I, AI

I, AI is developed by Satur Entertainment and published by Sometimes You for Xbox One. I, AI is a classic scrolling shooter with modern graphics. You might think that vertical scrolling shooter is nothing new, every single scrolling shooter looks familiar but still playing a good game in this genre is till so much fun for many retro heads like myself. There isn't much in the way of a story for this game it is a shooter after all so who really need a story, not me. You are playing as an AI that has become self aware. The AI wants to break free of the military space station that takes control of a spaceship and shoots its way through the other ships trying to block its escape. While the rest is pretty classic format for a scrolling shooter. You fly your ship upwards and enemies drop in from the top of the screen to ram you or shoot you. Your object is to defeat your enemies and survive the waves of enemies until you see the boss with more advanced weapons. Your ship can take a few hits and it is to survive in the challenging levels, so you will replay the levels again and again. Between missions you can use the hangar to upgrade your weapons and armor or you can add new weapon systems to your ship by using blue orbs which drops from the enemies. You should both upgrade your armor and weapons and buy new weapons in order to survive in different situations. You can also use mine and laser beams to deal massive amounts of damage but they have limited ammo. There are twenty levels in I, AI and each one is harder than the former one so the game is always challenging. After some point you must grind for blue orbs for upgrades or else you can not complete the game and the game can be too grind heavy for some players. Even the weak enemies will have stronger armor and weapons as you level up adding to the grind. The real problem with the game is that the hit box detection is broken at times and for scrolling shooter games hit boxes is one of the most important elements, since you are trying to avoid projectiles. Similar enemy types rotates throughout the game and they do not earn new skills either. I, AI is a simple scrolling shooter game and if you are looking for some fun time you can give it a try because the price of admission in Sometimes You's publishing library always finds a way to entertain even a few good hours of entertainment are worth it for Xbox One shooter fans.

I, AI is developed by Satur Entertainment and published by Sometimes You. It is a vertical scrolling shooter with modern graphics, lots of upgrades and a story featuring an AI who is self-aware and wants its freedom. I would like to begin by saying thank you to whoever thought about adding auto fire! As soon as I found this option in the menu I was truly elated. Having to hold down the RB was starting to hurt (be honest, it is a strange button to use for long periods of times) and not having to worry about shooting anymore was a real game-changer for me. For a scrolling shooter, one thing I noticed is that the background art for each of the levels is beautiful and clearly a lot of effort has been put into making the game visually something special. Sadly, I will say though is that I was disappointed with the gunfire sounds, especially at the beginning when the main gun sounded like someone was shaking a rock inside of a metal tin. In fact, I turned the volume down because it was starting to irritate me. As you upgrade your weapon and purchase additional upgrades the sounds do improve, thankfully and end up being very immersive. There are 20 missions in total, and you will need to repeat a few of them before being able to continue if you are anything like me and do not exactly have the best reputation when it comes to this genre and will need the help of the upgrades. Bosses are challenging enough without feeling like they are impossible and they can be easily beaten once you have unlocked the ability to respawn after an accidental death or two. You can upgrade your ship in The Hangar by collecting the little blue orbs which drop from enemies as you kill them. There is a huge amount of upgrades available for you to unlock varying from your standard weapon to additional firepower with rockets and a plasma gun. You also have special moves which are assigned to A, X, Y, B and LB. These moves consist of a strong laser beam, proximity mines, lightning. an energy bomb (a nuke) and an energy shield which is more than enough power in your arsenal if used appropriately. As you kill enemies they do drop tokens for you to replenish your stock, health or receive a frenzy-like boost for a brief period of time so all in all, the game does do a lot to help you stay alive. The story is intriguing, a self-aware AI fighting for its freedom is something which could appeal to several people. The problem is though that I feel like the story should have been more prominent and not dependent on cutscenes at the end of a level. To be honest, I am not sure if I have somehow missed parts of the story. On completing the first and final level there is a cutscene for the story (no spoilers), but I felt like I had missed some more cutscenes somewhere along the line. I did go back and replay some levels and the cutscenes were sporadic at best with regards to whether they triggered to start or not. From an achievement standpoint I, AI is a straightforward completion with the only real ‘challenge’ being that the final few achievements to unlock will simply require some grinding levels to afford the upgrades. I am not a huge fan of achievements like this as it does not require skill and presents no new challenge. Overall, I have enjoyed playing through I, AI, and any of the slight performance issues I encountered are likely to be patched soon.