COLLAPSED (2019)

Collapsed has some problems, there’s no doubt about it, but it surely does one thing great: Being as fun as it possibly can. It’s enjoyable to the core, for sure.

The sci-fi environment piqued my interest, the levelling up system was great, but everything else was nothing out of the ordinary.

If you feel there is room in your life for just one more roguelike action-platformer, then Collapsed won’t let you down. It shines in the right places, tempting you into one more run with the promise of a host of unlocks. You just won’t encounter anything fresh or new on the way.

Unfortunately falling victim to the giants of rogue-likes it provided the shoulders for, Collapsed is an entertaining if poorly balanced rogue-like. Solid action and gunplay can only carry you so far when repetition slowly wears away your enthusiasm, and you know that other games in the genre offer so much more in comparison. Collapsed is despairingly trapped under the rubble of those who have surpassed it.

Behind the times and lacking in its reason, to imply that Collapsed is an exercise in any of its design would also imply it exerted in the first place. Boring gameplay with no feedback, a story simply uninterested in being told, and a visual design too zoomed out to appreciate, it struggles to find reason in a genre that allows you to exist by default.