Ammo and Oxygen Preview

Roguelike games occupy a strange space in the gaming market. They offer easy replayability and choice but are also so easy to get wrong. Even if you get it right it can be tough to stand out.. I recently tried out Juvty World's latest game, Ammo and Oxygen, to see if it managed to find the secret or if it should stay in a vacuum.  

Ammo and Oxygen’s plot focuses on your character waking up on a strange planet where everyone is dead and there are hordes of strange creatures hunting you: you will need to find out what happened, explore the alien planet, and try to survive. Now, if you expect a plot with detailed characters, like Hades, look elsewhere. The entire premise here is the feeling of being completely alone, and Ammo and Oxygen does that well. The odd bits of lore you find make doing a long run without dying feel a bit more worth it. 

Long runs are the aim here, as anyone who has played a roguelike will tell you. You start in the same room each time, and then you’ll need to find some basic equipment and weapons so that you don’t die in the first five minutes. However, this is where my first issues with the game started. See, the point of a roguelike is that you slowly start getting more initial stuff alongside constant upgrades that help you live longer. Ammo and Oxygen does have upgrades, but they don’t ever make you feel more powerful, and you can only upgrade equipment when you find a select amount of weapons. 

This is a bit of an issue because Ammo and Oxygen could be more forgiving. You have to keep track of your air and the batteries for your torch, and you can die pretty quickly without the monsters even being involved. Meanwhile, the enemies will take you out pretty quickly if you don’t spot them, and you won’t because the levels are dark, and the area you can see is pretty minimal. I got jumped more than once, lost a bunch of health and then just got annoyed. 

These two issues combined mean that you will often hit long periods of making no progress. Now, for the roguelike fan, this might be a dream experience, but it annoyed me more than anything. The main thing I would want to see in a full release is just a little bit of higher depth of field, just so I have a better idea of what I’m getting into. Meanwhile, the upgrades I can get behind, but having us find weapons randomly on a map does mean you might go a while before unlocking the ability to start a run with a weapon.

It is possible to play Ammo and Oxygen with up to three other players, and it does feel like it's designed for that. For instance, when on the surface you ideally need to reach another building before nightfall, as that’s when more monsters are coming after you. That’s a fine idea… the issue is that it gets dark so fast and the indicators of where you need to go are pretty unclear, so you’ll likely not make it and have to keep fighting. This wouldn’t be an issue with three other players, each with their own torches so you can see in several directions, but on your own, it's just a pain. 

Visually, Ammo and Oxygen looks great, and the sound design helps to maintain the atmosphere. However, it’s worth noting that the game is still in Alpha, so it’s a wee bit buggy at times. Saying that. for most of my playthrough on a relatively old machine, it all worked as it should. 

Overall Ammo and Oxygen has something there, but it needs a bit of work. Ideally, they need to find a way to tailor the experience for single-players, either by changing how long it takes to get to night or making fewer enemies spawn. 

Keep an eye out for our full review when the game releases and remember, in space, no one can hear you scream… mostly because you ran out of air halfway through your 10th run.