DLCMADNESS: Project Nexus SoundtrackLoading store offers
MADNESS: Project Nexus
For a noisy mix of gunfire and close combat, MADNESS: Project Nexus offers a campaign for solo play or local co-op, plus Arena Combat designed for one player. That can make ≈ $18.27 at 
Kinguin a worthwhile fit if local sessions are part of your plans.
The current purchase is at this site’s tracked historical low, not necessarily a regional or worldwide Steam low. English is listed for the Steam PC version, and the campaign description specifies local co-op with Xbox-compatible controllers. At ≈ $6.72 less than Steam, this offer makes MADNESS: Project Nexus especially appealing if you plan to play its local co-op campaign.
Loading store offersKinguinMadness: Project Nexus 2 Steam AltergiftAll-time low ~ $19.99across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
Loading store offers
Wishlist price
Set a target to receive an email when an eligible offer in your selected region is at or below that amount.
Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $19.992024-09Current Low Across Stores~ $24.99Steamvs. Historical Low+25%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
DLC
01About MADNESS: Project Nexus
MADNESS: Project Nexus combines third-person run-and-gun action with beat-’em-up combat built around intense arcade-style fights. In the story campaign, fight alone or in local co-op while uncovering the secrets of Project Nexus. Arena Combat lets you develop a custom warrior and face successive waves of enemies. The Playground lets you set squads of enemies against each other. 97%% of 16,047 Steam player reviews are positive. English is listed for the Steam PC version.
Credits
Developer
GIBBING TREE, LLC
Publisher
GIBBING TREE, LLC
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$19.992024-09-30 · SteamBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Yes | — | Yes |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-16
02Before you buy
Campaign and local co-op
The story campaign supports solo play or local co-op for up to three additional players; the description specifies Xbox-compatible controllers.
Arena and language
Arena Combat is described as a solo mode. English is listed for the Steam PC version, with full English audio.
03Frequently asked questions
Can I play the story campaign in co-op?
Yes. The campaign can be played solo or locally with up to three other people.
What does Arena Combat include?
Arena Combat is a solo mode with New Game+.
What is the Playground?
The Playground lets you pit enemy squads against one another, or join the fight yourself.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
I've waited since middle school for this and I'm 27 nowShow moreShow less
3.4 hours at review726 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
In short: MPN is a game with a lot of potential and moments of greatness, but I cannot recommend it right now due to it being clearly unfinished. The developers are being vigilant with a near-daily cycle of hotfixes, so eventually my opinion may change. There is fun to be had with it right now, even if it's tempered by softlocks, balancing issues, glitches, placeholders, etc. This is /not/ a finished game despite this being the full release, and I can only guess that after 7 years (probably more, my memory is awful) they just wanted to actually release a game that was mostly done even if that meant scrambling to fix it post-launch. Be aware that negative reviews for this game are being universally bombed with unhelpful or 'funny' ratings, for whatever reason. Not saying this doesn't deserve those ratings (I put side-tangents in brackets, that's not the staple of a good writer), but far more well-written reviews are receiving similar treatment.Show moreShow less
72.8 hours at review163 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Average Madness Enjoyer: ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠿⠛⠛⠛⠋⠉⠈⠉⠉⠉⠉⠛⠻⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠋⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣀⣤⣤⣤⣄⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⢿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⢏⣴⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣟⣾⣿⡟⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⢢⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣟⠀⡴⠄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⠟⠻⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠶⢴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿ ⣿⣁⡀⠀⠀⢰⢠⣦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠀⣴⣶⣿⡄⣿ ⣿⡋⠀⠀⠀⠎⢸⣿⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠗⢘⣿⣟⠛⠿⣼ ⣿⣿⠋⢀⡌⢰⣿⡿⢿⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠀⢸⣿⣿⣧⢀⣼ ⣿⣿⣷⢻⠄⠘⠛⠋⠛⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣧⠈⠉⠙⠛⠋⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣧⠀⠈⢸⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠟⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⢃⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⡿⠀⠴⢗⣠⣤⣴⡶⠶⠖⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣀⡸⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⡀⢠⣾⣿⠏⠀⠠⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠛⠉⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣧⠈⢹⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⡄⠈⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣠⣴⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣠⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⣀⣀⣀⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡄⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠙⣿⣿⡟⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⠀⠁⠀⠀⠹⣿⠃⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠛⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢐⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠉⠉⠁⠀⢻⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⠈⣿⣿⡿⠉⠛⠛⠛⠉⠉ ⣿⡿⠋⠁⠀⠀⢀⣀⣠⡴⣸⣿⣇⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡿⠄⠙⠛⠀⣀⣠⣤⣤⠄Show moreShow less
