Fallback

.

I've fallen into and out of and back into love with this little game. A roguelite with more depth than it deserves, I feel like I'm not being very hyperbolic when I say it almost rivals Dead Cells - at least for complexity of combat. The leveling up is pretty slick, the number of classes you can play is relatively diverse, and the movement is solid.
There are some puzzles scattered throughout which is a refreshing break from combat, and the bad guys feel very fair.

Anyway, if you're looking for a new action-platformer roguelite, then this is the game for you!

This game is amazing in so many unique ways that I am not sure I can describe well. It is kind of the perfect rogue like for me, but somehow I suck at it. I have never finished a run. Granted I do play on hard, but not only have I never finished a run, I have never even gotten close in fact. I died in the first room in the foundry (final level) every time so far.

Here is why this game is so fucking good and perfect for me:

1.
It is 100% skill based. Realistically you won't be able to, but you can beat this game without any of the stat and ablility progression or any new character. Nothing is unfair. If you die, it is your fault. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a malding scrub. The thing that will improve the most over the runs is yourself. Taking damage is insanely punishing, especially in the foundry, where you will most likely die in 3 hits at most. So better git gut (I am not there yet lmao). Yes, also platforming is 100% skill based and you will never get trolled with cheap deaths (falling is also very punishing, not instakill but a big chunk of your hp).
2.
The perspective allows for all the benefits of simplistic intuitive gameplay that 2D sidescrollers have and the 3-dimensional looping back in on itself level design that only 3D games can achieve. I would call it a 3D sidescroller, where your movement is 2-dimensional but the level design is 3-dimensional because the movement dimension is not a straight line but curves that can converge and create junctions in which you can jump from one perspective to another, which takes a lot of time to get used to, but once you get it, it feels insane how the entire world keeps looping in on itself. This also allows for the platforming to be very precise and intuitive.
3.
The random level generation is the best I have ever seen in a rogue like. This is mostly, because of the unique innovative perspective. There is a set amount of base room layouts, but there are a lot. I would say I should have seen every single one for the first level by now, but it took about 60 runs to do so. Some will be there a lot more often than others. The base layouts change a lot, with different obstacles, reward tracks, blocked off paths, enemy varieties, etc. I don't think I have ever seen the exact same room layout twice so far. Some base rules are: There are two paths (left and right) to go from the starting room, with a lot more opening up the farther you get. If you go far enough in one direction, you, will in the end, end up getting to the starting room meaning it will always loop in on itself. Every room follows those rules as well, I believe with some being a lot more complicated than others (4 way junctions can mind fuck you when you first start getting used to the perspective). I am pretty sure there are no dead big dead ends where a room just leads to a reward or something, so exploration feels very natural and if you get used to it, you can really map out the 3-dimensional level in this 2D game. That sounds so insane, but that is the brilliance of this perspective.
3.
Graphics, animations and Sfx are really, really good. I don't know how they nailed this as the first game of an indie studio, but the game sounds and looks gorgeous. It nails the post apocalyptic cyberpunk feel, with the character animations been so crisp that it can get quite immersive at times. This game is below 10 bucks. How they did this is beyond me. This is what makes the combat and platforming so satisfying as well. Everything from jumping to swinging your weapon to getting hit is so dependant on these aspects that a skill based game like this absolutely needs to have this down and here they absolutely have.

Here are some personal small gripes I have: I don't like pure stat progression in rogue likes. This has a lot of pure stat progression. Not a major issue, as this is mostly just help for people being bad and the game being completely skill based means, that you don't need any of them and they are mostly just to help you get over the line. The abilities are modules and until you get all modul upgrades, they are a bit repetitive. I unlocked them all now and now the game feels a lot better. But due to the punishing nature, it can sometimes feel really tough if you don't get the best of the best. A lot of the runs feel like I should reset, because the damage I am dealing and taking is too bad for me to finish.

Overall, couldn't recommend this game enough to anyone, even if it was 25 Euros. At 10 this is just an absolute steal for all the effort that has been put into this game. GET IT NOW. Or I will kiss you on your lips.

