Downloaded and played the demo for Teleglitch off of IndieDB (
link) that another GAFfer kindly pointed out and quite enjoyed what I played of it up to my first death on the second level. Teleglitch is this weird, top-down shooter/rogue-like mash-up love letter to Doom. The visuals are super basic and there's no soundtrack to speak of but Teleglitch still manages to ooze atmosphere with its spare use of ambient sound punctuating the otherwise dead silence of the world and how it plays with light and your line of sight.
Teleglitch is hard as hell, you have to scavenge for ammo, food, medical supplies, items for crafting and make judicious use of it all. Miss a few too many of your shots and suddenly your fending off hordes of mutants and zombies with nothing more than a knife and slowly dying. What makes it really hard is how your health (or lack there of) carries over from level to level and when you die, that's it, you start over again.
The thing that separates Teleglitch from the other rogue-likes I've played is how there's a narrative structure sort of driving the experience.
As you explore, scavenge and fight your way through the levels you come across journals and logs that detail what was happening in the facility. It's neat but it's totally an homage to Doom.
The gunplay, weirdly, is super satisfying. I say weirdly because the visual aesthetic of the game is beyond lean, you're literally looking at ten to twelve pixels when you character is holding and firing a gun. But it feels meaty and impactful and it's all with a little effect blur on your characters sprite, some camera shake and decent effects (mainly the more explosive weapons you can find and craft).
Really liked what I played of the demo, enough that I bought the game.
