0.9 hours played
Written 8 years ago
TL:DR version: The effects are nice but the camera/aiming/controls are a hassle!
I may end up liking the game more, but my immediate reaction is that while I enjoy what the game offers, I could see many people being turned off by its simplistic approach and somewhat clunky aiming mechanics. I was bummed to realize this plays more like an on-rails shooter/shmup (you choose when to move forward and have 180 degree aiming or at everything in "front" of you as you move forward, but if you want to aim "behind" you or look around far to your left or right, your view is restricted.) The player can slowly "back up" to explore previous areas, but this kills a lot of the rhythm of the game. Let's say you have just barely walked past/ ahead of an enemy on the game, if you are one step ahead of where they are, they can still hit you but there is nothing for the player to do aside from holding down or back to take slow steps backward until the only-facing forward 180 degrees POV allows you to then aim to your left or right (now that you can see the enemy ahead of you again) to take the enemy out -if you choose to- but most often you may be better off just running ahead and skipping the encounter altogether to avoid being hit.
The game's aiming seems to have really wonky anchor points at times for both the player character and the reticle, on both Xbox One controller and Mouse and Keyboard. The player's area of interaction seems to jump from zone to zone quite a bit. Let's say you are trying to aim to your immediate bottom-left to strafe into and "keep an eye" on zones as you enter them, which may sometimes be very narrow corridors to shoot enemies and avoid being hit, the game's aiming will "bounce" your aim to face where it has deemed is looking ahead in certain areas, despite the enemies being able to already shoot at you from your far periphery, the player is at a disadvantage due to the shoddy camera movement and strange insistence on aiming ahead of you.
I had been expecting more of a platformer shooter with "fully 3D" (360 degree) aiming, not confined to the previously-mentioned rails feeling. You also have no jump button (unless it is possibly a pickup of some kind?) or roll to dodge enemy fire, which adds both more restriction to the overall player movement as well, but also adds to the 'elegance' needed to narrowly dodge enemy fire as found in other SHMUP/rail style shooter games (I could see this becoming immersive later in the game, with more enemy types and larger swarms of enemies...)
The effects of the game and gameplay beyond the POV restriction are still cool and fit the early 3D PS1 esque designs well, with the sound design being well done and the sound effects and soundtrack being appropriately chunky, the enemies exploding as their point total is shown and a heavy bass sound effect hitting is nice and gets you into building a large score. The soundtrack and game have a sort of surf rock / laid back presentation that fits it well, which I imagine changes up as the game progresses. The game includes powerup pickups and health dropped from enemies to give some variety.
The game fits its niche market well, and begins to embody a frantic Space Invaders / Panzer Dragoon aiming feel as you strafe and take out waves of enemies, but the way the game moves from zone to zone, with its restriction of the aiming only being available within your front vision (or less on some more clunky camera sections..i.e. navigating a narrow cityscape / balcony area) to be disorienting and annoying when trying to dodge enemy bullets and also line up shots of my own.
I will probably end up enjoying the game and may end up recommending it, and this shouldn't be thought of as a be-all end-all Non-Recommendation as I do think the game is entertaining, especially to those seeking a retro 3D game that can wrangle its somewhat crappy camera and enjoy it despite some lame deaths due to strange aiming mechanics.
At the somewhat "high" price of 14.99 for what is present, I think the game's sales and reception would improve if it the game were to move to a lower initial barrier of entry cost-wise (for example, I paid 8.00ish during a sale..) and it definitely needs to resolve or smooth some of the camera issues ( I can understand if full 360 degree aiming isn't possible with what's already made of the game, but the "bouncing" effect as you strafe into or try to aim to your immediate right or left during crammed sections is obnoxious)
