Sneak attack kills feel great
+ Getting good loot is awesome

The bad things are:
- Getting bad loot feels awful and makes the game very difficult
- Bad overall quality of graphics and sound
- Similar design and small textures over large areas make orientation difficult
- Dying is more due to randomized circumstance than lack of player skill
- Death penalties are too high (small stat reduction / being teleported several rooms back / refilling all rooms with enemies)

I tried playing this game, I tried to enjoy it... and I just don't find it fun. I love 3089 and 5089, but this game just seems like a step back in the wrong direction from the other games. It's kinda slow and I kept getting lost inside the ship, felt like I was consantly going in circles with no progression. I don't want a refund, because I fully support the devs! I don't like this game, but maybe you or someone else will!

I picked this up for the VR support. Unfortunately it just isn't playable in VR. The game is designed so that head tracking aims your gun and character (basicaly, your head has to do the job of a mouse). Unfortunately this means there is no way to turn.

I spent about five minutes in the game hurting my neck trying to navigate and laughing at the poor design and the rest in the menus trying to see if there was an option that made it playable.

4089 follows in its predecessors' steps: A first person shooter RPG with randomly generated...well, everything. The key difference is in the previous games (3079 and 3089, and the successor 5089) the player experiences an open world with random quests, highly reminiscent of Daggerfall. This game is entirely different; instead of an open world, the player goes through a randomly-generated ship that's sort of like a bright, high-tech rendition of early dungeon crawler games such as Eye of the Beholder or Wizardry, only more shooterific and fast paced.

After a few plays (or maybe even over the course of the same game) you start to notice patterns, recurring rooms or hallways with slight variations and different exits. I appreciate that even through probably 20 plays (thus far), the ship still felt highly varied and unique with each pass. Developer Phr00t is adept at taking things that are prevalent in bad indie games and just doing them right. Damn right. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the passion in his games somehow pulls them far above the standard indie titles.

I had so much fun playing this game. Truth be told, it's only about 30-45 minutes long (closer to 30), but there are many ways to play and multiple endings to experience. Not to mention it can be *difficult.* Despite the very short length, it took me nine hours before I actually beat it for the first time -- and it most certainly won't be the last.

Phr00t, I truly enjoy your games and am looking forward to more. Keep doing what you're doing; you have a fan here.

I've edited my review after the recent update on 06/08/2016. I must say this game is actually enjoyable now. Enemies still have near dead aim (which is just fine), but you are now able to survive more than 2-3 hits without death. Playing in "Limited Lives Mode" also helps make any deaths less painfull (pun NOT intended) and I highly recommend this mode for players new to this game.

A big "Thank you" goes out to the developer(s) for being responsive to our (the player's) concerns.

On first impression this game is great. Phroot has managed to construct a rich world, in which the story and theme complement the rudimentary polygon graphics. As a rogue-lite, this game is a strong entry in the genre, blending many facets of FPS, rogue, and RPG mechanics in a palatable and flat-out fun way! After a few hours of game play I'm left only with excitement about delving deeper into the mother ship! ABSOLUTELY WORTH THE PRICE!!!

While I've not had much time to spend playing this game due to some earlier (now resolved) tech problems, one thing I'll say: Phr00t (the developer) is *on it*. He really cares about this game, is responsive to technical issues and user feedback, and incorporates that into his project to make it better.

I have to say, I like that style and wish more devs would be as active with their users like this one. It's worth supporting that kind of hard work.

Really thought this game would have more depth based on the preview video and reviews. It's fun and I really like the sounds and graphics but i doesn't have much replay value imo. It's nice how you can level your character and try different combos of stats but it gets repetitive and uninteresting after a few games. Just not my cup of tea.

Cool roguelike rpg shooter if you like games like Heavy Bullets,Paranautical Activity,Eldritch, or Fancy Skulls chances are you'll dig this. You can get almost all the info you need on the games mechanics by watching the trailer at the top of this page. The dev is cool and very helpful and even found a work around so I could play this game when my graphics card didn't get along with the game's engine.

