Recently bought
Receiver 2. Obsessed with it.
It's amusing that the developer Wolfire's earlier game,
Overgrowth (which I haven't played), took like 13 years to create while
Receiver was created in a week by the same devs for a game jam. Both are well-received games, but I think the latter is far more successful.
Basically, in both Receiver games you explore randomly generated/assembled worlds looking for audio tapes. You're armed with a random firearm (assigned when you spawn) that is fully modeled and fully functional. You'll never see this game on consoles because a keyboard is necessary... the controls are too complicated for a controller. One button to eject a magazine, another to insert bullets, another to
remove bullets, another for the safety, another for cocking the hammer (on guns with visible hammers), a two-button combination to check the chamber, etc. It's intimidating at first, but it's really satisfying when you finally get the muscle memory sequences down.
In the game you try to avoid or destroy hostile, mechanical turrets and flying drones, the nature of which I won't try to explain here because the story is so weird. These enemies are also fully modelled and functional, and targeting different components will give you different results. (Shooting the cameras or sensors will blind them, taking their motors out will stop them from moving, etc.)
I put an embarrassing number of hours into the original... and then mods came along adding more firearms. And
then it got Steam Workshop support, adding
even more firearms, level types, etc. You could play Receiver forever, and that's partially because there's nothing else like it.
Until the sequel, obviously. It's absurdly difficult, but you always want to try again when you fail. The mood of the game is awesome (sort of a cyberpunk, surreal, beautiful and empty, endless nighttime world with hints of Buddhist philosophy), and a big part of that is
the soundtrack, which is similar to but better and larger than
the original game's. I also like how the weird lore hinted at in the first game has been greatly and successfully expanded into something truly unique. The original lore kind of felt like it had been made up quickly, but they managed to make something much more coherent for the sequel.
If you like FPSs, challenging Roguelike gameplay, and unique indie game experiences, give Receiver 2 a chance. You can skip the original entirely, though some people prefer the gameplay structure in the first to the second.
