Harrison
10th May 2007, 11:52
I just tried this PS2 action shooter and it is bloody hard!
The gameplay is third person perspective from a mainly side on 3D view and the action is a combination of beat em up and shoot em up.
It combines sections of walking around killing enemies by using guns and melee attacks, and then coming to areas where huge aggressors attack you. In these moments the screen becomes fixed and the aggressor's attacks are in set patterns much like a traditional space shooter, but with you walking around the screen to avoid fire instead of flying.
The first of these aggressors I encountered had quite easy attack patterns, with a left hand arm coming forward which you had to shoot while avoiding fire, a right hand arm which fired homing bombs at you so you needed to shoot the bombs and the arm, a central section that fired patterns of fire at you while you tried to shoot it, and a part where it turned around and fired 4 of the 5 thrusters at you (you had to notice which wasn't lit and quickly stand in line so you didn't get burned!).
But the second aggressor was much tougher and where I currently left the game for now. It has some attack patterns similar to the first, but adding this laser grid weapon that pointed a large grid of beams around the area and then they become hot so you had to try and stand between them, but it them added some enemy soldiers attacking you at the same time, which definitely made things harder. This second aggressor also had some more attack waves too.
The control system is fairly easy to grasp. Square is for melee attacks and circle for gun fire. Holding the R1 button locks onto a target and moving the loft analogue stick let or right while locked on and then using a melee attack executes a special move, which look cool and inflict much more damage.
Using the gun requires monitoring the heat meter, as in a mech sim, so that when the heat meter hits 100% the gun stops until it cools down, so you have to be strategic and patient when shooting.
In addition as you fight a second bar fills up under your health meter and once full you can use the triangle button to unleash a special move.
The final control is X which brings up a force shield around you. This is quite effective against melee attacks, but not as good against guns. The downside of the shield is that while it is up you cannot move, so you need to time it well. bring it up just before a melee attack and as soon as they finish drop it and counter.
All in all the control system is easy to get to grips with, but timing and position is definitely needed to be successful, and using the right attacks and shield combinations along with positioning and locking on to targets does take some doing in more heated moments.
The difficulty level is definitely quite high in this game so if you are only a passing shoot em up fan you might not like it as you won't get far on the first few attempts. But for fans of the genre I think you will really enjoy it.
The gameplay is third person perspective from a mainly side on 3D view and the action is a combination of beat em up and shoot em up.
It combines sections of walking around killing enemies by using guns and melee attacks, and then coming to areas where huge aggressors attack you. In these moments the screen becomes fixed and the aggressor's attacks are in set patterns much like a traditional space shooter, but with you walking around the screen to avoid fire instead of flying.
The first of these aggressors I encountered had quite easy attack patterns, with a left hand arm coming forward which you had to shoot while avoiding fire, a right hand arm which fired homing bombs at you so you needed to shoot the bombs and the arm, a central section that fired patterns of fire at you while you tried to shoot it, and a part where it turned around and fired 4 of the 5 thrusters at you (you had to notice which wasn't lit and quickly stand in line so you didn't get burned!).
But the second aggressor was much tougher and where I currently left the game for now. It has some attack patterns similar to the first, but adding this laser grid weapon that pointed a large grid of beams around the area and then they become hot so you had to try and stand between them, but it them added some enemy soldiers attacking you at the same time, which definitely made things harder. This second aggressor also had some more attack waves too.
The control system is fairly easy to grasp. Square is for melee attacks and circle for gun fire. Holding the R1 button locks onto a target and moving the loft analogue stick let or right while locked on and then using a melee attack executes a special move, which look cool and inflict much more damage.
Using the gun requires monitoring the heat meter, as in a mech sim, so that when the heat meter hits 100% the gun stops until it cools down, so you have to be strategic and patient when shooting.
In addition as you fight a second bar fills up under your health meter and once full you can use the triangle button to unleash a special move.
The final control is X which brings up a force shield around you. This is quite effective against melee attacks, but not as good against guns. The downside of the shield is that while it is up you cannot move, so you need to time it well. bring it up just before a melee attack and as soon as they finish drop it and counter.
All in all the control system is easy to get to grips with, but timing and position is definitely needed to be successful, and using the right attacks and shield combinations along with positioning and locking on to targets does take some doing in more heated moments.
The difficulty level is definitely quite high in this game so if you are only a passing shoot em up fan you might not like it as you won't get far on the first few attempts. But for fans of the genre I think you will really enjoy it.