OK, so after playing Soulslinger around 9 hrs I just feel I have to share my thoughts through the review, or smth like that.
First of all, the game has beautiful visuals: environments, models, particle effects, and lighting in general. Everything looks gorgeous, and to my surprise it does NOT suffer from that typical UE4/UE5 'sheen' or 'look' where you just take a glance at a screenshot, and the game screams "Unreal Engine" all over the place. Soulslinger is NOT the case, at least in my eyes. In a way it does remind me of good old Painkiller in both visuals & aesthetics. And it does so in a good way.
Now, second thing is music. The soundtrack might not have dozens of bangers, but it complements the setting very well, it enhances the mood, and man do I love me some guitar-centered music. Of course I do!
The gunplay might not be the juiciest part of the game, but I love it nonetheless. The movement feels neat, nothing to add here really. The mobs & monsters are fine in both variety, and tactics. The arenas... I have mixed feelings about them.
While most of the arenas are quite small, some of those are microscopic in size, and oftentimes they contain those 'pits of death' (not actually the 'pits' as they're just not deep enough but made up of aggressively placed killplanes instead), and the game wouldn't bother taking the arena size into account spawning dozens of mobs even on the smallest arenas. 'Okay, yet another layer of a challenge' you might think, but the ranged mobs/shooters on these small & overpopulated arenas become a real nightmare - especially with their extremely accurate pre-fired (almost homing in origin) projectiles (not the basic archers but the 'mages' spewing fireballs and whatnot).
And finally, the roguelite stuff/progression. I'm not an expert in either thing, but for me the best roguelite games usually utilize randomized stuff (coupled with some grind to accumulate over failed runs) AND still rely on player skill to get the best mix possible in order to succeed and win. Now, it still might be true in Soulslinger, but in my experience this was never the case.
Despite trying my best I just couldn't beat the CK boss over and over, and over again being overwhelmed by his infinitely spawning guards & minions. A moment when a medium (or should I say 'small') arena becomes basically a bullet hell fest due to sheer amount of mobs constantly firing (almost) homing projectiles that become impossible to dodge despite me using crowd control counter-measures & dodging like crazy, desperately... to no luck. *sigh*
After many failed attempts I just realized my skill wouldn't matter, my character' abilities wouldn't matter either unless I would crank up my character stats. What for you might ask? To tank the incoming damage, of course!
And this is really a matter of perspective. I know roguelites are tied to this kind of forced progression, and there's no problem in it really. In Soulslinger though I feel like the balance is shifted towards this kind of forced progression even more, and it wouldn't be a problem if not for the prices for character upgrades. You see, after using CE I can guarantee that with current resource rewards meta one would have to grind for hours and hours (which would eventually become days) just to crank up the stats needed to survive the CK boss fight. And that became a real dealbreaker for me because the amount of grind required to get a much needed starting hp boost through upgrades felt a bit too much.
Unless devs would change the ingame upgrades' prices, would it be a dealbreaker for you? It is up to you, and your preference. If you don't mind putting some time into resource grind, then go for it. If not, either avoid it or use CE like I did. It does make me feel kinda guilty for 'tainting' my experience by using CE but hey, there's no way I would spend that much of my (already limited) spare time just to grind for resources in this game.
Although, please take that last thesis of mine WITH A HUGE GRAIN OF SALT as I'm in no way a roguelite expert, or a veteran roguelite player either, so what was described as my personal issue might as well be, in fact, just my own personal issue, and nothing more. It's' just they way I feel is wrong with the game, not an objective critique in any way.
And to wrap things up, despite my issue with the game I would STILL RECOMMEND IT, and gladly so! The potential, the foundation for a fun & truly well-made game most certainly is there, so if you have doubts about it - just give it a shot, you won't regret it.

I'm tired of fighting the game not launching error P-2002 ('An error occured when connecting to Steam'). This is just total bs having various tips from different sites & forums, I just had enough of this crap. Is it really that hard to ensure your lovely godBLESSED product running out of the box without a hitch these days?
Btw OG Paragon never had this issue. Think of it.

Can't recommend this piece of... software.

I just stood there, doing nothing, terrified so much my body was paralized. I was unable to walk, stricken with fear.
Needless to say, I was scared shirtless.

