MISSION
After a short tutorial, you're introduced to your base of operations: a spacious interior dotted with terminals to upgrade stats and purchase skills, but the most important feature is the immersion chamber. This is the reclined seat from which you hack into the mind of soldiers impassively referred to as assets (which is appropriate considering their solitary purpose and expendability). The ultimate goal is to confront the overseer on the top floor, who will occasionally show his face on monitors to taunt you as you climb the levels. Each time you "die" in Neon Chrome, you're disconnected from your now-deceased asset and emerge from the immersion chamber.

CLASSES
Each session begins by choosing one of three random assets of different classes to assume control of. Techies have a rechargeable damage-absorbing shield, Cyber Psychos receive health and melee damage boosts and can install 2 extra cybernetic upgrades, Assassins move faster and can hide in shadows to perform sneak attacks for critical damage, Hackers have an attack drone and can bypass locked boxes and terminals and Corporate Soldiers inflict increased damage and carry a front-facing shield.

These choices offer a fair amount of diversity to the way you play the game (most notably the assassin, who can be played very tactically by sneaking up on enemies without being seen and choosing his/her moments to strike), even if the most effective approach is usually to shoot, quickly get back into cover and repeat. There are no weak classes and enough variety is present among them to ensure everyone will have a favorite or two. I found the techie's recharging shield indispensable when tackling the game solo and never made it past a checkpoint as any other class, but I don't personally dislike any of them and enjoy dabbling with shotgun-wielding assassins and cash-grabbing hackers.

WHERE AM I?
Quite commonly you'll come across alternative exits which lead to 1 of 50+ pre-defined special levels, rather than another randomized map. They can be risky to enter; you could find yourself in a level containing a life-saving autodoc or if you're less lucky, one called 'The Button' or 'Explosive Walkway', the contents of which I won't divulge here, suffice to say the developers have an imaginative sense of humor.

GAMEPLAY
Levels are a mix of procedurally-generated maps interspersed with set piece story moments and boss battles. Typically lasting no more than a few minutes, levels are short but chock-full of do-or-die action. Dally for too long and the overseer will send in special troops to swarm you. This introduces a dilemma of sorts; survival is usually dependent upon jumping in and out of cover to shoot and backtracking or kiting your enemies around obstacles to take some of the flak, but delaying clearly isn't rewarded either. This is not to say that an expertly lunatic player cannot gracefully rampage through a level and come out unscathed, it just requires skill and is situation dependent; you're not going to run absent-mindedly into a tiny room with mini-bosses pointing rocket launchers at the door.

Every attempted journey to the lofty heights of the overseer's floor will be different. There are only 5 checkpoints between floor zero and the ultimate destination, so expect to die a lot. What impressed me most about Neon Chrome is how it managed to turn this potentially grindy, repetitive mechanic into a fun roguelite experience. I dislike losing progress as much as the next person, but I found myself attempting to reach the next boss over and over again without becoming bored because every run brings with it credits to spend on permanent upgrades and a chance to find and unlock new weapons and abilities. It will be a long time before you get that samey feeling from the procedurally-generated settings or see every special level and each time you surpass a boss, the environments change a little and also begin to stretch out in size.

Gameplay in general is an absolute blast, whether you're playing alone or in shared-screen local co-op mode. The challenge is eased with extra firepower from a friend and also because only one player has to make it to the exit for all others to be revived on the next level. Almost everything you see can be destroyed, which opens up some interesting opportunities. For example, you might be able to avoid a nasty turret by blowing holes through the walls of the adjoining rooms or one-shot kill enemies after destroying the wall behind them (that never gets old).

WEAPONS
Weapon choice is an important one because they all handle very differently. Although not always explicitly stated in terms of stats, things like projectile speed, bullet spread and effective range differ between weapons. As you would expect, submachine guns are fast and offer a higher damage-per-second figure but spread wildly and become inaccurate over moderate to long ranges. Plasma shotguns are extremely powerful but incur a slight delay after pulling the trigger and suffer from a slower projectile speed. Railguns are insanely powerful and great against bosses (another example of a hidden stat), but are woefully slow to fire and reload. If you stumble upon a rocket launcher, think twice before counting your blessings and consider your circumstances before swapping out as you can only carry one weapon at a time. Perhaps it could be the ultimate weapon for a boss fight, but to quote one of the game's very own tips: "Be careful with explosives!".

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Special abilities are even more diverse, but less balanced. Micro missiles (with homing capabilities) and mines are available at the beginning and having unlocked many more, It's a mixed bag so far. Unguided missiles are inferior to the micro missiles and the laser pulse ability is weak and inaccurate unless swamped by enemies, but cluster grenades are fun and the remaining choices sound promising.

UPGRADES & UNLOCKABLES
An RPG element is present in Neon Chrome by virtue of the fact that characters and weapons have upgradeable stats. Your character's health, damage, luck and other parameters are permanently upgraded using credits. Weapons can be temporarily upgraded mid-run, where you may also unlock new weapons and special abilities for purchase back at home base. For a small amount of credits, they will replace the random selections for your next run. Handy when you unlock a favorite you just can't live without!

Upgrading your character's stats does not have an immediately noticeable effect and it takes quite some time and many levels under your belt before you gain any real benefit. There's more than enough variety and unlockables to make this an enjoyable process, but if there's anything that will put you off the game, that will probably be it.

AUDIO & VISUALS
Using a simple presentation style with modest levels of detail and low-poly models, Neon Chrome is somewhat reminiscent of late 90's titles such as Future Cop: LAPD, albeit not as rough around the edges. Relatively uncolorful interiors are lit up by purple, blue and green neon lights and brought to luminous life when firefights break out and ion submachine guns, flashing detonation areas from mines and explosions fill the screen. The camera is zoomed out enough not to be able to see the tiniest details on your character, but this for good reason because it allows you to see and plan ahead. It also allows co-op partners to wander just a little and flank enemies. Visually, the cyberpunk feel has been captured really well, right down to the snazzy, purple neon laden user interface. The same can be sound for the soundtrack which is part groovy electronic beats, part mysterious and moody synthwave and all parts great. The old-school sound effects are nice too; each weapon, pickup sound etc has a distinctive and suitably sci-fi ring to it.

CONTROLS
Neon Chrome can be played with a controller or mouse + keyboard. I would personally recommend trying both, even if you're a controller fan for twin-stick shooters, because the mouse wielder gains the added benefit of a crosshair. While the controller user will be familiar with directionally aiming your laser-like line of sight, the crosshair can be directly placed on top of enemies which may improve your accuracy. Both options provide responsive inputs that can be quickly modified in or outside of a game. There's even a dead zone slider for controllers, to adjust the degree to which minor movements of the analog sticks are disregarded i.e. control their responsiveness.

CONCLUSION
Neon Chrome manages to combine roguelike elements, progressive character building and addictive gameplay into one of the best top-down shooters available today. "One more go" has become an internal mantra of mine when playing this game, due to my inability to put it down when planned. The action is spot-on, the soundtrack is great and it will be many hours before you reach the overseer. When you finally beat him, it's not necessarily game over - a greater difficulty mode unlocks each time and the climb to the top begins again, if you accept the challenge.