Madshot

I went in expecting another Cthulhu-skinned action game that coasts on cosmic horror aesthetics, and Madshot surprised me. The core identity here is acrobatic, momentum-driven shooting on 2D Smash Bros.-style arenas - wall jumps, backflips, rope hangs, dodge rolls, all while unloading into multi-phased bosses and procedurally shuffled rooms. The movement toolkit is genuinely expressive, and when it clicks, there are few games that make you feel this cool while dying repeatedly. The run structure is straightforward: pick a primary weapon at the start, hunt for a secondary mid-run, slot in an ultimate ability for burst damage emergencies, and stack upgrade combinations that can snowball into wild synergies. Procedurally generated routes let you choose how long and difficult each district push gets, with mini-boss fights, random events, shops, and power-up rooms breaking up the path. Permanent progression exists but is deliberately light - the bulk of your success comes from reading enemy patterns and mastering the movement, not grinding out permanent stat bumps. That is either this game's best quality or its most frustrating one, depending on how you feel about skill-gated runs. Player reception settled at a solid "Mostly Positive" on Steam. The community consensus circles around two things: the movement feel is excellent, and the early areas can lull you into thinking this is easier than it is. Starting from the first boss onward, the game starts demanding real positional awareness - enemies spawn from unexpected angles, and standing still is a death sentence. One genuine friction point: controller support on PC is shaky. Multiple users flagged that the crosshair does not properly center with a gamepad, making mouse and keyboard essentially mandatory, which stings for a genre that plays well on a controller. Also worth flagging - some players found that mid-game progression flattens out once you have unlocked most of the upgrade options, and the final stretch leans more on numerical scaling than the crisp skill expression the early game builds toward. Visually, Madshot goes for a dark, hand-drawn comic book style - think Mike Mignola's shadow work applied to tentacled nightmares. It is a strong aesthetic call that holds up well across the different districts, and the monster animation work in boss fights is a clear point of pride for the team. The soundtrack supports the mood without demanding attention, which is the right call for a game moving this fast. For the price point, the Steam version also bundles Madshot: Road to Madness, an auto-shooter spin-off in the same universe that adds extra value if you want something lower intensity between runs. For players already burned out on roguelites, Madshot does not reinvent anything - the loop is familiar, the progression will feel thin compared to deeper genre offerings, and the controller situation is a real barrier on PC. But for anyone who loved the movement in Dead Cells or wanted a Lovecraftian setting with actual acrobatic flair rather than just atmosphere, this one has enough mechanical identity to justify the time investment.

Alex · Scout Team

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