So, this game is branded as a "Roguelike" but I think most people will enjoy it more if they don't expect a lot of varied, repeatable content.
You should probably aim to complete a run on Brutal Mode (which the game describes as "the intended difficulty" - Normal and Hard are described as being easy modes, basically) and once you've done that there won't really be much else to experience.
This game is like, almost a more active version of an idle game? You are collecting resources and slowly getting more efficient at collecting them, but you have to actively do it all yourself and you have to manage your time very efficiently and make sure to get each upgrade not too late but also not too early, or you will fall behind and die. It's a strange game because it's like, "relaxing" because you're just slowly wandering around gathering items, but it's super stressful because you have no margin of error and are constantly running back to your dome before enemies arrive, and if you're late at all you'll just take massive damage and probably die.
I had a lot of fun with this game - I'm bad at games so I like simple things and this is the perfect level of complexity for me while still being challenging - but after completing my first couple of runs, I had basically seen everything there is to see. It's fun enough that I kept going though. I completed 12 runs, one on each difficulty with each map size. In retrospect I think that progression was too slow and the Small/Medium runs were too short and easy and ended before they could be satisfying, so I should've skipped them. I also could've skipped Hard mode entirely, I wasn't learning much at that point and was ready for Brutal tbh.
I'm shortchanging the game a bit, because there is more to do. There's a score mode, apparently multiple types of score modes. I can't say I have much desire to do more runs of this though because, well, they're all the same. You have a few upgrade paths to choose from sometimes but for the most part, by the end of a run you'll have just upgraded the full tree for everything. Gadgets don't make a meaningful difference to how your run plays. There is a second character, and they're so complex compared to the first character that I just can't be bothered to learn them. There is a mode even harder than Brutal which I guess I'll try, Brutal wasn't even that bad as long as my run had a good start.
The Sword Dome seemed like trash to me at first but I kept trying it and saw how it can be not horrible. I still couldn't bring myself to take it over the laser for my Brutal runs though. It is so slow and weak at the start, it feels you are guaranteed to take damage.
From what I saw online, basically every player agrees the Repellant is the best primary tool. I mean, I would agree. The shield potentially does nothing most of the time, if you don't get hit. And the Orchard... it's just way more demanding to use, and if you pull it off, you get... more speed and strength for a little while? Which saves you some time, but the repellant just straight up gives you time, so it's just as useful, and it's combat ability is massively OP, at full toxic upgrade it will singlehandedly murder most smaller enemies.
So, not much variety in primary gadgets since there's a clear best one.
I ragequit this game multiple times due to unintuitive or just bad controls. The button used to interact with your gadgets is the same as the one to pick up resources. Very annoying when your gadget happens to be next to some resources! Oops, I was trying to pick up that iron but instead I teleported back to my base and lost 8 seconds! I want to pick up my Drillbert but he's standing in a pile of resources so I just can't! There's no way to target specifically what you want! And this is part of why I didn't bother playing Assessor, the controls were barely explained and just didn't seem to make sense. There's also some annoying U.I. issues, like the bar for your Repellant, it can look completely full but actually it still has a couple ticks left so if you wait for it you might be waiting 10 more seconds.
I got past it! I wanted to complete my 12 runs. But it's really annoying!
Another issue is that so many gadgets and skills have anti-synergy with each other. Like, for example, so many things involve an item spawning at your base that you want to carry somewhere - the bomb for example. But if you've got a teleporter, you're never gonna want to carry it. If you carry a bomb down, you've entirely lost the benefit of your teleporter! Same for the magic eye portal. For my ideal run I just want a lift/teleport (I preferred lift but apparently the pros say teleport is better - lift is less maintenance though) and then either a condenser or resource converter for my second one - something that I can just leave on it's own to make me free resources and that I don't have to babysit or constantly carry around. (Screw you in particular Drillbert, goddamnit wake up) I liked the Probe as a noob but after I learned how to mine properly it didn't seem necessary.
I think a "Roguelike" that only offers ~10-20 hours of gameplay (and honestly you could experience everything in less than that) is fine, it's just a matter of expectations. Lots of games only last 10-20 hours! This game is fun for that long and maybe it's just because I don't really play resource-gathering games but this offers a really unique experience. I'm not sure there's anything else with this game's mechanics. Of course, it seems this game has some hardcore fans who play for hundreds of hours mastering the score mode, but I don't think that'll be most people who play it.
