I cannot help but appreciate how Arcadegeddon hooked me into this really player-friendly loot shooter. The arcade-y elements are replayable, rewarding, and worth playing with friends. Arcadegeddon hits the spot as an MMO with roguelite elements with an awesome arcade aesthetic. But, I want more. Much more. If Arcadegeddon is to succeed in the MMO/roguelite space in the longer term, some of the advancement mechanics (such as preserving progress of longer runs) and lategame gameplay needs to be refined and expanded. I want additional modes like time trials that can easily and reliably completed in a single sitting. At the same time, I want some additional variety to make a three hour gauntlet exciting to reach. If you're wanting a co-op loot shooter that's easily picked up and played, look no further than Arcadegeddon. If you want something deeper, wait around a bit. Hopefully Arcadegeddon can hit that sweet spot, too.
The days of loitering at my local arcade/pizza parlor, spending my parent’s spare change on the likes of Galaga, Teenage Mutant Turtles, and Street Fighter, may be numbered. As a 30-year-old, arcades are a relic of a bygone era of simpler, shorter, and more difficult gaming, one where the purpose of inserting quarters into a machine was to get a top score in the arcade cabinet’s leaderboard. I know a select few arcades remain here in the United States, most of which cater to younger kiddos who want tickets out of a minigame. But for those who connect to the idea of an arcade shooter, look no further than Arcadegeddon.
Arcadegeddon is a third-person co-op arcade shooter from IllFonic that takes place in a future where one arcade remains untouched from corporate tendrils. It’s up to you to work with others and save the arcade from being acquired by the nefarious Fun Fun Co.
I am comfortable in saying that Arcadegeddon is fit to compete in the MMO genre for now, as it incorporates roguelite elements in varying up gameplay at the surface level and retaining players in the short term. Having what seems like an endless number of guns and an infinitely scaling Adventure mode offers a repeatable gameplay loop that can give some players the impression that their time is being rewarded by seeing their progress on constantly evolving leaderboard.
The bread and butter gameplay loop of Arcadegeddon is its Adventure mode, where players are placed into a party of four and sent off into an arcade-style gauntlet of areas featuring different puzzles and objectives. Completing each level will advance the run’s difficulty by one level, which will then add more enemies, increase their damage, and increase their health. While it may look and feel like a roguelike at first glance because of the levels being different in each adventure run through, the map designs themselves are the same but the order in which players are sent to these levels change on each new attempt. These adventure runs can become gauntlets, ranging from 30 minutes of gameplay to upwards of several hours (!!) depending on how long you survive alongside harder enemies. I saw some folks online mention spending over six hours on a single run, and that sounds exhausting.
Arcadegeddon‘s Adventure mode has grown on me; I do think that this mode is a fun and unique spin in the MMO space. In my first initial playthroughs, I felt quite lost in how I was to proceed, acquire better weapons, and customize my character to keep myself alive and not a burden on folks who were miles ahead of me and most likely those who had been playing when the game was in Early Access. However, after surviving several playthroughs, testing weapons out, and being carried for several runs exceeded three hours, I was able to pick up more and more through simple trial and error.
I’m pleased to say that Arcadegeddon‘s new player experience is nowhere near as daunting, punishing, or vague as similar titles in the MMO/roguelite category. RETURNAL’s learning curve is based on the player’s ability to simply complete the first biome; for me, that took me a good six hours of trying and dying on top of reading tips on Reddit. Destiny’s learning curve is definitely the steepest but alleviated if a new player is guided by a veteran (preferably in voice comms). In Arcadegeddon, learning the ins and outs of finding weapon chests tucked away, how to defeat bosses, and selecting weapons is as simple as just playing the game.
This gameplay loop may prove boring to some folks, such as Destiny or COD Zombies players who desire an arcade-like experience with a deep level of depth. To this I would agree, Arcadegeddon currently lacks the complexity of its competitors, but this is a good thing. Being able to pick up a game and go without having to spend time learning additional mechanics and knowing the “meta” builds acts as a massive hindrance to new players who want to _play_ a game rather than frontload research to play a game. Arcadegeddon succeeds as a pick up and play game, and it gives players a short term burst of satisfaction when completing missions.
Yes, there are missions and advancement mechanisms in Arcadegeddon to keep you playing. I’m mostly happy with how they function: Before starting a run, you can pick up a main gang mission from any of the NPCs sitting in the lobby. As you complete these missions, more NPCs begin to spawn in your lobby that can give you additional missions to complete. While I am slightly disappointed that you can only take on one gang mission at a time, I can understand the logic behind this gameplay decision. Having a single gang mission (with its optional missions) prevents information overload and encourages player retention. It worked on me, to be frank, and I did feel like I was able to feel like I was advancing through the game when I was completing these missions.
