Brotato

1. Summary

Players treat Brotato as the arena roguelite they keep coming back to. You pick one of dozens of potato characters, survive 20 short waves while up to six weapons fire on their own, and spend the materials you collect in a shop between waves. The praise centres on how differently the characters play, on runs of 20 to 30 minutes that can be paused and resumed at any wave, and on how many hours a game that costs a few dollars gives back. Some reviewers play it on a Steam Deck, some as couch co-op with partners and children, and some with one hand while a podcast or a show plays.

Negative reviews often blame the shop's randomness or call the game repetitive. When the shop never offers the item a build needs, the run and half an hour go with it. Some players want native online co-op: Steam Remote Play is the way to play together at a distance, and a few describe it as laggy or unreliable. Long-time players reacted strongly to the update reviewers call All Pain No Gain, which they say added a sixth difficulty tier called Nightmare in May 2026, and reviews written in the three weeks after it were less positive than those before or since. A smaller group lost saves or unlocks after updates. The critics include newcomers who find the loop thin and veterans unhappy with recent changes.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A large cast of characters that each change how you playHigh

10% of the reviews mention the characters, which several reviewers count at 62 with the DLC. Fans say they change the rules of a run, beyond giving different starting stats: Bull cannot hold weapons and deals damage when he is hit, Multitasker carries twelve weapons, Pacifist wins without killing, and others build around turrets, trees, luck or curses. "Each character is like a new puzzle to be solved." is how one Steam Deck player put it. Winning a run with a character unlocks a new item for later runs, and reviewers like that progress comes from unlocks instead of stat grinding. Some find the cast uneven: Saver, Streamer, One-Armed, Diver and Hiker are named as frustrating, and some say most runs end up on the same handful of weapons.

The "one more run" loopHigh

8% of the reviews call the game addictive, and the phrase "one more run" recurs. "Easy to pick up, hard to put down!" sums up the mood. Waves last a minute or less, a full run takes 20 to 30 minutes, and the game saves at every shop, so players can stop mid-run and pick it up the next day. One reviewer called it "Perfect for 5 minute sessions just as well as multi-hour marathons." A few say they uninstalled it, or may have to, just to stop playing.

Value for moneyHigh

8% of the reviews bring up the price, usually to say it is far below what the game is worth. Reviewers quote $5 at full price, $3 on sale, and hundreds of hours played; "This game is easily worth 2-3x what it is priced at." is a typical line. A few point out that the Steam version has no microtransactions, and some bought it on Steam after the mobile version or after finishing it on Xbox, Switch or PlayStation.

Build-crafting in the shopHigh

6% of the reviews talk about builds, synergies or combos. Most items trade one stat for another, weapons of the same tier merge into stronger ones, and economy stats such as harvesting decide how much a run can buy later. Reviewers describe a simple game with a spreadsheet underneath: "Came for the potato. Stayed for financial management with machine guns." Players who reach the top difficulties say the run is mostly won or lost in the shop.

Couch co-op with family and friendsMedium

4% of the reviews mention co-op, which supports up to four players on one screen. Reviewers describe playing with partners who never game, with children as young as six, and at family gatherings, since movement on one stick is all a new player needs to learn. "This is the go to game whenever my wife's family comes over." Some note that co-op is harder than solo and that a character's downside can hurt the whole team.

A game to play with half your brainMedium

3% of the reviews describe it as relaxing, mindless or a second-screen game. Players run it next to podcasts, audiobooks, Netflix, work calls and other games' queues, and several mention playing one-handed or say it suits their ADHD. "Its probably my favourite game to play while watching netflix or some other thing." Others add that the higher difficulties demand full attention.

Steam Deck and low-end hardwareMedium

2% of the reviews mention the Steam Deck or another handheld, usually to say it plays well there, and others praise how it runs on old laptops, Macs and Linux. "I end up playing Brotato almost exclusively on my Steam Deck instead." A few Deck owners mention low battery drain and quiet fans, and one notes frame drops when too many enemies fill the screen.

Steam Workshop modsMedium

2% of the reviews mention mods: quality-of-life tools that show more stats, extra characters, cheat and free-reroll mods, and mods that add online play. "After 40 hours I found out there are mods for this game. Game changer." The complaint attached to this praise is that updates regularly break mods (see the frustrations below).

Music and soundMedium

2% of the reviews mention the soundtrack or sound effects, mostly as a highlight. Players describe the music as energetic and the pickup and hit sounds as satisfying, and one wrote that "the soundtrack pumps you UP!" A few find the tracks repetitive after many runs.

