When comparing GoNNER vs WazHack, the Slant community recommends WazHack for most people. In the question“What are the best roguelikes/roguelites on PC?” WazHack is ranked 32nd while GoNNER is ranked 65th. The most important reason people chose WazHack is:
Over 300 items and 130 monsters, WazHack offers a lot of variety that will take a lot of play throughs to experience.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Intense platforming gameplay
While the vast majority of GoNNER's gameplay consists of running, jumping, and shooting groups of mysterious red creatures, two design choices really up the intensity of each playthrough.
First, the procedurally-generated environments are fairly narrow. This means combat turns into claustrophobic encounters where there's very little room to evade and kite enemies. Because of this, most kills will happen at point blank range, making it feel a little too close for comfort.
Second, while enemies and objects of interest are always visible, the level's platforms fade into existence as you move close to them and disappear as you move away. This adds a layer of uncertainty, slowing down the exploration since it's hard to tell where you'll hit a wall and where you'll tumble down into a pit of enemies.
These two aspects combined with the permadeath mechanic, create a very intense roguelike experience that can easily keep you entertained for dozens of hours.
Pro You retain progression after dying
Playing roguelike games can be disheartening, because messing up means all your effort will go to waste. In GoNNER, even after you die, you still retain the gear you've collected, which can be viewed by visiting "Death" in its monochrome domain. There you can select from the collected pieces of gear and head into a new playthrough. As a result, GoNNER is a great choice for players that would like to try a roguelike game, but dislike the idea of starting from scratch every time they die.
Pro Unique visual style
GoNNER takes a very minimalist approach to visuals, using the bare minimum to decorate its levels and portray the on-screen action. There's a solid color background, sketched lines that create the world's platforms, yellow projectiles and colorful (mostly red) characters. Despite the sheer simplicity, it looks really nice while also making the worlds inhabitants more interesting, since you're not excessively focusing on environmental details. GoNNER feels like a refreshing change of pace in an era of games where every developer tries to cram as much into a single screen as possible.
Pro Offers an impressive amount of variety in items and monsters, which keeps the experience fresh
Over 300 items and 130 monsters, WazHack offers a lot of variety that will take a lot of play throughs to experience.
Pro Unique twist on roguelike gameplay where the game takes a side-scrolling approach
A 3D rendered side-scrolling roguelike, makes for some very unique mechanics, thanks to not being top down like many traditional roguelikes. While it will still have the player progress in randomly generated dungeons, exploring for new items and gear, the battle mechanics will be more akin to side scrolling platforming.
Pro Surprising depth
Many approaches and strategies are viable in a simple shell.
Pro Controller support
Cons
Con Might feel a little too cryptic at times
Aside from the intro sequence where you're taught to jump and shoot, GoNNER never provides an explanation about anything, whether it's the gameplay mechanics or its mysterious setting. While the concept of "figuring stuff out on your own" works well in other games, here it just serves to needlessly add confusion on top of difficulty, which can worsen the experience for some players.
Con Costs money to get the full experience
The game asks to spend money on each character type separately to go deeper than 300 feet; cost about $1 each.
Con Some quirks with control scheme and interface
Some specific action in the game are hard to pull off with touch screen, causing the player to move when trying to open menus.
Con Somewhat crude art-style
Graphics are reminiscent of freeware games from the early 2000's.