Mission completion is a potential area of improvement, however. Unlike the daily missions that track your progress and persist across multiple runs, you must complete a gang mission in a single run through in order to claim the rewards. Should your run end prematurely by you leaving on your own, you have to start a brand new run and hope that you complete the mission fully. Even worse, if your run is running long and you wish to leave, your gang mission’s progress will completely erase should you decide to leave a lobby on your own accord. If your entire team wipes, then you can return to your lobby and claim your rewards. I understand the reason behind this, too, as no one wants to be left alone after a several hour long adventure run. On the other hand, it makes it so that the player should be prepared to invest around 90 minutes (or more!) in order to complete a single mission and ensure it’s completed properly.
Time is an invaluable resource, and Arcadegeddon can very well demand your time in unpredictable fashions. I’m 30 years old, and as much as I wish to spend hours playing a game through the night, I wish that there was a way to spend 30 minutes and get something out of it in a guaranteed fashion. As it stands, playing solo without matchmaking is a surefire way of being able to control my progress. I hope that a time trial mode is added to give players some certainty and agency regarding match length and time investments, as I can’t personally commit to investing three (or more) hours into a single run each time I play. Even more, there needs to be a way for the transitions between each level to be condensed, as the player scoreboard is shown for 90s by default and only is skippable if ALL players agreed to skip the scoreboard animations. I’d feel less nitpicky about the time investment if the scoreboard was shown during the loading screens, but having to sit through a long scoreboard animation and then a loading screen feels like a waste of my time.
After becoming used to gameplay mechanics and playing with others, I’ve come to the conclusion that longer Adventure runs have diminishing returns in several spaces, be it level variety, objective variety, and enemy variety. It becomes boring to visit a level I just completed 20 minutes ago and run through it again but with slightly different objectives and slightly more difficult enemies. Enemy design begins to feel stale really quickly, too, as higher difficulties introduce but a handful of newer enemies along with various status effects, like a noxious cloud that deals damage over time. I feel like Arcadegeddon has what it takes to succeed at the surface level, but there needs more variety to reward longer-form time investments.
This is not to say that an Arcadegeddon Adventure run is unbalanced or boring. The guns, player Gauntlet abilities, and enemies/bosses all feel appropriately balanced based on your current level difficulty. As I played, I was happy to see my progress persist across Adventure runs in the form of getting access to my favorite guns right at the start (once I used it enough, of course) and additional abilities unlocking as I leveled up. Once I unlocked additional passive perks and Gauntlet abilities, I felt confident in surviving a longer run (even against boss battles with bosses that felt like bullet sponges).
I feel the need to praise the bosses of Arcadegeddon, and I hope that more are created. So far, there are four, and each of the bosses provide excellent optional gameplay breaks in an Adventure run. As your run’s difficulty increases, your boss’ health and damage patterns increase, as well. You can choose to avoid bosses altogether, but slaying all four in a single run nets you a cool achievement that I won’t spoil. Sure, higher difficulty bosses felt like Destiny 2 boss levels of bullet sponges, but this was offset by the levels themselves having respawning ammo cartridges and health packs. Defeating these bosses feels SO satisfying, as the boss chests contains so many goodies that can give you an edge on your current run. Should your party lose to a boss, you get an option to “spend” a token to restart the level(and forgo challenging the boss if it’s too strong).
Arcadegeddon may be co-op forward, but it also has some light PvP modes, too. These opportunities can be accessed from the main lobby or in the middle of an Adventure run at the shop checkpoint. Choosing to play PvP will throw you (and your party, if you’re already in a party) into a gauntlet of eight back-to-back minigames, ranging from shooting each other, shooting AI, and more. Sometimes, these minigames can last for a matter of seconds; othertimes, they last for up to two minutes. I see similarities between Arcadegeddon‘s PvP and Fall Guys’ Battle Royale-styled minigames, believe it or not.
During my review period, my PvP experience ranged from quite fun to “oh my god get me out of this lobby.” In the competitive free-for-all minigames, all players were given the same gun, and I was unlucky enough to be forced to use a sniper rifle several minigames in a row. I wouldn’t have a problem with it if I was forced to use a sniper for one minigame, not several in a row. This is especially disappointing on the smaller maps. I hope that future updates to the PvP broaden the pool of possible weapons and give players additional variety (while still maintaining balance). Another pain point occurred when one of the players in the lobby left in a 2v2 minigame, and that player just to happened to be on my team. I’m unsure how to best fix that issue (as leavers are quite common in online games), but being forced to sit through a 2v1 slaughter and being killed at my spawn was not a great experience. Other minigames, like the AI Enemy Rush and the Floor/Brick Destroyer, were quite fun.
I appreciate Arcadegeddon‘s approach to PvP, but it needs a bit more development to add the fun factor that the Adventure mode (mostly) has down pat. This is of course assuming that long-term support for PvP is intended. Given that Arcadegeddon is primarily based on co-op gameplay, I feel as though I shouldn’t have that high expectations for PvP support and should be happy that a small PvP experience exists. But, some consolation mechanisms should be implemented to make losing in a 2v1 situation less painful overall.
