KILLER COMBOS: Use swift swordplay, explosive ordnance, and stylish combos against an army of meat and metal.
FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE: Conquer mini-bosses, set pieces, and climactic 1-on-1 encounters that offer intense challenges against unforgettable villains.
BATTLE TO THE BEAT: A 90s-inspired soundtrack features heavy Drum’n’Bass and funky industrial music that adds to the thrill of combat.
Posted on: February 23, 2024
TerminalFerocity
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 18
The Exquisite Friction of Imperfect Steel
As promotional copy claimed and players confirmed, Slave Zero X is a 2D single-plane character action game with sensibilities cleaving closer to Guilty Gear than genre-benchmark DMC. At its most basic, SZX elects to impose a restrictive movelist cancel hierarchy which acts to filter unconsidered actions into a trajectory towards failure. Many attacks are appear to be high commitment, discouraging thoughtless use. Layered above this hierarchy is a meter system which grants seemingly finite access to less conditional cancels that, when employed judiciously, become the fulcrum on which a more elaborate sequence of attacks may turn. More highly skilled players will be able to leverage the components of this metered system into a free-flowing assault which presents no room for rebuttal. In essence, players are at first faced with the illusion of a stiff, cumbersome avatar which the game then asks them to dispel of their own accord. Many criticisms of the title reveal that not all were able or willing to meet this challenge. While tutorialization of all major mechanics is, in my opinion, fully adequate, a cursory review of S-rank and boss kill videos will reveal that one of the game's secret moves (not a combination of techniques, but a single move) is a mainstay in effective boss/miniboss elimination. Such a pivotal ability should be laid bare in an accessible movelist, not propagated through word of mouth. While enemies wield movelists of the size typically accorded to chaff in games of this sort, the moves themselves are often more like those granted to human opponents in fighting games. There are low startup jabs, hyperarmored grabs, the works. They'll still get juggled like training dummies in earlier levels, but as they start to quite literally fill the screen in later levels, the combat focus shifts to crowd management and, should you falter, triage. Appearances can be deceiving. Exceed pragmatic combat and express yourself through violence.
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