CRYPTARK

Seriously an underappreciated gem. I know that Gunhead got a little more fanfare, and that it was the FPS remake of this game, but if you ask me, I just find CRYPTARK more engaging. The music rocks, the sound design is crisp, and the voice acting is superb, and the writing it's over is fun for what's here. The controls are responsive, the gunplay and planning is incredibly fun, pausing mid mission on the map to reasses and plot routes without losing time is an amazing choice by the devs, and the arsenal is expansive. The alternative suits are meaningfully different to use and the lore bits from acquired Artifacts add to the worldbuilding immensely. It also doesn't waste time with a long overarching plot right out of the gate, and the tutorial is equally succinct and competent. You're a privateering crew, you're hired to scuttle some alien wetware shipwrecks. The big haul is the CRYPTARK. If you fail, you're fired, The frogman voiced by Jerma, surprisingly, does a fairly awesome job of getting to the point of the controls before you're taught how to use the map and read the modules. Every module has it's own challenge to subvert to destroy it, and they interact meaningfully with each other to force you to plan a route. The more money you make, the more money you can afford to use on big guns, or afford to lose if you crash and burn on a mission. There's a Campaign mode which is this, and a Rogue game mode where you go out off the books to scuttle a separate flotilla of wrecks for your crews own profit, complete with it's own artifacts. It wastes no time getting to the fun stuff, the fun stuff is actually fun, and you can stop between missions which are usually only 8-12 minutes long, assuming you even use all that time and don't speedrun for the extra cash. I genuinely cannot fathom why more people don't know about this game, or why it hasn't gotten the appreciation it deserves. I genuinely feel awful redeeming this game for free way back when. Please, support the devs. Purchase Gunhead if you're more into FPS games, I'd say it's a lot like if CRYPTARK met Tower of Guns. I prefer being able to choose the stuff you get licenses for before rushing into the fray, but they are different enough games, and I would definitely suggest you at least try Cryptark. The amount of people that have this game and haven't even played it genuinely upsets me.

SO FUN!!!