Ether Loop Review

"Cave Bullets"

Campaign

January 20, 2020 at 1:35am
By Jason Stettner

This is a rather interesting hardcore bullet hell game that does feature some minor rogue-like elements to it. In the game you’re playing as this random character that’s stuck in an endless loop. That means that every death is permanent and you start with nothing. There’s no sense of progression, and this aspect can be quite frustrating.

This really isn’t my type of game, but it’s quite fun to play and interesting. It features a wide range of enemies, various unique events to tackle and a number of power-ups to gain as you play. These of course reset with every death, so keep that in mind. There are multiple levels to this, and the boss fights you tackle are set in stone. These are even more hardcore, and at times you’ll be incredibly unprepared to fight them just based on the seemingly random battle you just faced in the area above.

A lot of this is luck in terms of what you come across, and whether your skills are up to the task. The environments are varied, and the set pieces felt distinct despite so many attempts at this. I didn’t necessarily make it far, but I kept coming back for more punishment and that’s a good sign for this type of experience.

Gameplay

I really liked the art style for the title, the pixels were full of depth and they had some very neat creatures. There was a great sense of variety within the monsters you face, not only in how they look but also in how they shot. This leads into the element of collecting new power-ups and various extra weapons.

It was great to come across new weapons as the firing styles were unique, and then power-ups entirely change how you’re able to survive. Some you’ll get for clearing rooms, others will cost you either coins or a sacrifice of sorts. There’s also this neat stone creature, paying it might pay off for you. This is definitely a bullet hell, so patterns are important, and adapting to the variations will be a big deal within this title. It’s about learning, tweaking your strategy and hoping things go well.

I personally would have liked some sense of progression, but I know there’s an audience for this type of setup. It’s quite colorful, the blasts look really cool and it can feel rather intense. I will mention that I faced screen tearing, which was odd considering this doesn’t come across as something that should cause those issues and there weren’t settings to compensate for it.

The Conclusion

Ether Loop is definitely a hardcore, and challenging game though it can be quite fun with some aesthetic elements. It isn’t necessarily my type of game, but I did enjoy playing it. I would have liked a sense of progression, as it was brutal to just have nothing at each turn. At the same time I wasn’t necessarily turned off from giving it another go despite feeling bad about the death prior.

I liked the setup for how you progressed, at the same time some situations left you with almost nothing to handle the next tier of enemies to take. I liked the visuals, the bullet hell is manageable and this is a distinct experience. I thought it was generally unique within the genre, but at the same time nothing too wildly different. There’s definitely a niche audience for this one, and it can be a good time.

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Ether Loop Review on PC
Review Code Provided by Moon Lens

Rating Overall: 6.5