Posted on: October 31, 2015
MischiefMaker
Verified ownerGames: 819 Reviews: 66
Designed around chaos
This is a tunnel-crawling action roguelite based on Asteroids-style newtonian inertia where you pilot a transforming spaceship through tunnels choked with hazzards and 3 mutually antagonistic factions of baddies. Games proceed in a chain of 5 randomly generated missions. You have a choice of up to 5 seasons that from a story standpoint are a continuous narrative, but from a gameplay standpoint are difficulty settings. Upgrades reset between seasons, but unlocked blueprints remain. In season 1 games you can just charge in guns blazing and you'll reliably come out on top. In the higher seasons, the tunnels become so jam-packed with enemies and hazzards you'll need to dig into the game's mechanics to survive. This is where the chaos comes in. This game was specifically designed for emergent scenarios. Enemies come in 3 factions (prissy imperials, gross bugs, and psychotic raiders), they hate each other as much as they hate you, and they're just as susceptible to spikes and explosive barrels as you are. There's a light stealth element to the game, as long as you stay out of an enemy's clearly marked vision radius and don't make noise by thrusting, you can use your inertia to drift past unnoticed. The robot form of your craft has a grappling arm that's great for grabbing nasty exploding things and throwing them at unsuspecting enemies. To counter the greater risks from unpredictable physics, your ship has a halo-style regenerating shield. I've been playing with keyboard and mouse and the game controls just fine. The ship automatically faces the mouse pointer, WASD controls four directional thrusters. The ship and robot move at similar speeds, the ship can use a brief invincibility barrel roll and fire missile swarms, the robot has a bullet-bouncing shield, can grab and throw, and uses a lazer sword. The main downside to the game is while the cel-shaded enemies look cool, the stage graphics are drab and samey. I'm having fun with it!
Is this helpful to you?