I love the visual aesthetic of this game and the quality of the visuals is great. The core game mechanics are very repetitive, but the strategy for each enemy is different, and the enemies have many different variants as you progress through the various areas and so the core mechanics feel less repetitive than they are. The different "classes" are fairly well differentiated and allow you to change your play style and keep the game from feeling too monotonous. The procedurally generated maps are very good in my opinion; the game feels much larger than it is. I really like the background lore as well. All in all, I'm really enjoying the game. Many of the hours I've logged so far have been consecutive, but it is just as easy to pick up the game for shorter bouts of gameplay.

This game is an excellent 2.5D action platformer roguelite. The camera work is superb and the graphics are off the hook. The combat is challenging but fair. I would say the story is the weakest part of the whole experience. That, however doesn't stop the game from being fun and replayable.

Really nice roguelite with enough variation to not make it feel repetitive.
If you are like me and like to complete your games, this game allows you to unlock every achievement even in easy which is really fun and allowed me to do long runs when I had the time. The only achievement I had to grind was the 100 deaths.
Fallback feels like a hidden gem, really hope more people get to experience this game.

Recommending, because it really *is* fun, but *SUPER* conditional recommendation.

So the game is clearly not really made for MKB, but it does let you change the controls, so it's perfectly playable; there is the annoying factor that in menu screens it still requires using the arrow keys (why?) and for some reason it likes to hit the task bar a lot (having duel monitors makes this easy to fix, but if you don't... gl.. it doesn't pause when you tab out so RIP..).

For me, this is an obnoxious but not game ruining bug, but something one should really think about before buying.

Beyond that... Me, buying this game, thinking a platformer rougelite about kicking robots asses sounds awesome. Me, actually playing the game, wondering what the fuck kinda math these devs are using...
"38, 2, 19, 9, 3, _." What? Fuck I mean, I didn't think I was bad at these but dayum lol... Seriously, though, make this game more keyboard and mouse friendly and it'd be a 10/10 game, it's a blast when not having to worry about tabbing out ;P As it stands, with dual monitors it's an 8/10, and honestly, I wouldn't play it on a single monitor myself.

Edit: Okay, so bc they don't tell you the correct number when you get it wrong, I googled it, I'm on some site called "next number" and it has no clue what the next number would be either lol.. If anyone smarter than me is reading this, by all means comment the answer and how you got that????

Hi people,

To begin, I'll say the bad reviews are right for the constructive one not those saying it's shit whithout any other words.

This game as potential but it is very blunt. There is no combo, no impressive skill and at least farming money to upgrade the stats tree is easily done.

If you are interested in numbers, not even 20% of those who bought the game have gone to the second level. And it's legit. The game feel boring quite quickly since there is nothing to really reward you. As I said no flashy move, from yourself or ennemies, barely any chest and since there is no equipment if you find one ( a chest ) it's only XP and money ( maybe heal they are so few of them that I don't remember ).

Still, I like the game since there is no difficult mechanics to learn and monster pattern are simple ( for the first level at least since I got on the second with almost no life and got fucked up by a combat room with the same usual ennemies but they did have more move which surprised me and they also have another color ).

The real problem I have with this is that there is différent character that are sold as doing different things ( burning, poisonning, ranged combat, fast melee combat with regenerative ability and two others I don't really know about ).

But, first, you need to use the powerful attack ( not the ultimate ) to use it and well that's suc since they do not do that much damage and it's easier to spam the normal one since it's strike faster. Second, the skill tree of each playable character feels useless since it's mainly here to unlock a new character and cost a lot to upgrade with only 4 to 6 nods ( one for the new character so it's useless ) and 5 levels each and it costs a hell lot of XP ( they are your skill point not experience )

First level : 1XP
Second level : 2 XP
and so on...

I do understand that you'll need some time or even be unable to finish the game because I do'nt really know how many floor there is but if you knew it would be like that then develop the skill tree to make the character stronger and funnier to play with instead of 4 miserable upgrades which feel almost useless to boost.

I'll recommend it because it's not a bad game. It has defaults but the core gameplay is ok, there is no bug ( at least I didn't encounter any ) and the graphics are ok, simple but really ok. The only thing I don't know would be if the dev are still on the game for more real content or only to finish adding traduction and fixing the last bug or QoL fixes.