23.4 hours at review716 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
There is an H3VR-style cult of personality around this game, which would explain the "overwhelmingly positive" rating. It is a niche game based on a niche franchise, and niche games are usually only bought by those who know they are going to like them. I received a key for it all the way back when someone I know supported the kickstarter campaign and gave me his extra copy. I played the demo, I watched the devlogs, I've been tracking this game's development ever since it began seven years ago. And now it's been out for a while, and it disappoints me to say: This is not a Madness Combat game. It is a frustratingly mediocre beat-em-up game with a Madness Combat aesthetic. Let me explain: The MadCom animations are known for being lightning-fast and brutal. The grunts that the main characters face number in the tens of thousands, filling every crevice of isolated buildings that seem to be too large to exist in our reality: leviathan and sprawling office complexes, military installations, laboratories. There are John Wick-style gun acrobatics: characters are constantly grabbing and swapping weapons, tossing them around, stealing them from enemies, throwing them at enemies, dual-wielding assault rifles and shotguns, shooting said dual-wielded weapons in multiple directions at once. But mostly, there is a certain fluidity and effortlessness to the way the characters move that makes the animations an absolute joy to watch. Hank enters a room with thirty men and in seventeen seconds the room looks more akin to a salsa factory moments after an industrial accident. In stark contrast, Madness: Project Nexus is sluggish and lethargic. The pacing of the game is utterly incompatible with its source material - you pick an enemy, spend ten seconds button mashing on him with weak and unimpactful sound effects, he falls over, you move on to the next one. If you get far enough in the game, you might be able to stave off this frustrating form of "punching a bag of rocks" melee combat for a while - but then a heavy enemy comes along, and then you're right back to button mashing. This applies even when you do get proper swords and blunt weapons. I cannot stress this enough: The combat in this Madness Combat game is wholly unsatisfying. Guns are, for lack of a better term, an absolute pain in the ass to aim due to the awful top-down-but-not-really perspective of the game world. The low ammo counts for ranged weapons suggest that you should be swapping guns whenever you can, but the weapon pickup and drop mechanics are too finicky for the fast pace of the game - the short animation that plays whenever you pick up a weapon becomes sluggish and frustrating whilst in the heat of combat. The "ranged sweet spot" mechanic - where guns only do effective damage to enemies standing a (VERY!) specific distance away from your character - is absolutely inane and does not belong in this game, full stop. Almost none of the "John Wick-style" gun acrobatics are present, and if they were, the aforementioned terrible camera perspective would ensure that they would be more of a hindrance. Hank and Co. can be seen jumping and somersaulting over enemies in the animations, yet combat in Project Nexus is completely flat and lacks any sort of verticality at all. Once you finally suffer through the early game grind (an absolute chore), levels can be simplified to "kite around enemies until they drop". A few of these issues are solved by late-game skills, true, but why are they even in the game in the first place? I think the main issue is that Nexus is hopelessly overdesigned, especially when it comes to melee combat, and Arena mode's current "slow crawl to the top" gameplay progression is a very poor fit for the MadCom theme. It's as if they added mechanics in as they thought of them - "Oh, games with complex melee combat have parrying, let's add parrying! Let's add a multitude of swing types! Hey, now the ranged combat is too simple, here's a completely arbitrary way we can make it more nuanced! Complex games traditionally have skill trees, let's add a bunch of skill trees!" - with zero regard for if these mechanics worked together, or even made the gameplay more enjoyable at all. What the game devs don't seem to get is that this isn't Chivalry. This isn't Sifu. This isn't Mordhau. This is MADNESS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ COMBAT, for Jeb's sake. This game should reach the physical limit of how swift and violent a video game can be. Remove most of the complex melee mechanics, remove ranged sweet spots, remove the tac-bar, take most of the "improve ability X slightly" skills and give them to the player by default, remove hirelings, and then remove the skill tree all together. Quadruple the enemy count. Send them all at me at once. Nobody is coming to a MADNESS COMBAT GAME for complex, finicky combat mechanics - we are coming for constant, glorious, high-impact VIOLENCE. I don't want to engage in long-form melee duels with enemies, I don't want to have to stumble around to line up a shot, I don't want hordes of enemies to look at me awkwardly as they amble towards me in neat lines. This is not what somebody who is playing a MADNESS COMBAT GAME is asking for. From the very start of the game I want the ability to turn someone into paste as soon as I lay my eyes on them, and I want to do it in fun and creative ways, just like Hank J. Wimbleton is known to do. When a full-scale Madness Combat game was announced, I expected a bloodlust fueled hyperviolent romp through a bunch of of grey megacomplexes in the desert. That ideal is still partially visible in this game, but it is heavily obscured by an overcomplicated min-maxing grindfest that makes for a poor experience overall given the source material. It's clear to me that this game was made by people who are great artists that understand absolutely nothing about game design. A lot of love, care, and effort was put into the graphics and soundtrack. I hope one day they are put to use in a better game, and this beloved piece of outsider internet culture is done justice.Show moreShow less
