The depths of the underworld were never a forgiving place, but when new gods reflecting the latest interests of humanity moved in, the place got even more chaotic than before. Time passes and the world changes, and what was once unimaginable becomes part of the background cultural radiation that necessitates a new god to watch over it. As a member of the task force keeping these wild new gods in line, it's your job to travel through the depths of the underworld and blast them into submission, but if they were capable of learning a lesson they wouldn't be gods. They're acting up again so it's back into the pit, grabbing every relic, artifact and weapon you can find in a side-view roguelike run & gun adventure that's only just started its journey through Early Access.
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Neon Abyss 2 is, as the name gives away, the direct sequel to Neon Abyss, and unlike the first game, this one's come out in Early Access as part of it's trip to the 1.0 release. Which makes sense for a couple of reasons, not least of which is how incredibly outdated my review from back in 2020 is after all the updates and feature additions it saw over the years. The original Neon Abyss has the same structure as the version that's available today but is unquestionably a bigger, richer game than it was on release, even before a couple of DLC packs came along. Neon Abyss 2 aims to be even larger with more tools and weirdness in each run, requiring not just overwhelming power to survive, but making proper use of a wider range of abilities and modifiers, and tuning that much content is going to need player feedback especially when taking into account the addition of multiplayer.
Before things get going, though, each run begins in the same way: sitting alone at a the bar of a club, the thumping muffled beat from the dance floor the next room over letting you know where all the coolest people are. A few signs around the place give easy access to various meta-progression options including objectives that add new items to the mix, different characters with their own unique abilities to play as, an evolution tree adding more room types and other modifiers to the dungeon, etc. Downstairs is a kiosk dispensing random cosmetic items, while the Fate statue outside lets you trade different types of curses (various handicaps) for blessings. No two runs of any roguelike ever play out the same, but Neon Abyss 2 goes for broke to ensure there are more than enough options to keep players on their toes.
Once all the variables are set it's finally time to hit the dungeon, starting off with a level one popgun against enemies that probably won't give too much trouble in the first few areas. The level layout is a series of hand-built rooms in randomized order, most of which have a few monsters and a good number of breakable items scattered throughout. Chests are guaranteed to hold something useful inside while crates and barrels have low odds of a drop, but they're easy enough to break so it's worth sending a few bullets their way to verify what might be in there. The genre-standard rewards of keys, bombs, hearts and shields all show up, but there are versatile purple crystals and eggs that hatch into little helper-critters as well. One or two hatchomon aren't all that useful, but by the end of a run you can have half a dozen following along, assuming three of the same type haven't merged into a more powerful form, and strength in numbers means you can hang back a bit and let them get to work on the much more difficult enemies in the later floors.
No two runs of any roguelike ever play out the same, but Neon Abyss 2 goes for broke to ensure there are more than enough options to keep players on their toes.
By then, though, a combination of artifacts, curios and weapons should have made it so that you're more than strong enough to take on whatever the dungeon has to throw at you. Artifacts are passive upgrades, adding everything from "shoot an extra bullet but individual shots are a bit weaker" to "all chests can be exploded" or "using a key speeds up eggs turning into hatchomon". Curios, on the other hand, are active items that are powered by the purple crystals, although for the most part I find the crystals are better saved for opening the doors and chests they can act as keys for. Being able to repair broken machines or explode all the enemies in the room (that one takes crystals and a grenade to activate) is nice, but unless the level is being generous, it makes more sense to hold onto them.
All the Weapons
The best items, though, are weapons, and there are dozens of unique ones to find. Guns come in all shapes and sizes, falling into the standard rapid fire/shotgun/beam categories but with secondary effects ranging from elemental build-up to passing through walls. After that things start getting weird, such as a guitar that generates combos when you attack to its slow beat, or a racket that acts as a melee weapon but also sends tennis balls bouncing through the room that growing bigger when you hit them again. One of the characters, Saya, even comes with a sword that scales up in level with her gun, and seeing as it grants a moment of invulnerability on a hit plus has a mini-dash towards the enemy, she can quickly become the default starter character thanks to ease of use.
There's a lot more in the Neon Abyss 2 dungeons, with activities ranging from volleyball, fishing, and dancing to challenge rooms, hidden areas, rooms with a 50/50 chance of a big or little reward depending on which door you choose, and much, much more. Content-wise the game already feels huge, thanks to a steady stream of unlockables and a good number of different end-of-run bosses to work towards defeating. While the current Early Access plans basically amount to "more," though, there's also room for improvement in the way that text tends to change language now and then, certain guns in desperate need of a buff or at least a better description explaining how to use them, or how some unlockables can show up in the dungeons before they're actually been earned, but the important thing is that the action feels good. Neon Abyss had a good long life after release, so there's plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future of Neon Abyss 2, and while there are a few rough patches needing a polish, the underlying run & gun action and the sheer variety in ways to approach it already make the trip back to the underworld one that's easy to repeat as many times as it takes to bring down the next untamed god of the modern age.
Neon Abyss 2
- Released
- July 17, 2025
- Developer(s)
- Veewo Games
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Ghost
- Engine
- Unity
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
- Prequel(s)
- Neon Abyss
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
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