GRE Induced Hiatus

As you've probably noticed, this blog has fallen silent. I plan on returning to it, but currently I have too much on my plate (the #1 offender being I'm studying for the GRE). I also have multiple trips I'm going on in June, so I will not be able to update this with reviews.

I'm hoping to return to a regular review schedule the second or third week in June, first week in July at the latest. I also will be reemerging with a slew of retro reviews for you all, as I just got a Genesis.

Also, the Really Big Sky drawing has NOT been cancelled. Once I have time to crunch the data and pick a winner I'll be contacting you.

Thank you for your patience!

Week in Review - 5/6/2012 - Win Real Big Sky!

It was a fairly decent week this week, with 12 reviews going up for a new total of 175. It seems like just yesterday I was doing review 100, and now we are almost to 200. How time flies.

I've got another contest this week, but this one's just for one game. I've decided that for the next month I'm going to raffle off one game a week, so if you follow the blog just comment and share and you'll get entries!

The game up this week is Really Big Sky, an indie PC duel-stick shooter slash shmup that I thought was pretty nifty. You'll get a Steam code if you are the winner and that includes a full copy of the game! Pretty rad, huh?

The rules are the same as last time with a few changes. First, leave a comment with one of two things: either a review I wrote you liked, or a request and why you want me to review it. Then, if you share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ than you will get an extra entry for each share. Just give me your handle for Twitter if you do it through there (I'll trust you for the other two).

At the end of the week I'll do a random drawing, and contact you either over twitter, email (if you post it) or GiantBomb's PMing system.

Good luck!

In unrelated news, I wrote a rather long article analyzing the Game of Thrones TV show on my writing blog, so if you like that TV show should you go read it!

And now, the reviews.

Zuma's Revenge - 4 / 5 Stars
Game Dev Story - 4 / 5 Stars
Medal of Honor - 2 / 5 Stars
The Maw - 4 / 5 Stars
Conan - 2 / 5 Stars
Hard Reset - 4 / 5 Stars
Alien Shooter - 1 / 5 Stars
Zombie Shooter - 3 / 5 Stars
Zombie Shooter 2 - 1 / 5 Stars
Alien Shooter 2 - 2 / 5 Stars
Dead Horde - 0 / 5 Stars
Really Big Sky - 3 / 5 Stars

See you next week, and don't forget to comment!

Really Big Sky

The Short


Pros
- Fast paced, psychedelic shmup with dual-stick controls
- "Planet drill" mechanic is fun and unique
- Persistent upgrades, unlocks, and abilities keep you playing
- Dynamic and fast paced action ensures no two games are the same
- Loads of game modes
- Sweet electric/techno music
- Supports the Xbox 360 controller

Cons
- Can get a bit overwhelming with stuff on the screen
- At it's core it doesn't do much different from other shmups
- Once you have unlocked everything, the draw kind of fades

Shooting stuff in space. Er, sky. 

The Long

Something indie games do aside from making dual-stick shooters is making side-scrolling shmups. These "bullet-hell" games (like Jamestown) are another common indie trend, though not as common as zombies or duel-stick shooters (or the abominable hybrid of both). Really Big Sky mixes both dual-stick shooting with side-scrolling shmup action, with an abstract art style and bright visuals that seem to permeate indie games. At first glance, this is just "another indie game," following the current trends and not really going out of its way to impress.

At least, that's what I thought until I started playing it. Now I think it's awesome.

This game has a lot of modes. And yes, my Classic score sucks, shut up. 

Really Big Sky has two core mechanics. You have the usual side-scrolling, dual-stick shooting for points thing. But then you have a "drill" ability. Throughout the world you'll ram into planets, where you have to quickly switch to drill and burrow through. Later stray asteroids and other rocks will come towards you amongst the enemies, requiring you to quickly switch modes on the fly. While drilling you can't shoot, and shooting does nothing against drill-able rocks, so you have to be quick.