11.7 hours at review98 people found this helpful
Received for free
RecommendedSteam player
Just do what comes naturalShow moreShow less
138.8 hours at review675 people found this helpful
Received for free
Not recommendedSteam player
I really wanted to say something amazing about this game especially with how hyped up everybody is about it and how excited I personally was for it. I love Madness with all my heart and I gave this my best shot but everything I disliked in the demo managed to carry on into the full game. Bugs will probably be patched out or polished like grenades falling through the floor and guns getting stuck in the floor but other features baked into the game make me feel like playing this is tedious. Melee combat is so supremely superior to using guns I simply stopped picking up anything else, guns not only run out of ammo so quickly, aiming them correctly is a clumsy and awkward mess with the sweet spots not only being dependent on where you put your mouse in a top down position but a sweet spot which requires you to step away from enemies who move constantly. It feels less like skill and more like fighting the game's mechanic. This wouldn't be so bad if grabbing weapons off the floor didn't feel loose and inconsistent, there's a hot key for picking up two guns at once and I found myself having to rapidly press it just to have it work, same thing for throwing guns when used up and picking up guns in the middle of a fight could end up having you take a ton of damage and having to do it constantly just doesn't feel fun in the slightest. The game ended up turning into dual wielding melee and exploiting that to do more damage than any gun ever could in one fight and maybe that's not for me, but I didn't come into Madness Combat to not use any guns. I would've loved to have given this a shining review but I've gotta be honest. TL;DR: In a series based on guns, the gun system is clunky enough that melee is superior but incredibly repetitive.Show moreShow less
2 hours at review54 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
all of this because of some jerk with a boomboxShow moreShow less
67.6 hours at review631 people found this helpful
Received for free
Not recommendedSteam player
If you are not familiar with Madness Combat or not a super-fan of it in general, you can skip this game and you won't lose anything really. There are much better games to spend your valuable free time on The idea of playable Madness Combat is brilliant, but in MPN2 combat and gameplay feel unsatisfying, because of clunkily implemented mechanics It left me with impression that it was made by people with a little experience in game design. The game isn't dog sheet, but it is like a meh game with wasted potential, it could've been a perfect game with such a long time being in development. But it's already finished, so there won't be any big changes or big gameplay fixes in the future. The developers don't pay attention to negative reviews and gamepaly problems, they simply don't find them valuable because fans will love the game anyways. Story plot, dialogs and humor are very primitive, and for me felt like written by a novice 14-16 y.o. writer (but there are a very few exceptions) No matter how much the game was advertised to Madness Combat fans, buying this game for full price isn't worth it. If such game was for free, I would probably recommend it. But for that price you can get a much better game (Also be aware that negative reviews here are bombarded with "Clown awards" and "Funny" ratings.) Optional details: Gameplay Gunplay Guns have a hella low ammo to satisfy player's preferable ranged playstyle: See, the game forces you to constantly pickup new weapons when you're out of ammo, to be just like in original MC series, but in reality you're constantly out of ammo. After like 3-5 kills, if you prefer ranged, you'd need to search for a new gun on the ground during combat with at least half full mag to kill the next enemies ahead, maximum ammo capacity of weapon dropped by enemies is only a single full magazine, WHICH IS NOT ENOUGH to rip-n-tear enemies with as much satisfaction as portraited in MC series. The constant abscence of ammo makes player slow down, which in my opinion bad for the fast-paced gameplay. GUNS are the MAIN FEATURE of Madness Combat! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I just want to take gun that I like and be able to use it to kill more than 5 goons before ammo runs out... I always try to shoot only heads to save more ammo, the mag-dump into the horde isn't an option, it won't kill as much enemies and will waste a lot of ammo I would say that this problem is fixed in Arena mode, because you are able to carry more ammo Melee It's much more superior to firearms, because you're able to use one melee weapon for much longer and kill much more enemies before it breaks. Honestly, most of the story campaign I happened to play mostly with dual-wield melee weapons, because melee is more reliable and because ammo dry out very quickly AI Very poor. You need to babysit each of your AI teammates during campaign, manage their inventories after each room. You can't rely on them, because they die if you stop paying attention to them. They even can literally go fists if they are out of ammo while having a gun laying on the ground in their reach. They waste a lot of ammo, and