I must have died to Ether Loop’s penultimate boss, a giant spider who spams the entire screen with so many projectiles that even my recently upgraded CPU can’t keep up, a dozen times before getting lucky and beating it (and subsequently, the game). Some real-life things over the past month have resulted in my entire gaming setup being rearranged, and one major upside to that is that I can now incorporate 4K PC screenshots into my reviews more easily than ever. Yesterday afternoon, I became convinced that I’d never beat the spider boss and decided to start making some 4K screenshots to get this review ready for Ether Loop‘s January 21st release, only to get on a run of destiny and have every item drop during those 16 minutes be exactly what I need. That speaks to a fundamental truth that acts as both a positive and negative: runs can feel drastically different thanks to the vastly different quality of drops, but only because most of Ether Loop‘s procedurally generated drops are untenable.

Ether Loop review navigation (click to jump directly to a section): Gameplay review | Bugs and issues | Visuals and music review

Ether Loop is a twin-stick bullet hell shooter with procedural generation

You begin by being dropped into an underground area and obtaining a nearby weapon—you’ll begin every run with the same weak laser gun—before being left to your own devices. Ether Loop alternates between a randomly generated stage in a new biome and a fixed boss fight stage, so the pacing remains nice and brisk. That makes it less of an annoyance when you die and get sent back to the beginning to try again. Each non-boss stage is built out of a few constant rooms (each has a single optional miniboss who drops a random weapon when defeated, a merchant selling random items, and a hole that allows you to reach the next boss fight), but can potentially include other things. Sometimes you’ll come across a cursed vendor who provides an item for free at the cost of enemy projectiles being faster or you losing your ability to heal using the hearts enemies sometimes drop. On rare occasions, you’ll encounter a mount that can be purchased (or liberated by defeating the seller).

That mount is a perfect example of how RNG can make or break a run. The third area is covered in ice and snow, so you’re constantly slipping around with very little precision to your movements, which isn’t great in a bullet hell game. If you’re lucky enough to find a mount before this point, you can move along the ground normally and have a huge advantage compared to runs where you’re slipping and taking damage.

Passive upgrades are regularly found, and while most of these are good, some are significantly better than others. That’s doubly the case if you’re lucky enough to get a good weapon in the first or second stage. Getting a weapon you can rely on throughout the entire game unless something even better comes along is important, and it’s entirely out of your hands whether you get a powerful weapon that can defeat a boss in 5-10 seconds or one that requires a full 30 seconds to a minute of careful strafing and dodging to overcome.

Combining a rapid-fire weapon with upgrades that increase the number of projectiles that shoot out at once and those that increase your firing speed are a game-changer. You’ll need those drops along with temporary hearts that increase your HP by the time you face the spider unless you’re lucky enough to obtain a mount and have an extreme amount of skill dodging tight bullet patterns (especially since most weapons have terrible range, so you’ll need to zip in for a split-second before running away again). If you lack either of those things, you’ll die 100% of the time. And I know I keep bringing up the spider, but it’s the biggest challenge in the game. The final boss is a far more reasonable encounter.

It’s frustrating because I really like Ether Loop. I hate starting with that weak laser gun every time, and I find the RNG and vagueness about how everything works (what do items that “increase luck” actually do?) incredibly aggravating, but I still played for 7 hours, which is how long it took me to beat the game. Procedural generation can be a blessing in certain circumstances, but never when it’s depriving you of the tools you need to stand a fighting chance. My recommendation would be to include an “arena” event—which currently spawns difficult enemy mobs that can be fought in a small space 1-3 times for that many upgrades—in every level and have them drop weapons instead of upgrades. That way, Ether Loop retains its difficulty and sense of risk/reward but decreases the likelihood of a run being a total failure solely because of RNG shenanigans.

A whole bunch of bugs have already been fixed, but controllers can be weird

When I put up my initial Ether Loop impressions the other day, there were some pretty major bugs to contend with. Menus would get stuck and refuse to go away until you exited the game. Health that dropped when you were at full health wouldn’t work when you’d take damage and try to use it. Movement on ice didn’t function when using a controller. Most strikingly (and benevolent), I encountered an invincibility bug that I used to beat the game on my first day with it, long before I managed to do so legitimately. Every single one of these bugs has since been fixed.

Most of the remaining problems appear to be largely controller-specific, which is perhaps unfair to hold against Ether Loop since its Steam store page claims only partial controller support, but twin-stick games always feel most natural to me on a controller and having that dialed in is a big factor in whether I can enjoy a game like this.

For some reason, dodging has always been an issue for me in Ether Loop. I’ll either fail to dodge and run headlong into a trail of bullets or take damage despite the invincibility frames that are supposed to be in play. I suspect that part of the reason for the trouble is that inputs are being eaten when the screen is awash in bullets and my computer is struggling to keep up, but I have no explanation for the missing invincibility frames.

What I do know is that Ether Loop would benefit greatly from some kind of (possibly togglable) icon showing you where your dodge will end. Far too many times, I’ve dodged into a mess of bullets instead of the open area I thought I was aiming at. Again, this is largely a controller-specific complaint, but it’s a quality of life feature that would go a long way toward making dodging feel more reliable. And speaking of quality of life features, there should really be an explanation for various mechanics. It took me forever to notice that you spend currency at statues for weapon upgrades. One time, a heart was over the statue and I took that to mean that I’d gain a heart by interacting with it, but the opposite ended up being the case. And during one spectacularly strange run, I encountered an item that instantly reduced my health to 1 while promising something about devouring weapons. No idea what that means.

It’s also a little strange that you purchase items from the shop and change weapons by moving over an item or weapon. You can accidentally purchase the wrong thing during the ice level because of this, or switch to a new weapon and immediately switch back because your old weapon popped on the ground in front of you. These are minor quibbles. Little things feel big when you’re annoyed about something else, though.

The visuals have some minor drawbacks, but they communicate things well

I’ve played bullet hell games where the bullets can’t be easily seen for one reason or another, so I have a deep appreciation for Ether Loop‘s easily readable bullets. They glow just enough to be immediately noticeable without the overlapping glows becoming overwhelming or distracting. The pixel art has a lot of character overall. There are two downsides to the visuals: first, that it’s not always obvious which parts of the first area are solid and non-solid (there are large rocks that block bullets and it takes some time to get used to that), and second, some areas have glowing stage elements that make it difficult to differentiate between the floor and bullets. The music, meanwhile, doesn’t stand out to me quite as much, but it’s upbeat and unusual in a way that I can really appreciate while still perfectly capturing the vibe of each area. The first boss fight’s music is probably my least favorite track, and its prevalence likely plays a role in my lack of enthusiasm, but the soundtrack is really well done overall.

Story: N/A Gameplay: 4/6 Visuals: 1.5/2 Music: 1.5/2 ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ -- 7/10
*Click here and scroll to the bottom for a detailed explanation of what these numbers mean

*A Steam key was provided for this Ether Loop review. If you’re lucky, you could probably finish in 10-20 minutes. If you’re a normal person, 5-10 hours seems more likely.

Ether Loop review – Dodging RNG first appeared on Killa Penguin