I wanted to like this game, I really did, it has many of the same great aspects of 3089, but the hacking, and the randomly generated levels are not fun. The combat is marginally dumbed down, with that sick time slowing feature removed, along with early access to invisibility, alongside that gun that let you teleport, alongside the hoverboard and I haven't encountered some of the gun types I encountered in 3089. The omission of melee weapons irritated me a great deal. I don't care how objectively strong they were in 3089, they were fun, and a great addition and I see no reason to remove them. Also, you no longer have any armor or chips. These simplifications are irritating, but they wouldn't matter if the game stood on its own as a fun roguelike, and it doesn't. The hacking is unbearable and the combat is irritating. The enemies' projectiles borderline home in on you which requires you to play stupidly safe, and the hacking, oh god. The hacking is essentially based on whether you can luckily get through the one correct path quickly enough, and if you're unlucky enough to make two bad moves in a row or to run out of time you take damage. Now this would be fine but you absolutely have to hack to win the game and there is no way to make hacking easier and it is not a fun challenge. Hacking is like a maze which you have to navigate really quickly, with no inherent idea of which way is corrrect, and I feel it's just too hard. Sometimes you can avoid hacking by using vents in the roof, but sometimes you cannot, and the hacking really turns me off of this game.

This game does get better as you go on, but difficulty, and more importantly fun, as in most rogue likes, is largely determined by luck. It is because of that, the impact luck has on the game, that I didn't like it.

I don't have much experience with writing reviews, so please bear with me.

The Bad:

While it's true that the way you spend your statpoints has a big impact on your playstyle, your playstyle is usually determined by the weapons you find.
And even though there are many different weapons, you only find few in one playthrough (4 in my most recent playthrough). It seems that the way to go is seeing which weapon you get at the beginning and then building your stats around that weapon, or restarting.

Stealth seems underpowered. Yes, being seen later by enemies is good, but the invisibility mechanic eats a lot of energy, especially since you want to land a powerful hit for bonus damage when coming out of it, which leads to the next point.

Energy, as was explained to me, only regenerates by itself for 30%. Meaning if you go for a while spending much energy without finding energy pickups or recharge stations, you'll be suffering from a decreased energy pool (especially since you will rarely have weapons for both high energy usage and low energy usage.)

The death mechanic seems counterintuitive. When you die you respawn in an empty room nearby and lose 1 stat point. Stat points can't be found infinitely, meaning each death makes you weaker.

The Good:

Even though you can't customize your playstyle as you want in every playthrough (and have a chance at victory), it is very enjoyable to pick up your starting weapon and find a way to make it work.

Movement with the grapling hook feels pretty good, and 3d maneuving makes for interesting fights.

The game is challenging (a good kind of challenging if you look beyond the bad points) and the randomly generated dungeon definitely makes it replayable. Also, if you die, (there's a permadeath and limited lives option) you can quickly find yourself in a new game, like in any good roguelike.

Additionally, something I don't value personally that much, but I know that other gamers do, the game has decent graphic options, AA up to x16, and a field of view setting, among others.

Fazit:

If you like challenging roguelikes, and some of the mechanics that hinder either your playtyle or chances of success get balanced or changed, I can definitely reccomend this. In the current version (v1.130), it felt unfair or frustrating sometimes, and I had to restart, but most of the time it was fun.

The latest offering from Phr00t, 4089 has the player take control of an infiltration droid, sent to investigate a cube-shaped mothership that has begun orbiting the planet featured in 3079.

Gameplay involves investigating rooms for recharges, weapons, and other items, while dealing with various robots that serve as the ships defenses; these enemies may be destroyed or avoided as per your play style. There are skills the player character has relating to elements such as health, damage, energy, as well as skills for stealth, hacking, and construction tasks. These skills can be increased by collecting a particular type of consumable; each one provides an extra point that can be assigned to any of the available skills.

Difficulty is relatively high, although the player can choose whether to play in "Challange" mode (Perma-death) or "Adventure" mode (infinite lives, but lose a random skill point upon death). Enemies are fairly accurate, so dodging is a highly valued tactic; a quick-dodge can be obtained with enough skill points in Agility.

