Having completed the game with a fairly-thorough 90%+ rating:

I love the aesthetic, and much of the game is fine... But holy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥, are there some completely unreasonable spikes in difficulty with some bosses and platforming rooms. I don't even think it's possible to beat one of the first story bosses until you trip over a secret side path and 'optional' upgrade. There are too many examples of things that are just not valid game design.

In biogun you set out on a noble quest to save all dogs from a terrible disease and despite this rather serious goal, the intro cinematic immediatly sets the tone for this game. Endearing, charming but most of all silly. Normally i'm not too big of a fan of that but biogun just nailed this so hard that i couldn't help but smile as i played. From the stupid location names like turderia in the colon to the silly washing animation where your pig scrubs his buttocks that happens whenever you save. There's even a shop npc with a save point in his shop who has a few different remarks on this. "I'm not a beaver but damn..." was my favorite among those and got a hearthy chuckle out of me. I'm actually glad to have played a more light hearted MV for once as they don't all have to be doomy and gloomy like say blasphemous. Biogun is just a ridiculous(ly fun) game that is equal parts silly as it is addictive. The story is standard fanfare but because it's a noble cause (who doesn't want to save an adorable doggo?) it makes you engaged in the world. The portraits that pop up during dialogues as well as the character design are also just bursting with personality. The whole game exudes charm which is definately its strongest point but that's not all the game has to offer.

The absolutely beautiful visuals also had me glued to the screen with nearly every room being a treat on the eye. Normally i want some more structure in my backdrops instead of random assets spammed without any logic (like HK's fungal wastes or any aeterna noctis level). But biogun takes place inside a dog, so it makes sense to see clusters of cells, veins and whatnot spread about. The environments are just bursting with color and not the muted types either, the game is incredibly vibrant all around (well except for the intestines which are mostly brown haha). Exploring these areas is not only fun due to the eyecandy but also because the level design is very good. There's lots of variety in terms of environmental hazards, puzzles & platforming sections and the game makes great use of all its mechanics to make the map feel & play varied. There's even a full stealth section that has a metal gear easteregg achievement tied to it so don't expect to get bored exploring anytime soon. Before you know it you'll be exploring every organ possible in this dog to erradicate despicable virusses and germs which is fun as hell because the combat that's sprinkled inbetween is honestly fun too.

There's lots of player expression in the terms of builds because a large variety of charms, guns and gun mods really do change things up. I had a mod & chip to increase my mana gain significantly which allowed me too shoot a power hungry bazooka special shot that nuked most things on the screen :D There's also an incredible variety of both regular enemies and (mini)bosses, way more than i expected. They all play quite differently which is rather rare for twin stick shooter MV's versus melee based ones. Most of those twin stick mv's have dumb/boring enemies (like the mobius machine) or not enough variety (like ghost 1.0). However biogun really impressed me with the cast of (big) bads. The balance isn't always there though which is the only area in which biogun could use some improvement. Some bosses are VERY easy but there's a few that are also too hard, especially a mandatory boss that you encounter around close to midway through the game. This dude was a roadblock whereas i was breezing through the game before that and after that the game stepped it up a notch but not much. It spiked a few more times but never this severe and i hope they can tweak this as it seems most players struggled with this. It's just one attack that is too hard to dodge so it can definately be fixed.

What also needs some fixing is the framedrops that are noticably present in some rooms. Now i must add that the devs are hard at work porting the game to a different engine so they can port it to consoles too. I'm guessing steady fps improvements will coincide with that as the engine the game runs on is rather limiting. Other than these fps drops though there were no technical issues, load times were fast, bugs few and crashes abscent. So apart from a few laggy rooms, moving through the world was fast and smooth. In no small part because the movement in this game is also very smooth, it doesn't break any new ground in terms of platforming, and most sections weren't hard at all but it was still a blast to jump around in this game. Not only due to the aforementioned great level design but also just the buttery smooth controls. What further amps you up to glide through these levels is the invigorating soundtrack that really got my hyped to blast some germs and pathogens. Finally i'd like to mention the incredible sound design which is something most indies stumble on. The bazooka weapon i mentioned early has a VERY satisfying bassey thump when it explodes and each blaster also sounds great. NPC voices are also very charming too rounding out this great package.