this make more of a problem because of lack of ammo during gameplay. I always gave them melee weapons and used guns only by me, they are actually much better melee fighters than shooters. Enemies are scripted just to walk towards the player and attack, that's it. You can kill 6 enemies that go towards you in chain and don't feel any difficulty, you can just literally smash LMB and it will work in 90% cases. Enemies don't use any tactics, sometimes avoidance behaviour. Playing against such enemies is boring, their difficulty increases only when they become more bullet-spongey Tac-bar This is actually a great feature for a MC game, it's like a bullet dodging characters do in MC series! But in reality it just works as armor bar... If you stand still and someone shoots you and you have a tac-bar, your character actually does a visible dodge. But if you run towards the enemy that is shooting at you - your character doesn't play dodge animation or get hit because you run towards the enemy, instead bullets just vanish and your tac-bar decreases. Same for the enemies with tac-bars, if they run towards you, you can dumb a whole mag and they won't take any damage. They will take damage only when they have their tac-bars empty (could've been easily fixed by implementing dodge animations for running states or tac-bar/dodge debuffs for running towards the gunfire) Great feature, meh implementation "Sweet spot" Basically it's an effective area of each gun. You can completely ignore enemy tac-bar and do increased damage if you shoot the enemy that is in this area The problem with this is that the area is FIXED and SMALL. You need to be IN A SPECIFIC distance to utilize it Why couldn't it be fixed to my cursor position? Does more damage where I focus my aim. If the enemy is between me and the cursor, or far from the cursor - I do less damage Really good feature, poor implementation. Artstyle and atmosphere The atmosphere isn't MC's dark and brutal, it's tilted more towards "fun and cool". Interface and hud are bright and very colourful. Low-detailed and rushed background scenery spoil the immersive effect. Story The plot in short: "best friends discovered about a very-very evil corporation, they met their old enemies (from the animation), convinced them to take their side and they all went shutting evil corporation down because they want to save the Nevada!", a very generic "We are main characters, we are good we want to save the world from evil!", though it has a few memorable moments, like the betreyal and MAG's diary Arena mode Alternative campaign with progression, but it gets repetitive after completed once. It's the same missions all over again after you complete it For me there is no point grinding the same campaign all over again multiple times, to get a new imprint to get a bit more powerful to complete the campaign again to get a new imprint to get a bit more powerful to complete the campaign again etc. Soundtrack Music isn't designed for gameplay. It's only one track per level on loop. It's not multi-layered, dynamic and gameplay dependent like I expected. The soundtrack itself is like dnb/dubstep/complextro mix, which imo actually fits game's "cool adventure" style, and ambience music which is decent. The one damn thing that drove me crazy is that some tracks have VOCALS in them. They didn't even remove vocals from their music, it seems like they just put some existing music without editing it. It left me with impression that this is some kind of dance club and not a Madness Combat rip-n-tear music ffs... Optimization Poor. I have average 35-50 fps on medium setting, while my pc can handle DOOM 2016 on 70-90 fps on lowered medium settings. Why overwhelmingly positive reviews? The selling of the game relies on a very, very specific audience and loyalty of fans, which explains the "overwhelmingly positive" reviews. The game itself is mid, but many madness combat fans still bought it because they were following the development for like 9 years, following all dev streams, game includes all their favorite characters, of course they will buy the game and enjoy it, because not enjoying it would be a huge disappointment for them. "It is a niche game based on a niche franchise, and niche games are usually only bought by those who know they are going to like them" A Madness Combat game made *by the creator of MC himself*, how can it be bad?!?!?! Any Madness Combat game alternatives? If you liked MC and look for a worthy game, unfortunately there are no better and bigger MC game than this one. BUT, Madness Interactive: Reloaded is out, and it's FREE. You definitely should check it outShow moreShow less
68.4 hours at review41 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Alright you sickos, listen up. Are you old enough to remember Newgrounds.com? If you are, then you Know what the Madness series is. This is exactly what you think it is. For you poor souls who have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, lemme fill you in: This is a game where you will become a one/two man army. I'm talkin' Throw your gun at the enemy because reloading's for chumps, grab a hammer and cave in the next three guys' heads, snatch a couple Uzis off their bleeding corpse and immediately swiss cheese the group of fodder that came around the corner, ESPECIALLY that guy five days away from retirement. Zombies? Dead. Evil henchman army? Dead. Crazy human experiments? Super dead. Jesus? Basically a playable character. Clowns? There are no clowns STOP LOOKING FOR CLOWNS. This game is perfect for those who love gratuitous violence and fast-paced action, all wrapped up in a well-made game. HOWEVER I would highly recommend that you research and watch the original Madness series, 1-12. This is very much a game made for those who are already familiar with the series, and while it is not necessary to be able to play the game, you will feel as if there is something missing. 9/10. Only negative point i have is that the game does have entity placement errors occasionally (enemy in an unreachable place, ally pathing issues, etc.) Now shut up, give up your money , and seep into the M A D N E S SShow moreShow less
