Humans Must Answer

Ever since I was a kid, I used to love shmups, all kinds of shumps. Played them for years then something terrible happened. Gradius V happened. That fucking game was sheer perfection, and it made very difficult for me to enjoy any shmups I played after. They all seemed bland compared to GV. It's been almost 10 years, and there were only 2 shmups that I really had a blast playing since : Hydorah and Soldner X-2. Today I can add a 3rd game to that short list : HMA. I was a bit disappointed at first because the levels are very short (not even 5 minutes). But you only have 1 life and there are no checkpoints so when you die, you go all the way back to the beginning. It's not an easy game, and this makes things very challenging yet not frustrating because you always know you'll quickly get back to where you died. The scoring aspect is also good, as it encourages the player not to miss a single enemy in order to get money. There is a wide variety of weapons and subweapons, and since you can resell everything without loss you can try them all and find what's best for your playstyle (and for each levels). Graphics-wise, I think the screenshots speak for themselves. The soundtrack is just as gorgeous.

Excellent gameplay and a good variety in the level design. Graphics is nice as well. The shop adds a lot of variety to the game. Levels can be replayed inorder to unlock cash and other levels.

I've always been a huge fan of shoot'em ups. Humas Must Answers gets everything right. Graphics look great but are not a distraction during gameplay (ok, they distract in the beginning due to the:"OHHHH AHHH" factor), soundtrack fots perfectly a game like this and the gameplay is the good old unforgiving Shoot'em up style where you need to know EVERYTHING the game will throw at you, in a process of tryal by error that eventually leads to mastering the game. Not as hard as oldies like Hellfire, but a very nice challenge that I'll be happy to play over and over just for the fun and enjoyable mechanics of the game. Cannot suggest it high enough.

I have played many shmups in recent times: Sine Mora, Red Shift, Syder Arcade, Sky Avengers, Ether Vapor Remaster, Jamestown and more. So i can say: Humans Must Answer has its own great style, some new ideas, a sidescroll-shmup-like gameplay we all love so, phat FX (yO!) and a nice Soundtrack. I love it. Game on. Play on. 5 out of 5 for this Shmup Pearl.

- Remember the godlike demoscene music from One Must Fall or Crusader? This game has that! - No "rogue like", "procedurally generated" stuff. That means: Every level on the same difficulty level has always the same great hand-tuned gameplay (based on that you have to choose where you are and how much "juice" your two guns and turrets still have) and can be perfected by you. - Earlier (easier) areas can be revisited to master them (100% and all the content) which helps you in later levels. - Oldschool. No 360degree all-over-the-place confusion. Scrolling is horizontal only and you gotta blast everything or the objects "scroll away". Clean look, enemies are easy discernable from your turrets or you. - Upgrade your ship! (Sadly no sex deck ;)