It also has a few other tricks up its sleeve. As you start purchasing from the massive amounts of upgrades, you gain some unique abilities. Like an orbiting shield that circles around you to block shots. Or the chance to randomly shoot out a mine. Or summon a massive, multi-gun oblivion ball to follow behind for a while like a demented Option before going away. Again, this is pretty standard stuff, but all mixed together it works quite well, especially considering the game gets very exciting, very fast. No slow burn here.

There's a hefty amount of upgrades available. 

You gain points from killing enemies, and gain upgrade chips by picking them up after enemies drop them on death. Upgrades are all over the place, though Magnetcoil is the one you should buy first (makes you suck up chips from a wider range, getting you more money faster). Since each run can net you a decent amount of cash, and it lets you spend your points between replays, it can be hard to stop. Upgrades come fast but not too fast, with the costs dramatically increasing the more powerful they get. It's a strong system, though I could see that once you've maxed everything the draw would disappear.

Bosses are also fun, and several actually use the drilling mechanic well. To be honest, most reminded me a lot of Ikaruga's, with a similar spinning one and traditional bullet-hell shooter bullet patterns. Still, if it isn't broke don't fix it, and the fact that they essentially spawn randomly on classic mode ensures things are never the same every time you play.

It saves all your stats, which is cool, but no Steam Achievements. 

But the real meat comes in other modes. You can't earn points to upgrade your ship in them, but they all provide unique and cool experiences. My favorite, by far, is "Retro" mode. It axes multi-directional dual-stick shooting and instead is just a traditional, forward shooting game. The catch is that it plays kind of like a reverse Space Invaders: Infinity Gene, where you start in the 1990s and work your way back to older and older systems, with the graphics getting worse and more washed out as you go along. It's a visual treat, and the sound effects match the era you are in, which makes it a fun diversion.

Retro mode is awesome, though I have no idea what is going on. 

Graphically, it looks good enough. Heavy emphasis is played on tons of effects, all the time, so it can become very overwhelming until you get used to it. Early on I had issues telling black objects in the background from stuff I actually had to drill through, which was really obnoxious. After each level you go to "WARP SPEED" and then you really can't see what is going on. However, it works, and they make sure the obnoxious purple shielding ones (which deflect all your shots, but not enemy shots, annoying!) are obvious colored over everything else since they are the worse.

Soundtrack is solid, too, and you can unlock more songs and change them in the options menu. As a super-bonus, it has integrated Xbox360 controller support, which is by far the best way to play the game. It also maps "take screenshot" to the left bumper, which is a handy bonus for reviews.

KABOOM.

Really Big Sky doesn't break any ground necessarily, but it does so well with all the things it steals I have to recommend it. If you like these kinds of games you are getting a very hefty amount of content here with technically unlimited replayability, especially if you like competing for high scores with friends. The asking price for $10 is reasonably fair, but it tends to pop up in indie bundles if that is more your style (that's how I got it). 

Still, a very solid dual-stick shmup that manages to overcome it's genre setbacks and stand well enough on its own. And that will be enough.

Three out of five stars. 

But yeah...that sky is really big. I'll give it that. 

Dead Horde

The Short

Pros

- Has zombies in it

- You can shoot them for points and money

Cons

- Framerate and animations are horrible

- Graphics look bland and uninspired

- Lighting is poor

- Game isn't fun whatsoever

- Upgrade system is lame

- $10? Are you kidding me?

Don't play this game. 

The Long

Bloody hell indie developers, it's time to get away from two things: Dual-stick shooters and zombies. Ok, three things: add tower defense games to that list. Unless you are clever like the Unstoppable Gorg guys. But seriously...no more zombies, no more dual-stick shooters. It's like all anybody ever makes these days.

If you need an example of one that is redundant but still enjoyable, Zombie Shooter is worth your time. If you want to scrape the very bottom of the barrel in terms of useless garbage, we have Dead Horde here that requires your attention. 

The loading screens are absurdly long. 

