Black Paradox

Dear Developers! LIFE IS HARD ENOUGH, MAKE GAMES FUN! Games are supposed to be entertaining and rewarding! This one is too challenging and unsatisfactory, and way too busy from the start. Why couldn't you just add different difficulty levels??? If someone wants to spend hours of their life trying to perfect their skills it's their choice. I just wanted something fun to play for the evening. Why do you even make so many levels if the majority of players are not going to see past the first few. Do you make a game just for the sake of making it or do you want people to enjoy and see everything you worked so hard for? For me it's just got boring after the first 15 minutes of co-op. This will be an abandoned game which I have no interest to go back to. What a waste of great pixel art and awesome sound..

I love it! The demo was kind of frustrating at first, but after getting the hang of it, it is a blast to play. - the music is fantastic - the soundeffects are meaty - the weapons feel nice - the upgradesystem makes it that every run feels interesting The game just needs a bit more balancing here and there, but still, I have a great time playing the title. 100% Recommended!

I like the vaporwave aesthetic at least. -Unable to rebind keys -Good luck getting your controller to work -Most weapon pickups actually make the game harder for you -I want to replay the game because its good not because I need the upgrades to get past poor game development

For those of you who play Steredenn, this game is *remarkably* similar, to the point that I had to check the developer to see if they weren't the same one. Unfortunately, in its current form this game has serious problems. Your ship is large and floaty, while the difficulty starts hard and gets worse from there - I'd be facing enemies that could cover the screen in bullets, ones that fire directly at you, and ones that charge you constantly at the same time within seconds of starting the game, forcing guaranteed hits. Many of the guns and upgrades are either worthless or have serious drawbacks (reverses your controls, slows your ship considerably, etc.). You can upgrade your ship with chips, but the effects are exceedingly minor early on (1% chance of firing an extra shot, whoo). This will probably eventually get fixed as development continues, but right now it just isn't much fun.

The analogue movement and no button remapping means it's basically unplayable with an arcade stick. That alone would warrant a refund for me, even if it wasn't for the huge hitbox on the player ship, abrupt bullet hell attacks with no clear warning, and what looks to be a slow grind to upgrade the ship enough to get past the first couple of levels. The music and the visual style are great, but that's the only positive thing I have to say about the game. I think I'd enjoy watching it a lot more than I did playing it.

We all remember the shmup style of game, yeah? These devs sure as hell do, and to that end they created (for all intents and purposes) an adaptive shmup. This might not jive especially well with the sort of person who wishes to play "deathless" by memorizing level layouts; enemy patterns are thrown at you randomly, and bosses have numerous different attack patterns they switch between (or in some cases overlap) so the game is always throwing something unexpected at you. Even if you aren't a fan of the shmup, the game is not brutally difficult, and downtime between attempts is pretty minimal. This softens the blow of defeat somewhat, and just lets you get back to blowing things up in space. Which, arguably, is why we're all here. the "rogue-lite" chip system can feel like it isn't accomplishing a whole lot initially. I found it useful to focus on earning the extra slots. Things start to open up beyond that point. I enjoy the game's aesthetic. Look, sound, ability to control the ship (car? Whatever), and there's a fun variety of weapons to find that feel really well balanced. Soundtrack is on point, and really fits what this game is: An excuse to jam out and blow things up. Cheers, devs. Keepin' an eye on you.

If you like a good side-scrolling shmup and enjoy all the pain and pleasure of roguelite elements, it's a really strong recommendation. I played the demo a lot and followed the development like a hawk. I'm delighted with it. Excellent vibe, super synthwave sounds and aesthetics. I highly advise getting the soundtrack as well. Check out "Inward Hanzo Randie" via the internet, soundcloud etc. SOLID stuff.

Loads of fun! Early game is tough/repetitive/grindy until you get better/get more upgrades but then everything rocks! Music is awesome. Wish there was a toggle for screen shake and flashing. The screen flashing is a bit excessive and I feel sorry for photosensitive players.