The scenes kept changing nonetheless. And with every new scene I grew more and more paranoid. I didn't even look around anymore. I was unable to.

I stood still, I could do nothing but stand.
... In the end I found myself under the bed, hiding from someone I never saw. And then I heard a chainsaw charging.

This game changed videogames forever. It has all the aces to dominate on every level a game can touch upon. Stylish cinematographic narrative, complex plot, visuals that aged surprisingly well, gorgeous sound design, magnificent OST, and above all - a gunplay to kill (or die) for. Absolutely masterful piece of interactive art!

Although like everything in this world, it has its deep ugly flaws:
#1. Enemy placement is just blatantly unfair and disgraceful.

If I would like to play a 'realistic gunfight simulator with lotsa tight spaces, cheesy enemy ambushes & constant scripted mobs appearing outta thin air' I would be better off going down my neighborhood at night, you know. But I wouldn't call AI 'dumb', definitely no.
Funny thing, I've actually seen some defensive maneuvers and tactical moves by mobs here, so those are definitely not your typical shooting range nobrainers popping up right into the protagonist's crosshair w/out posing any thread just to have their heads popped violently in a bullet time sequence with blood splattering shenanigans and stuff.

What I'm saying is that I don't have any issues with AI, I simply hate the way enemies are placed on levels. It is in fact an action game, not a simulation like ARMA or smth. And it ain't fun to see Max getting shot over and over and over again because of some pinpoint accurate wallhacking mob suddenly spawning behind the next turn to roll over in slo-mo like a badass while pre-firing his Colt Commando & effectively headshotting me like we're in a freaking Matrix.

#2. The game gradually becomes a 'Quicksave fest' towards the end. [As you can notice, this one originates from #1]

And it's not just about enemies, it's about scripted events as well. Like that moment when Max has to jump on the train, or the Casa di Angelo level, or the elevator shaft scene, or the final showdown against Horne's agents M79'ing me to pieces the next second the cutscene stops.

But with all those unquestionably wrong moments when I wanted to throw my PC outta window and TP Remedy's office with the nastiest of toilet paper, I want to make it clear that this game left me satisfied and thrilled after finishing it.

Unique noir atmosphere, mix of John Woo & Twin Peaks, 4th wall breaks, norse mythos, James McCaffrey's amazing performance and addicting gunplay make it a masterpiece to me. Besides, the pacing is precise; devs got a great sense of humor; dialogues and pop culture references are superb; levels are well-detailed and carefully constructed (while also providing observant players with hidden supplies and even easter eggs!).
I also truly appreciate the minimalistic approach devs took in making the UI: there's no minimap or objective pop-up to follow, and nothing distracts the player from exploring surroundings in-between dispatching the enemies and traversing levels bit by bit.

With its few (but hitting so painfully) downsides, and all the pros outweighing the cons, I rate it a 'classics/10'.
But if I were to score it in a more traditional way, I would give it a 7/10*.
Still, I absolutely recommend it, and I love it to death. It just happened to have issues I can't shrug off, yet those aren't hurting my affection to this game, not the tiniest bit.

(*Because sorry but at some times it's nearly impossible to continue.
Like, seriously, people blame Souls games for being overly-reliant on 'learning things the hard way' & 'too repetitive in overcoming the odds by simply memorizing AI attack patterns and cheap enemy placement' - yet Max Payne done so wa-a-a-ay back in 2001, and nobody remembers/complains about that.
While sure, at first glance if one would compare the two the similarities are obvious. However, Souls games does not have AI pre-firing automatic weapons at close range, -- which is built almost hitscan-ish, i.e. 99% of the time it's impossible to dodge and/or defense against, -- like Max Payne's mobs do.)

Вспомни молодость - круши, взрывай и расстреливай! Драйв, эпичные взрывы и старый-добрый 2006-ой!
Эх, вот было же время...

No, I do NOT recommend this bs.
I'm really tired of trying to convince myself this game is actually worth it. I always LOVED Quake with all my heart; I also tried to genuinely love this 'Quake' game. But I can't, I just can't. Stop dishonouring yourself, id, and either completely remove the abilities, or make a playlist w/out them, or else remove the word 'Quake' from the title.