Everything about Dead Horde is a misstep, with somethings not just misstepping but straight up falling over. The first thing you'll notice is that it plays in a window, at 1080x720. Which is fine, as I usually prefer these types of games in windows, but your mouse cursor is moving...slowly? Then you get into the game and...is the framerate really chugging? Or are the animations this bad?

In an attempt to decipher this mystery, I dropped it to the lowest resolution and full screened it (which takes less resources) just to see if it was true. My conclusion? Even on my Mac Mini with 8 GB ram (yes, I game on a dual-booted Mac, hush) the animations were bad AND the framerate couldn't stay consistent. Brilliant. 

This is the worst game I've played in a long while. 

The second thing you'll notice is how ugly it is. It's a bland, generic, gray n' brown affair, with the ruins of civilization all set in a constant darkness with nothing interesting to break it up. The zombies look as boring as they come, with all of them in the first level looking exactly the same, but luckily in stage two they get one new variant! Don't overwork yourselves, guys, you might need to save your pallet-swapped enemies for later levels!

So after watching these awful abominations run towards you (yes, they run, not shuffle, so that's good I guess) you get to the real turd at the core of this game: the gameplay. It's a dual-stick shooter (as you probably guessed) where the mouse aims and keyboard moves. But shooting zombies is tedious. You have one unlimited machine gun (as your only weapon until you buy more), and no melee. So you essentially run backwards in circles holding your mouse down as he fires his (really small) clip into them, reloads, and keeps firing. More and more zombies pile on and you just keep backing up in circles, like doing some sort of weird dance. Eventually (after way too long) they all die and you move on. Lather, rinse, repeat, and you have this entire game. Not kidding.

It has an upgrade system. It also sucks. 

You can bump your guns up but the upgrades are expensive and don't do much difference after getting them. Buying new guns is also stupid. Say I bought that Shotgun for 15k. It comes with no ammo. So I buy ammo for $1500. Now I find out it's a two-clip gun. Two. Clip. With like 20 total. So you get two shots while running around backwards until you die. Bonus? It isn't even as good as the assault rifle. It's like this whole upgrade system is a joke.

The controls are also awful, even for something that has been done a trillion times. Because of the dodgy framerate, you can't really control your mouse adequately. In addition, since it uses the WASD keys to move, you can't move diagonally with any precision. And then the game requires you to move diagonally with precision on the first level. Which meant I fell off a stupid platform a lot.

It also doesn't tell you where to go, and loves putting foreground objects right in your view. I'll be fighting a zombie "horde" (read: like nine) and be circling around in my stupid little bullet shooting dance, and suddenly a tree will block my view and I'll be a snack. Awesome. 

That's some quality lighting. 

I could say more, but I feel it would be unnecessary. This game goes for the absolutely-not-worth-it price of $10 on Steam. I wouldn't pay anything for it. In fact, the fact I got it in an indie bundle and now it's permanently tied to my Steam account offends me. I want it off, forever. No, I didn't beat it; I only played it for 35 minutes. You should feel lucky I re-installed it after deleting it to get these awful screenshots, because it doesn't even deserve that.

Dead Horde is the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to indie games, and it can't even do the most basic things right. Don't encourage this kind of behavior. Avoid at all costs.

Zero out of five stars. 

And stay down!

Alien Shooter 2 - Reloaded

The Short


Pros
- Keeps the arcade style while implementing more weapons
- Aliens look a lot better than the first game
- Has a sort of a story, I guess
- Improved graphics and animation

Cons
- The new gun system (taken from Zombie Shooter 2) is fine but boring
- Graphical assets are taken from Zombie Shooter 2 in the most obvious ways
- Involves a lot of standing around, waiting for people to do stuff for you
- Still repetitive, like all these games
- Has the two new stupid stats introduced in Zombie Shooter 2 that shouldn't exist

Yep, still plenty of blood. 