The sloppy controls makes it a little harder than it should at first, but enemy pattern memory will help compensate that. Nice art direction, a plus for the music. As retro vibes goes, this is working quite well.

Another indie that make frustrating design choices and spoil their own game. 1. The grinding is insanely repetitive. You will see the same stage over and over, each time with different enemy patter. Nothing you can memorise and improve up. Random enemies with random patterns that just make running the same level not fun, but a chore as you can't see yourself improving in any way. 2. Powerups that are actually ... power down. The shotgun, the laser etc., are just hampering your progresses. You want to switch to your standard weapon ASAP to have any chance of keep going. 3. Not sure what is it, but dodging bullet is painful. Some enemies shoot this bullet with a barely noticeable converging trajectory towards the player. It is so subtle that you realise you are caught into an no-escape situation too late. And got it. In such a fast game this is just not nice. 4. Upgrade prices are made to encurage additional grinding. Somehow is not clear how the UI works not what benefits the upgrades provides. Overall the game sounds and looks amazing and is a pity that the shoot em up mechanics are not well understood and implemented. The game is mostly a random grind fest that is amazing to look at but frustrating to play.

The devs spent all their time on the "juice", making the game look and feel like it should be satisfying, but they forgot to make a good gameplay experience underneath it. The controls feel sluggish and your ships odd shape make dodging really unintuitive.

Difficult, but fun. You will die a lot at first, but you accumulate money to buy upgrades which progressively become better as you do at playing the game.

Don't believe any review that has less than 3 hours on this game. It needs at least 3 hours of grinding before you stop feeling deeply under-powered and can get past the 3rd level. It can be annoying too with vague option descriptions and momentum causing you to drift a bit when you stop (a big no-no for shmups). So why recommend? The cheesy systems are undeniably addictive, the graphics are colorful and eye catching, and the synth music is pretty good. Once you power up, the weapons become fun to use and there are a lot to try. Overall, recommended if you're prepared to grind past the first few hours. (BTW if you have strong shmup skills, then you may get a lot further earlier)

I've been looking for a bullet hell game that I can play when I really don't feel like turning my brain on. This satisfies that urge. I wouldn't recommend it at full price though. There's just too little content to justify the 12,50€ asking price. Every run is kind of the same (with a bit of randomization) and the unlock progress, while a neat feature, doesn't incentivize spending any real amount of time with this game. For 3€ tho, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it as a nice little distraction for whenever you have a few minutes to pass.

I really love the concept of the game, but I think that the grind is a bit too much in the end. I beat the game, but this encompassed a bunch of runs, many of which were pretty short, especially in the beginning when you are weaker. Moreover, the game lacks transparency. I finished the game with level 6 upgrades. From my understanding they go up to at LEAST 12 in this game from other reviews. But I have no idea what determines when you are offered higher-level upgrades. It may be the average level of what you have equipped or own, but I couldn't tell you. And once the game is done, that's it. It has a bland intro screen, and a real A WINRAR IS YOU end screen, and that's it. Could really shine if it was rebalanced or at least gave you an indication of how to get stronger, but all in all I think I should have spent the hours in something else. P.S. Gameplay tip [spoiler] If you ARE playing and you're stuck and you get the Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired gun, keep it! Then get close to bosses and crush them. Life steal with this and you're set. [/spoiler]

