Deflector Review

Deflector is an isometric action-roguelite that I have utterly fallen in love with over the past few days. The visuals, music, and gameplay all work together to create one of my favourite roguelites ever made.

The story is limited, but it never feels like it’s missing anything, it tells exactly what it needs to, when it needs to: you play as a Bioshell, entrusted to defeat the Apex Viruses and The Source to return the system you inhabit to its normal state. This also works well with the game's visual design, a futuristic and blocky look to complement the game's cyber aesthetic within both the story and the world. To tie things together, the music is incredibly high-energy rock which matches the gameplay incredibly well.

Deflector doesn’t push the boat out too far with the way each run is formatted, or even the gameplay itself, yet despite this, it manages to feel incredibly good. You have the choice between four different locations, and once you complete three of the four, you’re sent to the final boss. Each stage comes with its own unique set of threats and enemies, and the second and third stages get procedurally harder, introducing new enemies and, more commonly, coming across Anomalies. Anomalies are modifiers in individual rooms in each stage, increasing the difficulty, such as giving enemies attacks which can’t be deflected or slowing your movement speed. These don’t drastically change the way rooms play out, but they are a small, nice change of pace. Each stage is broken up into rooms, as stated before, each having its unique rewards, such as health pools, cells (the game's primary currency), and other miscellaneous upgrades. Stages all have a Great Virus and an Apex Virus, serving as a midpoint boss and a final boss for each stage. I did find a lack of variety in these Viruses, with only one of each kind in each stage which made them feel a little dull on subsequent runs, but they did a solid job for what they are.

During each run, you’ll obtain various upgrades: Mutations, Core Attributes, Evolution, and Nucleolus. Mutations add unique effects to many of your abilities, such as increasing damage after a successful deflect, Core Attributes increase your Health, Deflect damage or Attack damage. Evolution and Nucleolus affect your specific attacks, such as directly altering your main attack or adding new and unique effects to your active ability. Thanks to these systems, each run feels incredibly unique, especially when combined with the effects of each different Bioshell. Each Bioshell has its own moveset, which heavily alters the playstyle of each character.

Deflector is a brilliant game with a wonderfully satisfying gameplay loop and a great world. What it lacks in variety, it more than makes up for in gameplay feel; for a fan of roguelites, this is without a doubt worth your time and money!