Hey, wait a minute, this game is actually good?
Thats a quote from my friend after he watched me play this game for a little. Its not surprising though because if you only play the game once, the first hour is absolute dookie. Your character is ridiculously slow, weak, squishy, and talentless. Only after an hour of playing will you have amassed the needed in game currency to upgrade your base stats (and they affect all classes). After this point, the game quickly begins picking up pace and by hour 2 you'll be glad you paid the meager asking price for this experience.
Are there issues? Hell yeah there are. The game doesnt run all that smoothly, the maps can be confusing and a bit repetitive in their layouts, the combat feels a bit clunky, and the game is extremely unfriendly to beginners. But underneath the apparent jank, there is a really awesome experience. Notably, I really like the general movement and navigation. Its a 2.5D game so you side scroll and move vertically, but you also change you path in the third dimension at points as well. This is all tied together with a nice jetpack and ledge-grab system which allows for some nice exploration. I do wish the combat played into this flying system more for all the characters instead of just a few.
It's got all of your usual rogue-like staples, so if you're into the genre I really do think this is a game that deserves at least an hour of your time to see what its got. If you dont like it, just return it.
If you're not into the genre, I still do give it a recommendation. Just be aware that its got some niche appeal and the frustrating difficulty might be offputting at first.

6 classes with only 2 active skills for each class
also with no cool combo
just keep repeat the same move forever

really a boring game
rogue lite game,yes
action game, nah

I wonder why this game isn't that high in the list !
Lately i have been playing it and i really like all of it!

The Grapics, Gameplay, Mechanics, Skills, RNG, Mapping, Characters, Enemies & Secrets are all unique!
There is plenty of gameplay unique runs and lot's to find out!
6 Diffirent playable characters with their own skilltree.
For the price of 10 euro's i would really reccomend buying this if you like rogelike sidescrolling platforming and crazy runs :)

Would give it a solid 8.5/10

Fallback is a great rogue-like adventure game. The game is limited in scope and will not take you a ton of time to finish. It is a charming game with a great atmosphere and addictive gameplay. You play a human survivor who is trying to make their way to the surface, fighting robotic guardians that have turned against their makers.
You can tell that the developers have put a lot of effort into their environments as each area looks great and adds to the feel of the post-apocalyptic setting.
And also I should mention the decent price of the game! The game is definitely worth the money and even in my opinion it could be worth more because despite the repetitive locations which is normal for games of this genre, the game is quite replayable because of the sufficient number of different classes playing for which you use different techniques of combat.

Great game, a nice mix of platforming and rogue-like.
I only have two complaints, firstly no map. There should be some kind of mapping to tell you the places you've been as I feel like I'm spending a lot of time just backtracking trough empty rooms trying to find that boss room I went by like 15 mins ago. Secondly it's the lack of info on skills and upgrades. Have you ever played a game in which you had values like crit chance or additional dmg per upgrade clearly written and you taught to yourself damn all these precise values that clearly tell me what advanteges I get by picking this skill over the other, this is no fun it would be so much better if I were completely oblivious as tho what each skill does ! No ? Well the devs of this game apparently have as every skill just says slight increase or increase to this or that. Some skills don't even say if they have certain caps or not. Honestly at some point you want to optimise you runs and chose upgrades that fin your play-style, well not having the info as to what each upgrade does exactly can be really frustrating. Why even show how much damage we do to mobs and such if details on upgrades are pretty much hidden from us ? At the very least this should be an option like show damage numbers so that casual 5 and 70 year old's can turn it off if its to complicated for them.

One of those "Just one more run" games that works so well. You can simultaneously feel ridiculously overpowered, while knowing that one mistake may tip you over into "I'm in danger" territory. Great level design and variety with tight controls.

+interesting and beautiful level design
+fluid movement and combat (even without controller)

Great game and "the most 3D you can get out of a 2D platformer" (quote from another review)

Found it refreshing ^_^

This game at it´s current price is a steal imO - even more so, if you get it at a decent sale.
But hurry, price might go up after XMas due to a recent huge update .. Get it while it lasts

Good. 9/10
*animation of character good
*fighting combo good, each game randomly stacked the chip to enhance the combat.
*each class have it own strength
*map will reset after death even it's repeated but u wont feel bored
*each map had 2 bosses.
*total of 4 maps

hope dev can update more map and classes.

It's got a lot of spirit, but has some issues in places. With the right approach, it's a pretty fun rogue-like, but at the moment, it's also easy to run into some annoying experiences. This review is probably overly thorough, so just read the last paragraph if you're not really stuck on whether to buy it or not.