This game is great fun and a retro-themed blast! Imagine Mad-max in Spaaaaaaaace. It is a side-scrolling SCHMUP , akin to Stereden (I also loved that game).The Graphics style and gameplay are great, very 80s action movie -ala Mad Max and Terminator.The soundtrack is awesome too. However the thing which will bring you back to the game is the replayabilty and the ways in which you can customize your trusty space car-A flying Dewlorean! You can customize your ship both during a run and in your garage. During your runs different weapons drop (can carry 2) and after you defeat a boss an upgrade drops ( either stats for your ship, or drones which fight for you ).In the garage you can buy chips for your trusty ride, they vary in level and price. The Maximum level chips are 13 and cost around 46K the minimum are 1 and cost 1K. Depending on your chips build you can: lifesteal, multishot, gain temporary invincibility and so on. The more high lvl chips you have the higher the chance for this effects to proc, also you can stack up to 4 of the same chips type, for maximum effect.By the end of your improvements , you will be the raid boss, doing incredible amounts of dmg and having a bunch of side effects ! (or you can remove all your good chips, equip only lvl1s and experience a good-old fashioned Sado-mazo adventure). Bottom line : a hidden gem of a game, with hUGE replayability, great graphics and ship designs, fun music and difficulty scalling up to your desires(depending on your ships build in the garage). Maximum recommendation from me.

while i don't love this game and wish it had a few leveling up aspects, I knew what to expect from the screens and got it on sale. its kinda a sega genesis game that i used to harass my parent to pay 50$ for. In to day money i could have been 100$ due to inflation. very okay game.

Looks potentially great, let down by floaty controls (momentum should not be present in a shump)so its a bit hard to care about dodging bullets, if you like stereden its so similar but feels if i grind this for long enough will have enough hit points to float all the way to the end and bullet sponge every hit, better than on launch but not a proper shump by any means

Pros: The Pixel Art and music are great. Perfectly captures that 80s Synthwave retro-future shit which is my jam. Cons: The gameplay is very basic, repetitive, and for a game that you need to replay over and over again, the power ups don't add a lot of variety to how you play the game.

This is a vertical pixel shooter with 80s neon light graphics and synthwave music. There are some rogue-light elements such as random powerups each level and after beating the boss, as well as currency which allows you to customize permanent power ups. There are a handful of stages, some cool bosses, and instead of flying a spacecraft you fly a DeLorean (a relic of the 80s). The game starts pretty hard, you will die a bit. However the boss patterns are fairly easy to read, and after some grinding you will power up enough to beat the last boss without too much difficulty. Recommended for the Neon graphics and awesome music. The game play is pretty good too, addictive after a while. The biggest downside is short campaign.

I've been following this game ever since this project has been made public and I have nothing but respect and admiration for this team. They seem to be doing everything right as far as marketing and actually putting out a great quality game. Not to mention I have a soft spot for games with rogue like mechanics! The music and graphics are awesome! I highly recommend this game.

I'm having trouble putting Black Paradox down. The thumping music and good art style compliment the mindless action as you blast your way through space. So far I'm enjoying the weapons and upgrades, especially when I find a good combination. Although, there are some bad ones. Like the one that reverses your controls! Also, there's no progression. Which is fine, if you know what you're getting into. It's more about the grind than being good at the game. As the chips you put in the car keep making you more powerful. That said, it is a blast to play. It's worth your time. Full video review: https://youtu.be/ye1YheBSPy8 Checkout my curator for more reviews! https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26701155-The-Pepp-Selection/