The Long

Alien Shooter 2 is solid. Unlike Zombie Shooter 2, which was a huge mess and a step back, Alien Shooter 2 seemed to learn from the shortcoming and try to fix the new stuff they put in Zombie Shooter 2 while still retaining the same arcade feel. And, for the most part, they pulled it off.

So we'll do this in brief because all these games are exactly the same anyway: is Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded worth getting? Well, for $5, why not?

The graphics have improved both technically and artistically

Just a reminder: these games are still repetitive, relatively mindless shooters. You shoot loads and loads of aliens from the get-go, and it just keeps getting crazier with blood and guts and bitsies everywhere. However, for stress-relief games, they tend to work pretty well. There's something weirdly enjoyable about just blasting through hordes of aliens without a scratch, and Alien Shooter 2 realized this is why people play these games (not to play a stupid survival horror experience) and pulled out all the stops for this release.

This is essentially the same game as Alien Shooter or Zombie Shooter. You level up (and the two useless points from Zombie Shooter 2 are back, but the game gives you a lot more points per level so progression is faster and funner) after shooting a bunch of dudes or completing objectives. You can buy guns from a shop (which is the exact same shop sprite from Zombie Shooter 2. Way to be.) but these one actually can kill stuff and pack a punch, so it's a lot funner. Also, play the game on Easy. Even though it might be a little boring at first, it seems to play best on this difficulty. At least for me.

I still hate all aliens. 

The graphics are a lot better, too. It manages to look more "realistic" while still having that old vibrant, arcade look. And still looking like Fallout, but in the best way this time: this is easily the best looking out of the four "Shooter" games that I own. Blood n' guts has also improved, and the monster designs look less cartoony and stupid (like Alien Shooter) and more menacing. Actually, this game looks a crapton like Diablo II, now that I think about it. The enemy designs, the blood, the graphical style...it really has a Diablo II feel. and I loved Diablo II's art, so maybe that's why I like it so much.

Sound is also decent, though the voice acting for the "story" is stupid. Luckily they didn't make the story the main focus this time around; it's just sort of a thing that happens. So your main point is blasting stuff, secondary objective caring about the story. It also does a better job invoking a feeling of being part of a team that is overrun, which adds a bit of flavor to the experience.

Plus, you get to go outside. Hooray for new locations. 

Out of all the shooter games I played, this one and Zombie Shooter (1) are the two I enjoyed the most. They are also unique in many ways (though both play the same) so you can get both and have a somewhat unique experience despite the similarities. Alien Shooter 2 is a good step towards the future of these types of games, though I find it weird it took them so long to figure it out. I mean, seriously, these types of games have been around forever. I can't believe they'd really be this hard to standardize.

Regardless, there's like a billion more Alien Shooters after this one, but this is the most recent one I own and I like it so...there you go. For $5, why not. 

Two out of five stars. 

At least you can equip more weapons this time around. 

Zombie Shooter 2

The Short

Pros

- Improved animations and graphics over the original...sort of

- Actually tries to have a story with voice acting and plot developments

- Car sections are fun

- Wider arsenal of purchasable guns and upgrades

- More RPG elements

Cons

- Fails in execution of nearly every new thing they implement

- While animations are better, the color pallet is very bland, even with "grayscale" mode turned off

- Gun balance with the new arsenal feels nonexistant; guns can range from overpowered to totally useless

- Two new stats are useless, and weird translation makes me wonder what they actually do 

- Story is also poorly translated and voiced over

- Honestly, just play the first game and ignore this one

Time to shoot more zombies. 

The Long

So after Zombie Shooter was weirdly good, I guess Sigma decided to try and up the stakes with the second game. Touting some rather radical changes to the formula, a new engine, and a new aesthetic, Zombie Shooter 2 on paper looks leagues above the original. Is it?

Nope. It's way worse, actually.

That's some quality writing. 

There's so many missteps it's hard to know where to begin. I guess we can start at the beginning: same title song as Alien Shooter and Zombie Shooter. Which...whatever, I guess that's fine. But then you get to the character select screen, and things get stupid.