10.8 hours at review527 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I was a closed alpha player. I played the game when it was first available to be played in any capacity. And how the game evolved from closed alpha to open beta to full release was agonizing. Because the alpha and beta players never had any say in the game's direction or was given an option or an opinion in anything. The community was left in the dust in every major update. We were there to bug test and nothing more. In fact, during the game's development the devs would just vanish for long periods of time release a game update and disappear again, without an explanation. Now, this was before the game was released in closed alpha, I felt I should clarify that-- my bad. During the game's alpha phase Arena Mode was more like a sand-box, their wasn't a story yet. Your character could be completely maxed out in all skills, making you stronger than Hank. Which was super fun but also very grindy, but gave you a solid goal to work too. There were tons of cosmetic items to dress up as that looked cool and had good stats. You could do goof ball stuff with your squad in lookin' derpy. With a massive selection of weapons at your disposal, all for a cost of course. Combat had an interesting interaction and I'm going to use A.A.H.W. for an example because they were the most fun to fight with the most variability. Grunts didn't have skills, they had poor hand eye coordination and ran around the map chasing you-- it was cute. They made for perfect cannon slaughter to be gunned down at your convenience, keep this in mind for later. Agents were a step above grunts having all core skills with the ability to have gun. This is where combat gets interesting because melee at this stage was very involved. You could dodge, block, or counter their attack and have it be effect and they in turn would do the same. Now it wasn't balanced in favor for the enemy but it could have been super engaging if they worked with it, but they didn't more later. Engineers were just murder machines, they had a wide range of abilities to use against you and were very good with gun. Engineers were also a blast to fight in melee as they were very good at countering you and predicting you moves. The alpha worked like a sim, enemies would have predictable behaviors but this never made the game boring. It actually made the game quite engaging as they would switch behavior mid-fight if they needed too, this was only really applicable to engineers and soldats. Speaking of soldats, they were an absolute beast of a monster on the field. As they had most of the skill tree at their disposal. This made them the ultimate sparing partner. They knew the melee system inside and out and were the most fun you could have in combat. They dodge every other attack and countered whenever the game would let them, they were a dopamine rush in short. But in the beta they completely change everything about Arena Mode and how enemy interacted with you and the game. They sim they had built for years was torn down and replaced by an arcade like system with generic interactions. The cosmetic items were reworked, replaced, or removed. Weapons were removed, replaced, and rewired. The many levels the alpha had (which couldn't be counted on both hands) were all replaced and removed by less intricate levels that were all boring in comparison. None of them were as expansive or expanded the madness universe as much as the alpha levels did. And combat was reduced to just a point and click adventure. Most of these points only effect Arena Mode, but combat affects everything. Also of extremely important note, they murdered Zed Survival Mode during this time, the other mode I bought this game for. It was a Kickstarter promise, which you should definitely find and read up on as they've ignored a number of promises and everyone for some reason is okay with. Moving on. Combat has lost all of it's engagement. Enemies now all act the same no matter what your doing or what they're doing. Grunts now have core skills and run at you at like they're on a suicide mission and stun lock you in place, which you sometimes can't get out of unless you lose a health chunk. Because that's how they decided combat should be balanced, for some reason. Agents act just like stronger grunts. Engineers used to be fun to fight, now they're just a right pain in the ass because everyone now enters a chain attack if they hit you once. Making the stun lock mechanic all the more infuriating as you can't escape so easily without breaking your space-bar and mouse. Soldats are the worst offenders as they have the fastest attack speed out of everyone else and if you stuck in a group of people with a soldat beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of you, you are dead. Nothing will save you. Guns are now the only way to play this game as anything else is death, straight death. How is that in anyway fun? Or an improvement on the previous system? Your combat's foundation is based on stun lock, how is that fair? And why did none of the alpha players get a say or poll or just anything? You turned what the game unique into it's tomb and I don't see it coming out of it since they just keep adding origin story's to Arena Mode. This has become a mediocre fighting game with a madness theme attached to it and it wasn't like that. It's a real shame too as they had a lot of fun ideas.Show moreShow less
327 hours at review30 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.