Black Paradox is a rogue-lite side-scrolling shooter that combines gameplay strongly reminiscent of Steredenn with a form of persistent progression via money earned and spent between runs on "upgrade chips" for your craft, making subsequent runs easier. It's presented with a heavy retrowave aesthetic in the vein of games like Kill to Collect or Neon Chrome, with bright and striking colors, a slight haze effect that makes things glow, flying rocket cars, and of course, a kicking synthwave soundtrack. A word of warning: the full soundtrack does not seem to be included in the steam release of such, but you can find it on bandcamp. Famed interstellar bounty hunter Black Paradox has set his sights on the Hellraisers, the most notoriously dangerous outlaw gang in space. His weapon of choice is the Star Phoenix, a space car that resembles the love child of a Delorean and a Firebird, which possesses the power to warp spacetime and summon a dark phantom twin from dimensions unknown to deliver a swift gundown. Accompanied by a title-dropping cry, this special attack is vital to your success and should be used liberally. Black Paradox starts off quite hard, starting each run with a basic gun and no upgrades. You can find new weapons mid-stage and recieve a choice of passive upgrades after defeating a boss. I managed to make it to the third boss, space biker Warlock, on my first run, but that was as far as I got for several runs. While the bosses' attack patterns can be learned, your biggest chance of success comes from the upgrade system. There are several types of chips that do two things. One, boosting up to two of your four basic stats, these being health, attack damage, attack speed and movement speed. Two, they grant one of several effects, including passive health regeneration, a serious rarity in rogue-lites. Other effects include a chance of life steal, triple shots, rear shots, extra homing missiles, or increased mercy invincibility period. After purchasing enough of these upgrades, focusing on attack damage and the life stealing effect, combined with lucky drops of the right weapons, such as the "Hedgehog", a weapon that projects spinning blades around your car, and midgame upgrades, like the oh-so-helpful shield drone, I was able to defeat the final boss after only six hours of play, a record for me in these sorts of games. I then tried the harder boss rush "Darkness" mode unlocked by beating the game and beat that after only two attempts. I was surprised but very pleased with these victories, and plan on replaying the game at some point with a friend and to see if I can consistently win, as on a subsequent attempt I only made it about halfway through.

Ok, I had my fun for these 1,5 hours, I've played. The art style and the soundtrack are amazing. But then, in the current state, I really can't recommend the game and for that what you get, it's way too expensive. Why? - First, you have a pretty high difficulty, too high in my opinion with a tendency to be unforgiving. Lots of times the whole screen is full of starships and there are some that even target you or make parts of the screen unpassable quite some time with their ammunition. - Everytime the stage is different, so it depends really on your luck, if you can get through or not, because the enemy types differ widely. - Then at first I liked the weapons, now after a while, they seem pretty boring also the upgrades don't enhance your starhip in a way that would be significant helpful. I hope for more weapons, the chance to upgrade the weapons etc. - You earn money, fight through the stage, somehow you defeat the boss with one weapon that makes it easy, you get to the next stage and after you die, you have start at the beginning. With lots of weapons that make it nearly impossible to win against the first boss til you get the good one again. (And one flaw, you can have two weapons, you pick a new one up, you can't choose if you want to loose the first one you had or the first one you picked up, you loose the first one you picked up; then you gotte be kidding me, a shoot-em-up with only one weapon active?) - The stages look the same, not much variation at least at the first part of the game. - Then the special, the black paradox, it takes forever to fill it up. So you have to save it for the boss. And there, after a few seconds, already gone again. - the ship moves pretty slowly Adding altogether: the game seems too be brillant, but it isn't, it's Early Access in its worst way, putting style over gaming mechanics.

This 80's synth is BUMPIN! And the colors are gorgeous! Everything's so pretty, I don't even mind dying over, and over, and over, and over again!

One of my favorite games of all time. I played this for days on the switch but just got it on here. Hope more games will come out similar to this.

Has a semi-hard start, but once you get used to it(and upgrade some), it's easier to handle. A lot of fun, and intuitive!

The soundtrack is amazing, the pixel art is well looking. The game is hard to hit but funny to play.

I'm really liking the game, simple controllers. the retro aesthetic and music is amazing The only con for me is the RNG upgrades, so, this makes the game feel... Unprogressive. I'd still recommend the game tho. (i wish they allowed key re-mapping)

GREAT! Los gráficos, el modo de juego, los efector visuales, todo lo hacen un gran juego. El único problema que le veo es que no se puede jugar de forma casual, pues cada que inicias tienes que comenzar desde el nivel 1, por lo que te quedas jugando por horas.

Plays good, weapons are so so, upgrade system is RNG but its not too bad. Little too short, could use longer levels or more of them. Music is the best part, great soundtrack! 77/100

This game really needs an epilepsy warning when you start it up. I'm not epileptic, but damned if I don't feel like I'm going to start convulsing every time I die or beat a boss. I could get past the grindy nature and the floaty feel of the controls if I didn't have to avert my eyes every few minutes.

