I saw this game on Steam and it looked fun. In today's world of overcomplicated games that don't just throw you into the action, it would be nice to have some old-fashioned fun.
Well, there's nothing old-school about this game at all. The graphics look Neo Geo-esque, though using no art style that any game from that era actually used. Paul Anderson, the famous Australian pixel artist who did the artwork for the Scott Pilgrim Versus the World game, returns to give us more of his style. It's very well animated, which is what frustrates me - if it's obvious that real, true effort went into the graphics, why not just draw them in a high resolution instead of this obnoxious blocky style every indie is using?
The music ain't retro either. NES chiptune instruments mix with modern instruments. Unlike in Scott Pilgrim, though, if you were to remove the real instruments and keep the chiptune, you'd barely have a song. Of course, the sound effects are all "real".
Okay, so we got clashing "retro" styles that don't evoke any actual era - chiptune music with real instruments crossed with 16-bit era pixel art. What about the gameplay? At least that's old-school, right?
Nope. Instead we're given the more annoying aspects of modern gaming. Enemies take a large number of shots to kill, and frequently drop items. Items are used to craft gun parts so you can modify your gun. Crafting is a big part of the game. So is grinding. Lots and lots of missions all take place in the exact same level, with no change to the layout, just slightly different (if at all) enemy placement and object placement. Get ready to play the first level a dozen times before you can earn the second. Not exaggerating. And then there's the annoying reloading mechanic: you reload very frequently, which means waiting for a meter to fill, or pressing a button at just the right time to reload faster. An extra complication no-one wanted.
No 80s or 90s game played like this. The gameplay's not retro; it's modern and annoying. Multiplayer makes it more bearable, but it's still slow-paced repetitive grinding. The presentation's not retro either; it's jumbled. If you're gonna do "retro", do it right and mimic the actual style of the era in terms of both presentation and gameplay. Otherwise, stop this fad.
VideoGame This isn't very retro at all
I saw this game on Steam and it looked fun. In today's world of overcomplicated games that don't just throw you into the action, it would be nice to have some old-fashioned fun.
Well, there's nothing old-school about this game at all. The graphics look Neo Geo-esque, though using no art style that any game from that era actually used. Paul Anderson, the famous Australian pixel artist who did the artwork for the Scott Pilgrim Versus the World game, returns to give us more of his style. It's very well animated, which is what frustrates me - if it's obvious that real, true effort went into the graphics, why not just draw them in a high resolution instead of this obnoxious blocky style every indie is using?
The music ain't retro either. NES chiptune instruments mix with modern instruments. Unlike in Scott Pilgrim, though, if you were to remove the real instruments and keep the chiptune, you'd barely have a song. Of course, the sound effects are all "real".
Okay, so we got clashing "retro" styles that don't evoke any actual era - chiptune music with real instruments crossed with 16-bit era pixel art. What about the gameplay? At least that's old-school, right?
Nope. Instead we're given the more annoying aspects of modern gaming. Enemies take a large number of shots to kill, and frequently drop items. Items are used to craft gun parts so you can modify your gun. Crafting is a big part of the game. So is grinding. Lots and lots of missions all take place in the exact same level, with no change to the layout, just slightly different (if at all) enemy placement and object placement. Get ready to play the first level a dozen times before you can earn the second. Not exaggerating. And then there's the annoying reloading mechanic: you reload very frequently, which means waiting for a meter to fill, or pressing a button at just the right time to reload faster. An extra complication no-one wanted.
No 80s or 90s game played like this. The gameplay's not retro; it's modern and annoying. Multiplayer makes it more bearable, but it's still slow-paced repetitive grinding. The presentation's not retro either; it's jumbled. If you're gonna do "retro", do it right and mimic the actual style of the era in terms of both presentation and gameplay. Otherwise, stop this fad.