Difficulty sliders and wave retriesLow

Reviewers who find the game hard praise the accessibility menu, where enemy health, damage and speed can be lowered without blocking achievements, and the option to retry a failed wave. Some only found the retry option late in their playtime, and one was angry that it sits under accessibility.

Where players are split

Nightmare difficulty and the All Pain No Gain updateMedium

By reviewers' accounts, the May 2026 update added a sixth danger level, Nightmare, with tougher scaling and projectiles that fire in from the screen edges, plus new achievements. Nightmare comes up in 9% of the negative reviews (50 of 528), often from long-time players, several of whom say they had beaten Danger 5 with every character. They call it luck-dependent and say only glass-cannon or meta builds survive: "Nightmare mode might be the least enjoyable difficulty ever created". Another wrote that "the projectiles that just appear from the sides of the screen are just a cheesy mechanic to artificially make the game more difficult". A few defenders answer that the tier is optional, that only one achievement and one unlock depend on it, and that the accessibility menu can turn off the edge projectiles or lower the difficulty: "it's very optional and the old difficulties are still there". Outside Nightmare, newer players name Danger 4 and 5, elite waves and the wave 20 bosses as the walls they hit.

Shop luck and randomnessMedium

17% of the negative reviews (88 of 528) blame luck, randomness or the shop, and some positive reviews name it as their one caveat. Critics say rerolls drain money without producing the weapon a build needs, that a run is often decided by wave 8 or 10, and that the shop works like a casino: "the shop is literally a slot machine", in one player's words. Several say the problem grows as you play, because every unlock and the DLC add items to the pool: "the more you unlock, the more the loot pool gets diluted". A few reviewers point to the item ban system as a way to thin the pool, and one older review asks for more bans. Defenders say adapting to the shop is the point and that locks, rerolls and the luck stat give enough control: "I never felt like I got screwed over by bad luck or unfair mechanics."

The Abyssal Terrors DLCMedium

3% of the reviews mention the DLC. Fans like the curse mechanic, the new characters and weapons, and the second map, The Abyss: "The DLC also adds meaningful content rather than just cosmetics." Critics say the new map plays much like the first, that DLC items crowd the shop and make the game harder even with the DLC switched off, and that half the achievements require it. One long-time player summed up the lukewarm view: "only buy the DLC if you want more of the same with a very slight change." Several reviewers say they are waiting for a second DLC.

Changes in recent updatesMedium

Some reviewers welcome the regular free updates, naming the New Dawn update, pets, the item ban system and native Mac and Linux versions: "Evil Empire keeps on giving, game feels fresh with regular updates." Some veterans feel the changes took a finished game in the wrong direction. They point to the redesigned interface ("Personally abhor the new UI update"), pets crowding the shop, Nightmare, and saves lost in updates.

Repetition and depthMedium

15% of the negative reviews (77 of 528) call the game repetitive, boring or shallow, often within the first few hours of play. They describe one empty arena, a small set of enemy types and the same 20-wave loop every time; one reviewer felt "perpetually stuck in the same brown dirt square". Some positive reviewers grant the point and say it takes a long time to set in: "Does it get repetitive eventually? Yes. But it takes longer than you'd think." One put the point where it wore thin at 30 to 50 hours. 3% of the reviews compare it with Vampire Survivors. Those that pick a side mostly prefer Brotato, for its shop, its short separate waves or its challenge, while a few find Vampire Survivors more fun or easier to relax with.

Art styleLow

The flash-game look divides players. Some love its Newgrounds nostalgia and its readability in crowded waves, others call it ugly or bland, and a running joke says the potatoes look like eggs: "Still kinda looks like an egg to me. Great game, tho." Several who doubted it at first came round: "i wrote this game off for its graphical style. don't do that". A few say late waves turn into a red blur where they lose track of their character.

No permanent upgrades between runsLow

A small group, mostly players who had just started, expected Vampire Survivors-style permanent upgrades and were let down: "I was disappointed to find there's no permanent progression outside of a run." Other reviewers count the absence of a meta grind as a strength, since every run is won on knowledge and the build.

What frustrates players

No native online co-opMedium

2% of the reviews bring up online play, Remote Play or multiplayer, and a recurring request among them is native online co-op. Several reviewers say Steam Remote Play Together works well for playing with friends, while others describe lag, disconnects, guests who need a controller, and progress saved only for the host. "Steam remote play is the most laggy and buggy system" wrote one player, who says the lack of online lobbies kills the game for them. A few turn to an online mod or Parsec instead.

