Game

Abyssus

2025

0Score

Low Cash-Grab Risk

The sourced concerns are substantially offset by delivered value.

What counts as a cash grab?

Commercial extraction prioritized over meaningful consumer or creative value. Profit, popularity, adaptations, sequels, remakes, high budgets, and normal marketing do not count by themselves.

Why?

Abyssus is a 2025 brinepunk roguelite FPS from DoubleMoose Games published by The Arcade Crew, sold on PC for $24.99 with small paid cosmetic packs and a soundtrack available as optional DLC. Publisher and DLC pages explicitly describe those packs as cosmetic and state that feature and content updates are free for owners. Independent coverage and critic aggregation show mostly mixed-to-positive reviews praising gunfeel and handcrafted levels, and there is no credible reporting of loot boxes, pay-to-win mechanics, or predatory monetization.

Base game is a $24.99 paid indie release with standard optional cosmetic DLC and soundtrack on Steam.
Steam DLC pages explicitly label the paid packs as cosmetic and state feature/content updates will be free.
Independent reviews and publisher factsheet describe substantial handcrafted levels and content, supporting substantive production.

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Abyssus was added to Xbox Game Pass at console launch, increasing consumer accessibility rather than extracting more revenue.

Score factors

Direction	Factor	Evidence	Impact
For	Paid cosmetic DLC	Steam lists multiple small paid DLC items for Abyssus such as Brinehunter, Brineguard, Brinefrost, and Brinerot cosmetic packs plus a paid soundtrack.[1]	+18
Against	Substantive handcrafted content	Publisher materials and press factsheets list 70-plus handcrafted levels, dozens of weapons, hundreds of mods and charms, and critics note the game's gunfeel and level work.[3][1][4][2]	-17
Against	DLC labeled cosmetic, free feature updates promised	The Brinehunter Pack page explicitly describes the content as cosmetic and states that feature and content updates for Abyssus will be free for owners.[1]	-11
Against	Game Pass inclusion	Abyssus launched on consoles and was added to Xbox Game Pass at console release, making the game available to subscribers at launch.[5]	-8

Confidence: High · I consulted primary sources including the Steam store pages and DLC entries, the publisher presskit, Xbox Game Pass listing, and multiple independent reviews; reporting on monetization and release practices is comprehensive and shows no predatory mechanics beyond optional cosmetic packs. · Researched 2026-07-22

Sources reviewed

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