Rightfully, Beary Arms was provided to us by the publisher for review. Thank you!
This is an early access title. We are reviewing current performance, but this is subject to change throughout the development process up to full release. We will update this review accordingly when these updates are released.
Have you ever wanted to play a bullet-hell roguelike where you are a bear with weapons that have a specific stat for sex appeal? Well don't worry because that's what we got! Rightfully, Beary Arms is charming twin-stick shooter where you will run and gun with a variety of weapons. Like other roguelikes, you will be able to upgrade your gun, character, and the run as you plow through enemies. Be careful though, if you die, you will have to choose an upgrade for the enemy team, making your next run harder.
So far, I am loving the game's take on the genre. Combining 3D areas with 2D characters, all of which made with more simplistic pixel art, is a nice way to keep the game visually appealing. I like the humor they injected in with the bear and guns having a sex appeal stat, which it measures in "Honey Buns". It gives the world much more charm and makes me laugh every time I see it.
The gameplay elements involved also make it feel like a unique take on the genre. The biggest one would be that you have to upgrade enemies, as well as upgrade yourself. It's like walking a tight rope with weight being added in each of your hands, you have to find a way to balance. Luckily, you can also see which areas will have the highest probabilities of certain drops like health, weapons, or skill points, so you can plan accordingly. The variety of weapons is really great too, I loved having access to actual real-looking guns and then be met with a glue gun or a cat that fires lasers.
For an early access title, I am really pleased with the content included so far. The team claims they will be working on creating new levels, enemies, seasonal events, and new content that is based around feedback from the community. I love hearing this and have a lot of excitement and hope that this will be a fantastic game in the genre. I am loving it so far, but unfortunately, my Steam Deck isn't,
With a native Linux build of the game, I was really hopeful for Rightfully, Beary Arms, but ultimately, it just isn't viable on the Steam Deck yet. It starts off relatively well, but it starts to have some massive drops once you get shooting. While aiming for 60 FPS, I noticed that the biggest drops happened when a bunch of enemies were shooting projectiles or you were shooting boxes to get currency to buy items/upgrades from the shop. These ranged from 40 FPS all the way down to 8 FPS at one point.
There aren't many settings to change yet, and I felt the game was smoothest at 60 FPS and, with the way the game looks, I feel it should be able to hit it. I did try changing the couple settings that were there, but there wasn't enough change to stop these drops from being so impactful. I also tried the Windows version of the game, forcing different Proton layers, but it seemed to make the game drain more battery and it still dropped.
I did also try on my ROG Ally and the game still had drops from the same actions. To keep the game above 60, I had to play on Turbo Mode, which is definitely not something I should have to do for a game like this.
The game does have 16:10 resolution support, so there are no black bars above and below the screen, and it has full controller support that works well. There are no cloud saves right now though, but it could be added in the future.
Honestly, I really wish this game performed better on the Steam Deck. As a roguelike shooter, Rightfully, Beary Arms is a fun, enjoyable experience that feels fresh and fast-paced. Even with the drops, I was getting into it and powering through, still having a good time just because I love the content there so far. Granted, I am also biased and love roguelikes, but I found a lot of enjoyment.
Sadly, recommending this kind of experience to others is very hard for me to do. The game is still in early access, so I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt here, but I still worry about the performance drops that are present. Until then, I would definitely get this game on PC, it is really fun, but I would wait to play it on the Steam Deck for now.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Rightfully, Beary Arms is an awesome roguelike game that introduces some interesting features into the mix, but it is held back by poor performance on the Steam Deck.
