Explosives will remove rock walls, keys will open locked doors or chests, and purple crystals can open corresponding barriers and receptacles to reveal secrets and items. You’ll also find new guns with a variety of effects from explosive rounds to dazzling light shows and ricocheting bullets. The majority will alter your physical appearance too, which is a nice touch that adds to the uniqueness of each run. The sheer number of gear items is impressive, from badges to masks, hats, outfits and gun upgrades.

Similarly to Dead Cells, once unlocked these items will be added to the huge pool of random drops in your subsequent runs. All you’ll retain are the golden gems you’ve earned from defeating bosses, which the bartender will take in exchange for weapon or item unlocks. However, death will zap you right back to the bar. Each stage is a series of rooms filled with enemies, secrets, power ups, weapons, traps and mini games that you’ll navigate until you reach the boss. Just outside its door is a sheer drop into hell, which you’ll take over and over again. You begin in the Neon Abyss itself, which is a bar seemingly on the edge of Purgatory. It’s really not very good at telling a story.

You are part of Grim Squad, a special team formed by Hades to infiltrate the myriad layers of Hell and put paid to a bunch of new Gods who are causing mayhem in the afterlife.

It’s a Roguelite in the vein of Dead Cells, but it shares shooting and platforming mechanics with last year’s Black Future ’88. Because you don’t really need a story to appreciate what Neon Abyss is doing. What I will say, though, is that I don’t care. After playing for more than 10 hours, I’m no wiser as to who the characters are, what the Neon Abyss is or why they’re here. If Neon Abyss has a story, I don’t know what it is.

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