Because this is NOT a Quake game! You can't just put visuals & aesthetics that belong to the franchise and are easy to identify, place Cthulhu statues here and there, and make other cosmetic changes, and then call it a 'Quake' game. Quake had always revolved around skill-based gameplay.
There's NO such thing in QC left with all these imbalanced and totally unfair abilities.

Again, defensive use of them is probably fine (but if you ask me I would make devs remove passive/defensive stuff altogether), but even this should be much more limited. And don't get me started on the 'offensive part of the equation'. There's cheese all over the place.

UPD 19/12/2018: Nope, uh-uh, still won't recommend this piece of ♥♥♥♥. 'Classic' game mode or not, it still is just a sideways-mode that average player won't bother looking for, thus QC remains a shameful ability-based fest that it always was.
Next. Net issues, lags and high ping bs. The absence of a primitive server browser is palpable. Hit registrations sucks balls, especially when a rocket that had been shot before player's death won't cause any damage (direct hits included!) to the player who gunned him/her down. 'From the grave' medals, anyone? Nope? That's what I thought.

And when you're done losing over and over again versus people with skill level aeons* away from yours (*higher skill, that is), you wouldn't be safe in bot matches either. Bots pre-firing, baby, HELL YEAH! #PutsOnGlasses

Just like in ordinary PvP matches, bots are either super-noobs aka 'shooting mannequins' standing still all the time, or they're both super-aggressive and pinpoint accurate.

Waaay to go, dev team! Way to go!
I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ applaud to you, no seriously, it takes a great skill to ruin The Quake multiplayer experience. I consider myself a veteran having played Q3 from year 1 (although w/out Internet as every other kid in early 2000s), QLIVE multiplayer (for 600+ hrs) and now more than 100 hrs playing THIS - I think I actually can express my displeasure with what you've done to one of my favorite multiplayer games of all time. I'll be brief: you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ruined it. I'm just genuinely shocked seeing how there are so many people actually enjoying this game.

Like, wow, this is unbelievable how those can play this piece of code w/out a second thought or a sour taste in their mouths. I guess you hit the right target demographics out there, congrats!

Except there's nothing 'Quake' about it. You can mimic the movement, add the same looking levels, chars, weapons and all the stuff. You can even get the LG feel right! But this just won't work. This - is NOT 'Quake'. But if suddenly I'm wrong, then this game marks my personal death of Quake.
RIP ID I once loved.

UPD (13/04/2019): This isn't a joke, this is a disaster. At the moment of writing this review I would NEVER EVER recommend this pile of code to anyone even to try it out. It's plagued with issues, and not just nitpicky stuff or gameplay-related ones. Check the hub & discussions to see how majestic the downhill of this 'game' truly is.

UPD2 (30/11/2019): Still no new Champions? Pfft, pathetic.

About Multiplayer: it still sucks, devs learned nothing from the beta. Stupid morons, fix your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hitboxes, stutter issues, connection lags and cheaters (aimbot & WH users mostly)!
As of now do NOT buy this overpriced piece of trash, just pirate its SP campaign instead. Stop supporting devs who are just milking you giving nothing valuable in return.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ douchebags, they blew it so hard, jeez. 10 aimbotters outta 10.

This is the game where skill means a lot. And by "a lot" I mean almost everything. Sure, lucky shots happen everywhere, lags and high ping can bring you down, but a good warrior is determined not only by his accuracy, but by the way he thinks on the battlefield, and most importantly -- by the way he moves there.

And Movement is something one can spend a lifetime to master. Movement is the key element here as velocity plays a crucial role in understanding game mechanics and unbelievable tricks people are doing here and there. Remember, it's much harder to hit a fast moving target.

QuakeLIVE is an absolutely fantastic experience, it's all about pushing the limits. Your patience limits most of the times. And if you work hard on developing your skills, you'll become a much better warrior.
Just keep training, and never give it up. That's it!

Good luck on Arena!

UPD: As long as the Oct 15 update have broken the ELO ratings, prev. established friendlists and clans, UI and stuff -- the game's still a great example of how old (but gold!) decent game mechanics can work throughout the years, even in modern era of gaming.

High-speed, skill-breaking old-school shooter! Must play!

Неплохой мультиплеерный проект! Множество видов оружия, техники, разнообразных заданий прямо на поле боя, масштабная одиночная кампания!