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Genetic Disaster (Xbox One) Review

Ported from PC, Genetic Disaster is a 4-player co-op twin stick shooter that features goofy mutant playable characters in randomly generated environments. The gimmick is each character has a unique skill set which helps create a balanced party in multiplayer matches.

Unfortunately, Genetic Disaster never achieves must-play greatness and doesn’t stand out from the crowd of other twin-stickers and randomly generated dungeon crawlers. It is an accessible romp and the characters are featured with tons of visual personality but gameplay and entertainment value is strictly middle of the road. There are dozens of randomly spawning weapons and most work best in certain situations but there is the occasional gun, like the shuriken launcher, that seems to fit the overall bill.  Once a weapon like this is found, using other weapons become moot and uneventful.  Stages also vastly change between attempts but even this feature is tedious as there are often gaps and rooms that lead to nowhere with some large open spaces that are filled with nothing. Abilities and perks can be gained, like enhancing offensive or defensive capabilities, or earning an option to increase strength but at the cost of beefed up enemies. The ability tug-of-war is interesting and adds much needed flavor but remains as a simple, expected feature.

The pacing isn’t great either, especially when playing solo. Dead ends of the random stage design needlessly slows gameplay. Enemy types also repeat and are mostly tedious fodder until reaching a boss that only has a small window of opportunity to cause damage, again slowing gameplay and feeling more like work.  There are also small technical issues like turning down the rumble feature but yet the controller still shakes and coins dropped by enemies get stuck within walls. Sometimes there is strange camera movement and the view point is zoomed in too far and the soundtrack is also generic. Genetic Disaster just never gets going and remains a slow paced, bland slog that compliments its namesake.

Also available on Switch, PS4, and PC.

SCORE: 5/10

Not As Good As: the numerous other action roguelikes that is the new gaming trend these days
Also Try: Hyper Parasite (Xbox One)
Wait For It: a new Gauntlet

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz

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