If you own a monitor with more than 60Hz gameplay is much too fast and it will crash all the time - it's unplayable!
Don't know why the developer doesn't solve that problem that is known for months on Steam.
Be careful about the Switch version - it has slowdowns. XO Version had problems with saving your progress when I last tested it, so maybe PS4 is the only playable version.
That's really sad, because the gameplay is really great - how can someone develop such a good game just to fail on the last few steps so badly.
This game seems to have so much going for it, until you realize your monitor's refresh rate is too high and the developer hasn't taken displays over 60 hz into consideration.
I could barely navigate the menus due to it all going faster than normal, and the game froze in the menus, as well as the actually game being unplayable due to the speed.
The visuals, gameplay and everything that matters are in place, but it falls flat on it's nose right in front of the finish line, and I hope the developer fixes this issue.
I am certain a great SHMUP is hidden under the layer of this technical problem.
Please fix it Screambox Studio / Zodiac Interactive.
... feels partly misguided.
I should mention that I'm by no means a shmup veteran. I've only played maybe 50 and 1CC'ed only 2 of them.
But this also means that I'm not uptight about things that were tried in this game. Such as unlocking upgrades and increasingly getting used to the game and level layouts and characters as your going along.
Innovations that were a bit misguided in my opinion are e.g. the three movement speeds while shooting that makes use of three different buttons. I believe there was a Cave game that also had three speeds but using two buttons. Which makes things much more manageable. Especially when you consider the fact that there are also two different special attacks in addition to the bomb here.
This is basically what broke the game for me, as having to keep two buttons pressed while also pressing one other at times makes the controls feel inferior to any shmup I've ever played. Some might argue that it's my problem that I can't manage that many different buttons at once and - fair enough, if you don't mind, go for it.
Then there's also:
- Unfinished looking upgrade screens between levels that don't make it clear whether the blue balls shown are what I currently have or what I have to spend.
- No music during the tutorial, not enough time to read the cards. Why on earth does it not prompt to press buttons to continue instead?!
- Can't navigate the menu using the joystick.
- I'm supposed to press "k" to convert spent energy to a bomb but... I'm playing with a joystick.
- Sketchy controller options - the buttons configured for a joystick don't show up until you switch to another page and then back. With some of the menu items, you also have to press down to go to the right.
Things that I can't find any flaws with are the gorgeous art style and potentially the score system (no interest to play long enough to figure out whether I really like it).
(-2 for the controls and -1 for the lack of a working leaderboard, at least in the GOG version)
Angerforce's visual style reminded me of Gunbird and Shikigami no Shiro, so I was interested, what I got is a nice game behind a steep hurdle.
The game is a vertical shmup with an upgrade system. By beating bosses, you earn tokens to buy bonuses inbetween levels or permanent upgrades after a game over. Those increase your damage, quicken your charges and enhance your 4 playable characters' skills.
You can speed up or slow down, and slow mode automatically charges the energy. This is important because it allows for more precise dodging and a more liberal use of both of each character's skills.
They consumle energy and tharge the bomb gauge for a free bomb.
Thing is, there are a few hurdles:
1. This game is better played with a controller due to how many buttons (up to 4, like slow, autofire, skill1 and skill2) you could be pressing at once. Keyboards beware.
2. At first, your characters are pathetically weak and only Asimo (the big robot) has good survival chances). You're supposed to grind the game and the Campaign mode to upgrade (the abilities are not random, at least the base is fixed), if not you're in for a world of pain.
3. However, for a whiler you'll only be getting small amounts of tokens because you'll be dying often during the first 2 Campaign levels.
4. Add to this badly-designed menus (adjusting sound and music sliders with a controller is painful due to how sensitive it is, buttons of keys are indiscriminately displayed), a game unoptimized for >60Hz monitors and the mandatory Galaxy launch (unless you use the shortcut in the install dir -I can't even fathom why, and I bet Galaxy killed my old save I had manually transferred, with all my upgrades and gallery lost).
Behind all this lies a good shmup with an interesting story, but it seems unfinished and unlikely to be optimized/patched.
Still I like it, but it's hard to recommend full price due to all the quirks that hinder a solid base for a nice game. Hence the 3 stars. Also because (local) co-op.
the best original stg game on pc, strong recommend to every stg player. just as great as the PSIKYO, Cave and Treasure's classic. Screambox Studio must put lots of efforts into this game, and did a very good job.
the gog verison is the updated version with arcade model. not sure this is the latest version as steam, which has fixed the 144hz monitor issue. i am using a 60hz moniter so the game works perfectly.