Roguelite where almost none of the weapons are better than your default one and the post boss random abilities are barely noticeable. Every run is pretty much identical with the same bosses and enemies in the same order. Wants you to grind for passives to improve health and fire rate, hope you enjoy playing the first few stages over and over! Zzzz.

yeah this is pretty fantastic. Very good presentation, you can remove the : VHS : effect ( mainly chromatic aberration ) Roguelite STG, it auto scrolls and enemies, powerups, attackpatterns, all randomized : you earn currency for beating enemies, and that currency can go into chips with special effects, and more slots on your ship to apply chips to. This is a very well made game, any fan of shooter owes it to themselves to try this one out. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1457215280 about 9 minutes of gameplay. cheers!

Ridiculous amounts of chaotic fun. The soundtrack is top notch and the random elements keep you playing for hours. Honestly way more impressed with this game than I thought I would be.

Very fun roguelike Shmup, its challenging but fair. Highly recommend to any fans of this genre.

This game looks fantastic, sounds fantastic, and plays fantastic. Gameplay? You go left to right and blow things up. You earn money. There are upgrades to spend money on. This game looks fantastic, sounds fantastic, and plays fantastic.

A good game, that is getting better and better with the updates. I like it much more than Stereden, thought that game is also good.

This game is actually really good. It is a lot of fun in coop. It's a little bit too hard and you have to grind a lot, but other than that, it's fun.

[h1]The reason why I hate randomness [/h1] Shoot'em up + roguelike. However... the roguelike part affects the gameplay too much, some runs are not even a matter of skill, just lucky with your weapons and drones. This really do not appeal to me, since it's near impossible to beat the game with skill only, it forces you to replay over and over again so you get better (random) permanent upgrades and when you are finally set to beat the game, you still have to wait for good drops. Nonetheless, it is still a good game overall, art and music are great, controls are simple and effective, feels like "Back to the Future" shoot'em up edition.

It is a great game if you have something for retro games. I enjoyed playing the co-op with my brother and its rly challenging but you know it's possible. The game can also run on almost any hardware cause its rly low demanding i would suggest buying this game if you are into these types of games

So you all know what you're getting yourselves into, let me sum up the whole Black Paradox 'experience': 1) You start it up 2) Your Delorean sucks 3) You get rekt on the 1st mission (It'll be over in 3 minutes maybe) 4) Step 3 happens about 10-20 more times while you get used to the controls/grind some currency for upgrades 5) You get enough currency to start looking at upgrades 6) The cheap upgrades are god awful. You may/may not buy some just to make it through one level 7) Step 3 for another hour until, through a combination of skill, luck, and basic upgrades, you beat the 1st stage 8) Stage 2 and 3 bosses are brick walls. You're not getting through until you've gotten better upgrades ^ Step 8 is where most people tilt out of the game. I know I almost did. Because it's gonna be quite a few hours of dying to the same boss just to grind currency. I just took it slow. 9) You finally land your first couple of 'end-game' upgrade (level 12+). And the boss just melts. Die *****. 10) You lap through a few more later stages. You're still getting killed but the worst is over. Clearing 3-4 stages per round rather than 1-2 at the start means you're farming way more currency. Getting the last few upgrades is nothing. 11) You win. 12?) You play the bonus gauntlet mode. My Delorean was so pimped out I rolled over it 1st try. Overall, I came for a synthwave SHMUP. I got a synthwave SHMUP. People complain that the early game is too hard. You start with no HP or damage. Cheap upgrades are trash. Good ones quadruple your power. So by the end you're one shotting everything for that final glorious run where you're more or less giving everything and anyone the bird. Recommend.

