JakeDuffie

This is a game I am often glad to have in my steam library. I only paid $3 for it, and it is still a steal at the $10 it costs when it isn't on special. I would heavily recommend the free demo, as it shows you exactly what you are in for if you choose to buy. The visuals are the best part of this game. The menu GUI is clean and pragmatic, and in the game GUI is very easy to get information from at a glance, while not being intrusive during the tense firefights. Every level is completely unique, and beautiful in their own way. The backgrounds are stellar and varied, the enemy design looks great, and the bosses... The bosses are huge, gorgeous killing machines, and every single one of them look like they could be a final encounter. The sound is also magnificent. The music is a low key, minimal style techno, that isn't memorable, but lets you fall into exactly the right kind of trance you need to be in, in a bullet hell like this one. All of the sound effects are exactly what they should be, and I have zero complaints in the audio department. The gameplay is what makes or breaks a game like this one, and Digital Reality made a ballsy move, replacing health with time. instead of taking damage, every time you are hit, you lose a few precious seconds, and a couple of your accumulated firepower powerups will be knocked out of you. (These can be picked back up, but can easily lead to being hit again, if you aren't very careful). Fortunately, the time mechanic works like a charm. It is balanced well. I never ran out of time while I felt like I was doing well, and ran out when I felt like I deserved it. The game gets very hard, very quickly, but this is smoothed out by the controls being incredibly tight, a well implemented time-slowing mechanic, and all of the levels being an absolute blast to play though. There is a story to this game, which is actually pretty good, with MUCH better translation than I would ever expect from a shmup, but it is all easily skipped over if all you are interested in is the gameplay. It actually causes a little bit of dissonance, having have a solid story in such a mechanics driven game, but this is more of an observation than a complaint. I have a single gripe with this game, but it is very minor. Every once and a while, there are levels that require navigation through caves or structures, and it can feel like a bit of a slog, when fast paced bullet hell is replaced with slow moving wall avoiding. If not for these levels, I would have given this game a ten. It serves to vary the experience a bit, but it just isn't worth it in a game that is already so rich in it's other facets. I recommend this game to any fans of the genre, but I would recommend this game even more to those who aren't. Like most great games, it is very easy to learn, and very hard to master. This game does an excellent job at teaching it's mechanics, and while this game may be difficult, it is very fair.

Your first thoughts, when you start this game, will be "Wow! This looks a lot more like an app, than a real PC game." Then after a quick google search, you will realize that you are right. Then after a few matches, you might see that the different characters cost 5.99 a piece. You then might think, "Wow! For a game with absolutely zero replay value, 5.99 is a bit extortionist. Who is in charge of this operation, Zynga?" Then, if you are interested enough to do another quick google search, you will be swiftly put in your place... Because this abomination is actually run by Zynga. As for the gameplay, imagine any moba, with turrets that pose little to no threat, no minions, and a single lane. This could be interesting, if the movesets that the characters come with might as well play themselves. For example, the barbarian character has 1. An armor buff. 2. A damage buff. 3. A five second AOE that replaces your auto attack. This means that the pro level strategy is to click somewhere in the general direction of what you want dead, and press all three buttons. You can probably alt-tab out to check facebook while you do that. This game gets one point for being technically functional, and another for a single good idea; the randomly spawning small buffs around the map is an interesting idea. It leads to the teams fighting for control over the map, instead of just camping at the turret. 2/10

When I look for words to describe this game, I keep coming back to "charming." The aesthetics pull you into the experience, and sometimes the humor, while not feeling forced, will actually make you crack a smile. (I am sure we have all played one too many games where the humor is more embarrassing than engaging). This has enough great elements to nearly be a classic, but two aspects will cripple any chance this game has at breaking out into a massive success. The first, is the control. It isn't quite "bad," but sometimes you deselect a character by accident, or have to fiddle with the camera in ways you shouldn't have to, and it just rips you out of the experience. The second, is scope. Imagine playing World of Warcraft for the very first time, and then learning that the max level is 20. That is what it feels like, when you find out that every character caps out at 15. I find it very difficult to feel attached to my team, when there is a very finite amount of work that will ever go into them. Due to the above issues, this really ends up being a popcorn game. You see it on sale on steam, pick it up for dirt cheap, binge on it's charm for a few hours, the put it down.

This game is very much still in beta. This may be exclusive to my experience, but about every hour or two, I encounter some game breaking bug that forces me to restart. (Though this has never happened mid-dungeon, or at any time that would have been frustrating). I am actually really liking the streamlined gear/leveling systems, it really lets you get into the experience, rather than spending a large chunk of your time A/Bing two slightly different helmets, or biting your tongue over which skills to invest in. The developers have tried to sell this game as being quite funny, but this is seeming to be a misstep on their part. Nothing has quite made me laugh yet. It is certainly goofy and charming, which is great, but don't expect any moments to be funny enough to tell your friends. I was expecting very little from the player-made dungeons, as it only incentivize cheap repetitive tactics, but for some reason I cannot quite figure out, they are actually... Pretty good. Just as good as the computer generated dungeons in most any dungeon crawler. This is a game I would recommend that any fan of the genre at least try. it will be hit or miss whether you like it or not, but if it ends up being your thing, it will keep you coming back for more.