Moving through the 3 dimensional environment through connected 2 dimensional planes takes a bit of getting used to, can result in some unintuitive movement (usually involving jumping off ladders or ledges that transition between 2 perpendicular planes), and has painfully tight tolerances in some places. However, thorough exploration of the levels is often well rewarded. Also, a good understanding of how the movement works lets you traverse the levels faster and can even provide an advantage in combat situations from time to time.

Speaking of the combat, it mostly boils down to two important inputs: your attack and dodge roll. While winding up an attack, you can still move, albeit at a slower speed, jump, and dodge. Dodging importantly cancels you out of the attack, which is vital for classes with slower attack speeds, and movement lets you control spacing or reverse your attack direction (proper timing of this can even let you hit targets on both sides). This system has a lot of potential, especially when you have a secondary and ultimate attack to consider as well, but unfortunately most other gameplay elements don't encourage this attention to detail. Any class or build with a high attack speed can safely ignore these details and most enemies you face don't provide a pressure to understand the mechanics (especially once your build can comfortably one-shot them). If you enjoy this sort of thing, I'd recommend sticking to the sapper, seismologist, and technophobe classes. Enemies also telegraph their attacks pretty well with both audio and visual cues which helps a ton to make things feel fair once you've encountered a specific enemy once or twice.

It's worth noting that since your two methods of avoiding damage are dodging, which requires lots of horizontal space, and jumping, which limits you to a single air dodge until you land and is less reliable at avoiding attacks, most of the difficulty in any encounter comes from the environment you fight in rather than the enemies themselves. Fighting on narrow platforms or with hazards nearby greatly changes how you have to approach enemies. This becomes especially true as you progress through a run and enemies start leaving trails of fire and dropping explosives. In some senses, this is an upside since it can add a bit of variety and more closely ties the movement, exploration, and combat together. However, it also leads to some problems. The levels are composed of randomly generated modifications of a set of templates, so whether you encounter situations like that, which can honestly prove a greater challenge than some bosses depending on your build, is down to RNG. The encouragement of thorough exploration also means that runs can take a while in order to have the best chances at success and losing a run to an unfortunate hazard and enemy placement is not a fun setback.

The class designs are all pretty unique both in terms of visuals and gameplay. Since the normal enemies are level-dependent variants on a set of basic types, there's not the same degree of visual variety, but those variations do make up for it in terms of gameplay. They are also all robots, so the designs don't stand out as much as the classes. As mentioned earlier, the environments are pretty nice to look at if a bit dark at times (I always turn my brightness up to max when launching this game).

At its best, Fallback puts you in cool environments and rewards you for working creatively with the mechanics. At its worst, you're stuck trying to get the timing on a double jump just right or facing a bullet hell boss where your options are spam dodge rolls on the ground or trying going into the air where your options are more limited. It's certainly rough around the edges, but the game has changed quite a bit as its been developed, so there's hope there and you can still get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it in its current state for its price.

Picked this game up on the Games Made in France sale because it had the Roguelike tag and boy am I impressed! Fantastic gameplay, super fun and has a good flow. Love the level design and the combat. The world is cool and the story is neat. Progression is awesome. So far 10/10 in my book. There are occasional bugs with animations and it's a bit frustrating when your roll timing is screwed up because the game pauses you for a split second when you land a hit, but it's consistent and intended behavior so you just have to plan around it. Love it, would definitely recommend!

Despite me being bad at this game, I keep firing it up for a few runs.
Fallback is a small gem, tough and enjoyable at the same time.
Every run is very different thanks to the numerous abilites, heroes profile you can choose from, and procedural level generation.
If you feel overwhelmed by the unforgiving nature of the game,
you can spend hard-earned points (depicted by prisoners you freed) on a skill tree to boost your future characters.

All in all, Fallback is a great game that will keep you busy for hours (let's say around 10hrs for regular player, and significantly more for me heheh :D).

Fallback is a challenging Rogue-lite where timing and ennemy pattern learning is key. You'll get frustrated, but you will go back because you know you can make it to the end. And that's why it's a good Rogue-lite!
The skill tree offers enough different playstyles and you will quickly find your own set of favorite upgrades. The 2.5D is gorgeous and the camera movement are really giving a nice visual dimension to the game.
At only 9.99€ it's a steal! It's hard to find anything at this starting price with such quality. Go for it.