Pros:
*Immediate action
*Rogue-like difficulty; enemies and hackable devices do not scale to your level of power
*Adjacent rooms can be on any side of any room (top & bottom included), creating a 3-dimensional network
*diversity of combat skills include creating decoys, phasing (time-warp dodging), and sticking to walls

Cons:
*Music is good, but due to the pace of the game, it becomes repetitive
*Jumping is over-simplified; jump height can not be controlled (as was an option in 3089)
*Traversing the seams between rooms (doorways included) cause the player character to slow down (due to the angle being so acute)

***The issue with the room seams can be solved by reintroducing the variable jump, or by flattening the angle of the seam edge.

NOTE: Be sure to read the information on the store page; 4089 is not meant to be an open-world experience like 3089 is. Also, the player character in 4089 is a robot designed for infiltration, where-as the player character in 3089 is an experimental combat robot; this is why the weapons system in 4089 is simplified when compared to 3089's.

I have been a fan of Phr00t's works since they were released on steam, and this game is really clever, I wasnt expecting much as its a different style of play compared to 3079 and 3089 but its because of that reason it offers you more.

So its a stealth action game, And to me that basically says, "Stealth is not a priority, But its an option" and that personally is the best way to play the game.

I cant see myself sneaking around everywhere but this game has clever tactics you can use, Like jumping on corners of walls and holding yourself against that wall just so you are off the ground from enemies, and grappling away to the other side of the room.

Also the mothership is a CUBE! This may not seem all interesting, But as a fan of the movie cube this is actually really awesome as everything is divided into cubes as you would expect, but also you can be in a room where you may be able to go up, or down to another area instead of just going through corridors all the time, theres also a good amount of variation as its not always square to square room you go through.

As for the other stuff, Yeah it has pickups and stuff as you expect but i have not played enough to comment on items avalible, It has the key mechanics of a great game though.

i love the game, reminds me of some of the old school games except with better graphics. really fun and challenging. if you are having problems with the game starting up, visit the forums, the developer (Phr00t) is on the forums and is awesome and really helps you

It's a nice Roguelike - FPS - Building mashup. Has a great deal of depth with your builds whether you want to go from full on destroyer of worlds mode with everything into health and damage to patient assassin builds with tons of stealth to the engineering tech savant and place blocks to keep from getting punished. It's very difficult for me, but I'm not the best FPS player so it may just be my lack of skill. I haven't found a secret room yet, but I know they are there, which is always a nice bonus. The graphics are going to be a turnoff for some, it's just how it goes in today's world of AAA releases with trash gameplay. Seems to have a bit of social commentary with the Ship's dialogue.

A quick note, the developer has already patched in mouse look sensitivity so he's clearly on top of things. A very big positive

The Quick Rundown -

Style - Roguelike FPS RPG

The Good Stuff

Gameplay - Has depth with character builds, allows for multiple styles of play. It's very hard for me so I am going to rate the challenge at just right for FPS players. ++

Replayability - It's a procedurally generated roguelike, so if you feel the need I'm sure you could put over 100 hours into it. ++

Story - Social commentary on the manipulation of humanity through fear and hatred. + (though some may not like it)

The Bad Stuff

Graphics - People are going to be turned off by them. They are functional, but don't seem very aesthetically pleasing. -

Sound - Again not too great. -

Overall Value - Well worth the cost of ownership. +++

4089 is quite a diffrent game from the prevouis games
its up to you to decided if that is bad for you
this is a very distilled game, it does away with the open world, quests, large Inventories
instead giving you three weapon slots, skills are based on pick ups
instead it rewarding by killing or obejctives instead playing how you want to play as in if you want to sneak, if you want to fight, ect, and does have a perma death challange mode
it is a challenging game and sometimes you can't win with your current stratagies and tatics
instread of a randomly generated world that could hicup and produce some weird things (merging buldings, moutian buldings, trees in buildings, trees forming together, buildings with only one type of vender koisks but have five of them)
instead uses hand crafted rooms (soon the Playerbase of 4089 can make) to shape the world
again its quite diffrent so does that make it bad? no it doesn't

In comparison to previous games, I feel its a step away from rpg and more fps. While it tried to do the whole FPS rouge, it didn't include permadeath. Instead it drops some of your stats on death with no way of reclaiming it. Stats are gained by an item you pick up that are generated on room creation. Enemies cannot as far as I've seen drop the stat increasing item. There is no difficulty setting for the game, there is no go back to previous areas to get stronger, there is only keep moving forward untill you feel like its impossible.