They have a ton of characters now, each with a wide range of stats. In addition, you have two new stats: Wisdom and Intelligence (or something like that). One gives you more experience and one..."helps you learn skills faster?" What? What is the difference here? Either this is a bad translation or I don't get it (maybe the other gives you more skill points on level up? But I never got more than one, even though I pumped points in that stat...), but both seem redundant. Spending my level up on points to help me level up faster? Why not just balance your game better? 

Then you get into the game, and stuff gets worse. I will say that at least this game had widescreen support (finally), so it doesn't look stretched out constantly, but that's the worst of this messes graphical missteps.

Does this look bland to you? Or is it just me?

The lighting is better and the animations are improved, but man...the graphics are boring. Look at the original: it was cartoony and bright and vibrant. This one is dull and ugly to look at. Which actually is sort of a cool idea; it defaults to a film grain and black-and-white filter overlaying everything so it looks kind of like the original Dawn of the Dead or something. And while I think that's cool, it execution Zombie Shooter 2 looks grainy and dull. Even with all the filter overlays off the game is still bland, so the problem is the underlying art, not the filters they put over it all.

So anyway you get past it being hideous and start playing, and realize something else: there are a lot more guns in this game, and you have to equip them to slots and have a grid-based bag like Diablo II. Which would work if the guns were interesting. Upgrading individual weapons is gone again (like they learned nothing from Alien Shooter) and instead we just have a lot of them to keep swapping out. Except they didn't bother to balance anything, so the zombies take forever to kill and, unless you buy some super-powered weapon, you'll be fire peashooters the whole game. What?

You also fight naked winged demon chicks, which last I checked are NOT ZOMBIES. 

Ammo is scarce unless you are playing on easy, which makes me think that (with that and the art style) they were going "survival horror" over arcade. But you can't just use an old system, slap a few survival-horror tropes on it and hope it works. As an arcade shooter it fails completely, and as a survival horror game it fails too. So a double dose of suck. 

Oh, there's a story this time, in case you cared, further pushing the "We are a serious game now!" idea. Well, it sucks. Translations are poor at best, voice actors obviously not speaking English as their native language, and it's just a boring "go here, go there, damn zombies!" experience. Not enjoyable.

Tons of options, all of them boring and useless. 

I'm kind of mad. I liked Zombie Shooter for its stupid, arcade action and just general disregard to caring if it was good or not. Zombie Shooter 2 obviously tries, but fails completely. Sorry, Sigma, you aren't cut out for survival horror or games with any sort of story. Just...go back to making generic, repetitive arcade shooters with light RPG elements. It'll work out better that way for everybody.

Also, this game is $10? Yuck.

One out of Five Stars. 

Um...sure. Yeah, you do that. 

Zombie Shooter

The Short


Pros
- There ARE zombies, and you get to shoot them
- Improves on Alien Shooter's mechanics by adding gun upgrades, which is appreciated
- Enemies disintegrate in messy bits as you blast at them, which is a nice, nasty touch
- Graphics still look like Fallout
- Has an actual difficulty slider (Easy/Medium/Hard) which Alien Shooter really needed
- Weirdly addicting, though I can't exactly figure out why

Cons
- Almost exactly the same as Alien Shooter
- Seriously, everything is the same except you are shooting zombies
- Still runs at a crappy resolution, still is mindless, and still is just corridor after corridor
- Only about 3-4 hours long
- Has weird pathing issues in its isomeric view that can result in you getting stuck on the scenery, to the point where you have to quit and start a mission over

Call me messed up, but I think shooting zombies is funner than shooting aliens

The Long

So let's get one thing straight: this game is almost a cookie-cutter pallet swap of Alien Shooter. Don't believe me? Well, let's run some stuff down:

- Same title screen music

- Same two characters with same sprites

- Many of the guns are the same

- Many background assets are directly lifted from Alien Shooter

- Entire UI, menu, and leveling system is the same

- IT'S THE SAME, OK?

