When I was told that “Gone Viral” by Skullbot Games was in closed beta, I wasn’t expecting a full level of polish. Usually closed beta means that the developer needs feedback on what bugs and glitches to fix. What I experienced however was a game that was feature rich, with few bugs to be found. Having spent about 5 hours playing the game on Twitch I feel like I was able to experience most of the content in the closed beta. Gone Viral is an over-the-top randomly generated action melee/shooter with heavy roguelike elements. I described the game as a mash-up of Orcs Must Die, Smash TV, and Dead Cells previously and I stand by that. Going into the game blind can be a bit frustrating at the start.
Plenty of times I was forced to restart my run due to deaths that I could not comprehend. As I played the game more I started to understand the mechanics and learn which power ups were good to get and how to actually play it. No longer would I run headfirst into the boss room just because it happened to be the first room I encountered (procedural generation allowed for this a few times.) No, I began to play smarter and with more patience. Instead of just swinging my sword wildly when walking into a room and hoping to kill everything I began to learn how to use traps to kill my enemies. Along with using bombs to both deal damage and to find hidden areas and free up keys and coins that were hidden behind stones. I learned to turn my enemies’ weapons against them.
Gone Viral allows you to explore and experiment with different power-ups and mutations to your heart’s content. Do you want to be a huge badass with an incredible reach? Or a speed demon that slows down time when you dash? These are possible along with many more varied combinations.
Clearing a room in Gone Viral involves bravery, intelligence, and sometimes a bit of luck. You can use your melee weapon, your ranged weapon and any ‘injectors’ that you find to play the way you want. The injectors are limited time power-ups that can be anything from spraying acid on the ground where you walk, to healing half of your life. Learning what each of the different power-ups, injectors and mutations are and what they do will enable you to play the game how you want and hopefully succeed. What sets Gone Viral apart from similar-ish games is that it features both twitch integration and the ability to use a camera to put yourself into the game. Granted, if you are streaming then you probably won’t be able to implement the option to put yourself into the game since you are already using your webcam. But if you do have a spare camera lying around then the opportunity for more fun is there.
Personally, I was not able to do this but my friend DeltronZ hooked up a spare cam and got it to work on his stream. It looked like he was having a blast with it. For my streams I was able to get the Twitch integration working with my viewers voting on how to affect the game. They were able to summon bombs, nukes, power-ups, and all sorts of things that could either help or hinder my quest to become the new champion. It’s a fun dynamic that really adds to the experience. Especially if you have a loyal community that enjoys interacting with you.
Gone Viral doesn’t need to improve much in order to be a hit with consumers. The foundation is very strong and very fun. I can see people getting addicted to the game and possibly even trying to speedrun it in the future. I’ll probably hop back into the game upon full release and try to go viral myself. -ThatDAM_M
Get this on your wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/680030/Gone_Viral/
Follow me on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thatdam_m/