Mechanics: Black Paradox is a side-scrolling shmup that utilizes a health bar and single life system. You can equip two weapons at a time that you can switch between. You also have a meter that builds up that allows you to unleash Black Paradox, an AI controlled ship that comes equipped with a random weapon. After beating a stage's boss, you will get to choose between two items. These can be stat boosts, drones, shields, etc. You also earn money by defeating enemies and bosses, which you can spend in the garage to purchase permanent upgrade modules to your ship. These permanent upgrades will give you flat stat boosts and they also come with various percent based modifiers, like a healing % every minute or a % chance to shoot a rocket every time you shoot. You can equip up to four of these (after purchasing slots 3 and 4). Pros: Decent aesthetic and music. It uses then 80s Miami Vice kinda style. Controls feel fairly responsive. Cons: The game is very repetitive. There doesn't appear to be any score system or score mechanic to give the game depth and longevity. You are simply trying to beat all the levels. Levels themselves are not very unique, only differing in the difficulty of ship waves they send your way. Screen clutter was a big hurdle for me to get over. Some weapons can make it hard to see enemy bullets, and it doesn't help that there isn't any sort of standardized color or outlining system for enemy bullets. This is compounded when you use the Black Paradox meter, which introduces a second AI controlled player to the screen, cluttering it up even more. I've gotten mostly use to this, but it was an issue at first. Weapon balance seems all over the place. The Swarm Gun absolutely demolishes enemies and bosses alike, while other guns are very situational and/or harder to use. I would have loved to see random modifiers added to the gun pickups, giving you a reason to pick up different weapons. As it is now, once you find the weapon you like, there is no reason to pick up a new weapon. At first, the game feels very grindy. It costs 10k and 20k respectively to unlock upgrade slots 3 and 4. High level upgrades also cost quite a lot. As you improve and get better upgrades, you start raking in more money because you are more reliably able to clear levels, but it is a slow process at first. I also wish upgrades made a more noticeable impact on gameplay. Upgrades could have been abilities you could activate, temporary weapons, or something that creates meaningful gameplay changes and allowed you to play in different ways. Instead, you get some stat boosts and a percent chance something passive happens. This is boring and is about as interesting as grinding money in an RPG so you can buy a new sword with a few more attack power. Finally, if you are looking for a roguelite, stay away. This has very minor roguelite elements. The enemy waves are random and the item you choose at the end of each level is random, but that is about the extent of the roguelite elements. This is really just a fairly mediocre and uninteresting shoot'em'up with a decent, if not overused, aesthetic. There are so many other shmups out there worth your time.

As a gamer who doesnt write many reviews for games, I have t write this one because of how much I am having and because a lot of the current reviews are early access. This game is sooooo much fun and the perfect balance of challenging but rewarding as well! Love it and definitely buy again!

Like... It's pretty good, and is much more fun when you learn there are stats in the chips you buy... but, it's too expensive to re-roll items, and it's too expensive to buy items. So, I'd be grinding for a really long time to get a perfect build, and by that point it wouldn't' be fun anymore. Example of fun concept, that's not obviously great until you understand the game: The hp% per minute can be good with the HP mods in the chip you pick up. You can raise your help x5, and the the %'s value get's pretty stupid. But yeah-- the grind was compensating for a lot (the game is stupid short without the grind). The last two things, which... cemented my choice to return the game were --The bosses all feel the same, and 1st zone badguys projectiles can be stupid strong right away(the 2-point just... shows how little consideration went into the game's difficulty scaling). So, great concept, poor execution. Also, you cannot turn off screen shake... which sucks a lot.

This games goes straight for the heart of all the nostalgics out there. But there's much more to it that the 80s vibe: the mechanics are fun, there's a bucketload of different weapons you can pick up and they all play really well, and while it is difficult enough to be fun, it never gets frustrating. The music is incredible, plus sound effects and the vibration feedback on the controller are very satisfying. Try it out!

Sick Synth soundtrack [x] Dope side scrolling action [x] Hardcore bullet hell experience [x] Love this game. Highly reccomended.

The game is fun and the music is amazing! I've played it for 5 hours straight yesterday!

Fun but hard The game's came a good way since it was first made.

Im playing this game now for the second time since i bought it for pc.