So this SHOULD be a really simple review, right? It's the same, "One out of Five" and all that? Well...actually no. Because despite myself, I think...I think I like Zombie Shooter.

THE HORROR.

It isn't a video game if you don't start by killing rats. 

So, if you skipped the Alien Shooter review, here's the concept in brief: duel-stick shooter, light RPG mechanics, boatloads of enemies and levels, super repetitive. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, old graphics, same gray corridors for every level. So all that is exactly the same here in Zombie Shooter (though you do get a glimpse of the outside, and I think the graphics have seen a boost, but more on that later) but to my surprise it actually hits that "addicting" draw it was going for before. Not sure why, but let's break down why it's better than Alien Shooter, at least.

So first off the upgrade system has improved, if only slightly. Rather than having the only progression be leveling up and buying better guns, you can now upgrade your current guns. Which I appreciate, as it gives my money somewhere to go. Upgrading them significantly increases range, power, and lots more. It feels good to spend all your money fully upgrading a minigun and just breezing through a level blasting the undead.

Another improvement is there is a difficulty slider. Which may sound lame, but the original game kind of needed it. This is still a hard game - even "Easy" can get tricky - but at least now you can decide how badly you get stomped.

Wait, is that...actually a zombie? 

There's also a better sense of progression in this one vs Alien Shooter. In Alien Shooter, you cleared a room and just left. A prompt said "Press Space to Leave" and that was it. In this one, you have actual objectives and places to go to continue (though most are either "find a button to turn on the lights" or "get dynamite and blow a hole in this pre-determined wall") so it feels like you are going somewhere. It's a step in the right direction. 

But how I think this game works is that it succeeds at drawing you into its stupid, arcade, Smash TV style of just blasting tons and tons of zombies. Yeah, there's no depth here, and I still can often use the "stand in doorway shooting rockets into the room until everything stops moving" trick, but the game feels much more refined than Alien Shooter. Maybe it's having more upgrade options or the fact that I'm fighting zombies or something, I dunno. But I genuinely enjoyed my time spent with Zombie Shooter. It wasn't anything profound, but I'll probably play it again (and I didn't delete it from my HDD after quitting, like I did with Alien Shooter). 

The biggest problem I encountered, however, were the controls. I neglected to mention it in my Alien Shooter review, but playing with WSAD movement on an isomeric view isn't great, and it's exacerbated by the fact you can walk on stuff you aren't supposed to be able to, and then get stuck. Often it took some jiggling to get free, but once I was legitimately trapped and had to reload a level. That's garbage. 

How were there so many people in this underground facility?

Graphically, the game is similar but has a slightly better look than Alien Shooter. The environments are more colorful and dense and the blood n' guts looks much better. My favorite (if a bit gross) "feature" is the fact that after you shoot zombies for a bit pieces come off 'em, but they keep coming until you finish them off. Nice touch. You can also see your bullets/buckshot this time, which is appreciated in aiming.

Sound is also a bit better, though nothing spectacular. It recycles a bit from Alien Shooter but then adds some more of its own, so I'm fine with it.

How many of these guys are there?

I feel weird saying this, but I liked Zombie Shooter. Yeah, it's mindless, kind of shallow, and really repetitive, but it fits that "arcade shooter" itch that I have. While I'd have liked more upgrade options, having just four stats and gun upgrades has enough to keep me going without being overly complex. This is just some mindless fun, and the fact it's like 3-4 hours long makes it a good game to play in bursts and then pick up later. 

Yes, I'm actually recommending this game, though honestly I'd wait for it to pop up in an indie bundle (they tend to do that a lot; Indie Gala likes to re-sell it's old bundles with the current ones, if you are interested check them out). At $5 it might be a bit much (try a demo), but this formula works, so for cheap thrills you could do a lot worse.

Three out of Five Stars. 

Which means this game is as good as Final Fantasy VII, if you think all reviews scores mean the same thing.