Crashes, launch failures and lost savesMedium

9% of the negative reviews (46 of 528) report crashes or lost progress. Players describe unlocks and save files reset after updates, with a cluster of such reviews in November 2025 and February and March 2026, Steam Cloud failing to restore them, crashes at the end of a wave or when resuming a run, and the game closing on its splash screen. Some fixed it by switching to the beta branch or clearing the cache. "I adore this game", one reviewer began, before explaining that "for the second time the game has crashed mid play and wiped all of my data".

Moving achievement goalpostsMedium

1% of the reviews (75) complain about achievements. Completionists say each update adds new ones, so their 100% keeps slipping away: "it's really annoying how they constantly add new achievements over and over and over and over again". Others object that half the list needs the DLC and that the DLC achievements mean beating the game with every character a second time, and a few report achievements that never unlocked.

Slowdown in late wavesLow

A few reviews mention frame drops late in a run, when enemies and projectiles fill the screen. One player with a high-end PC wrote that after an April 2026 update "I can't get past wave 30-40 without dropping from 110fps to 40-60 FPS".

Display and control optionsLow

A handful of reviewers ask for the Steam Deck's native 16:10 resolution ("Does not support 16:10."), borderless windowed mode that does not toggle HDR, and ultrawide support. Others report a mouse cursor that leaves the screen, controllers that stopped working after an update, and awkward menu navigation in co-op.

Hidden mechanics with little explanationLow

A small group says the game expects players to learn its stats and interactions from wikis and videos. "the game does a poor job of explaining its own depth." Reviewers ask for clearer tooltips on what each damage type affects and a basic tutorial.

3. The player conversation

The conversation is warm and often silly. A large share of reviews are one-liners ("potato", "peak", egg jokes), and the long reviews are mostly enthusiastic breakdowns of characters and builds. Some reviewers had already played it on Xbox, Switch, PlayStation or mobile and bought it again on Steam, some of them for the Workshop mods.

Criticism comes mainly from two groups. Players who quit within their first few hours talk about repetition, the single arena, the lack of permanent upgrades and how it compares with Vampire Survivors. Players with hundreds of hours, some of whom say they once told all their friends to play it, talk about Nightmare, achievements added in updates, lost saves and an item pool they find bloated. Couch co-op players and friends who play remotely make up a third group whose main request is online co-op.

Reviews written between February 2025 and 10 May 2026 were 96% positive (6,825 of 7,125). From 11 to 31 May 2026, the three weeks after the All Pain No Gain update, that fell to 89% (386 of 436), and 56% of the negative reviews in that window (28 of 50) mentioned Nightmare, the update, achievements or projectiles. From June 2026 the share was back at 95% (1,864 of 1,960). The week of 24 November 2025 brought 374 reviews, 99% positive, against 86 to 129 in each of the two weeks before and after it. A few reviews from that week mention the Steam Awards: one reviewer nominated it for the Labor of Love award, and others mention writing a review to earn a Steam badge.

4. What the developers could do

1. Give players more control over the shop as the item pool grows. Shop luck comes up in 17% of the negative reviews, and players link it to every new unlock and the DLC diluting the pool; a few ask for more bans or a fifth shop slot.
2. Retune Nightmare and keep its modifiers clearly optional. Veterans who cleared Danger 5 with every character say edge projectiles and heavy damage leave room for only meta builds, and about half of the negative reviews in the three weeks after the update raised it.
3. Protect saves and unlocks across updates, and fix the end-of-wave and resume crashes. Players who lost progress in the late 2025 and early 2026 updates say it ended the game for them, and several say they will not start over.
4. Add native online co-op. It is a recurring request, and Remote Play's lag, controller requirement and host-only progress are the reasons players give.
5. Stop moving the 100% target. Completionists ask for a stable achievement list, or at least new achievements kept separate from the base set, and resent needing the DLC for half of them.
6. Fix late-wave slowdowns in endless mode. A player with a strong PC reports frame rates collapsing past wave 30 since an April 2026 update, where waves above 100 used to run smoothly.
7. Explain the systems in-game and surface the retry option. Newer players say they needed wikis to understand the stats, and some found the wave-retry setting only late in their playtime.
8. Add Steam Deck 16:10, borderless windowed and ultrawide display options. A handful of Steam Deck and PC players ask for these, some of them in reviews written years apart.