Aesthetically, Arcadegeddon quenches a nostalgia thirst of neon arcades many younger players were not able to experience like, say, 90s kids. The colors, animations, and environments connect with old-school 90s arcades of a simpler and coin-riddled time, and it’s so cool to customize a character that connects with that time period, too. While some may see the designs of Arcadegeddon as leaning into cyberpunk and vaporwave aesthetics, I see Arcadegeddon‘s designs as a love letter to a golden age of gaming. I love what IllFonic has done in creating the world of Arcadegeddon and I cannot wait for more to be added.
Arcadegeddon‘s current customization is the right kind of customization. I’m pleased to report that there are no lootboxes, gacha elements, or pay-to-win cosmetics. Instead, you can use tickets that are obtained from leveling up and completing runs to purchase different outfit portions and weapon skins from Gilly, the arcade owner (and one of the lead NPCs). Of course, Gilly’s wares rotate on a regular basis, and there are some cosmetics that are only obtainable by spending real world money. But, I’m happy to say that most of the things I _want_ are available by simply playing the game, and I don’t feel like I have to pay to spend more time in the game.
Of course, if I did not have a review copy of Arcadegeddon/the game available for free on PlayStation Plus, I would be far more critical of the pricing structure. As a PS+ member who claimed Arcadegeddon in July 2022, I do feel like this is a great freemium game. However, for those on PC, XBOX, or PS after July 2022, Arcadegeddon carries a $29.99 pricetag. I find it really difficult to recommend at that price point, even more with the premium cosmetics that are only available by paying more money. I hate to say it, but I would prefer to pay for a seasonal pass and seasonal content rather than the upfront cost with microtransactions.
Let’s be frank about the music: It’s okay. Solidly okay. I’ve seen some reviewers mention that the music is awesome and fitting for the game, but… I find it hard to agree with that sentiment. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some EDM/futuristic hip-hop like the rest of folks my age (and in their early 20s). I’ve spent my fair share in the VIP section at HARD Summer and Spring Awakening (with plans for EDC and UMF soon(tm)); I appreciate the likes of Borgore, Skrillex, Diplo, Major Lazer, Swedish House Mafia, MiTiS, Imanbek, and Vintage Culture (and so, so much more). However, I appreciate this genre more when there are ebbs and flows to tracks that build to a climactic drop. I love it when these tracks seamlessly transition like a fluid mixtape or liveset. Arcadegeddon‘s music deserves that seamlessness, and I do think that additional balancing and remixing could turn the game’s OST into a unique set fit for a music festival.
While this game is tailored for a co-operative experience, you still _can_ play in an offline mode. However, this offline mode sends you in a stripped down adventure mode that does not progress your current quests nor take into account your current progress in the online space. It’s a start, but it’s in no way as fun without being connected to Arcadegeddon‘s servers. I would hope to see my progress persist in some fashion in the event that PSN is down, or even (worst case scenario), IllFonic’s servers are down.
It would behoove me to conclude this review by mentioning how Arcadegeddon utilizes the PS5’s unique features. In short: Arcadegeddon uses the adaptive triggers and haptics well. I wouldn’t say that the game loads faster than normal (since it still needs to connect to online servers), but it loads far faster than other MMO titles I’ve played on my PS5.
My review session of Arcadegeddon was in no way perfect, and you should be warned that bugs are still being ironed out. While I did not experience an adventure-ending bug (they do exist; be warned), I did encounter my fair share of visual bugs as well as bugs in the main menu. For whatever reason, selecting Play Offline and then returning to the online portion got me caught in an endless loading screen (and wouldn’t actually log me back in). Occasionally, some of the guns would look like white squares (impacting clarity), and chests would sometimes spawn a gun that would become embedded in a wall, rendering it unable to be picked up. I have faith in IllFonic’s team, but do not expect a bug-free experience.
I cannot help but appreciate how Arcadegeddon hooked me into this really player-friendly loot shooter. The arcade-y elements are replayable, rewarding, and worth playing with friends. Arcadegeddon hits the spot as an MMO with roguelite elements with an awesome arcade aesthetic. But, I want more. Much more. If Arcadegeddon is to succeed in the MMO/roguelite space in the longer term, some of the advancement mechanics (such as preserving progress of longer runs) and lategame gameplay needs to be refined and expanded. I want additional modes like time trials that can easily and reliably completed in a single sitting. At the same time, I want some additional variety to make a three hour gauntlet exciting to reach. If you’re wanting a co-op loot shooter that’s easily picked up and played, look no further than Arcadegeddon. If you want something deeper, wait around a bit. Hopefully Arcadegeddon can hit that sweet spot, too.
Note: A review copy of Arcadegeddon was shared with DigitalChumps for this review.
