Recent reviews by MultiH

This game has awoken something in me.....






....the desire for chocolate pancakes mmmm

Easily the best game I bought this year. Granted I don't buy or play many new games, but this game just hits all the right marks for me.

Like many others have stated, the devs are super friendly and responsive. Large, game breaking issues don't stay for long and the devs are on top of nearly every issue reported.

The game itself is just so satisfying to play, from the crisp graphics and effects to the sexy audio. Large splots of oil explode from a poor bot's head as you eviscerate it with a SCAR that fires lasers.

On the replayability-side of things, Sythetik does so many things to keep me coming back. With so many different weapons and items in the game, each run truly is different. You can tailor each run with difficulty modifiers along with having shops carry your favorites weapons and items via tokens. As you level up each class, you gain modules and more abilities to enhance your character. These powerful modules and abilities persist and will help you in future runs. As with many roguelites, dying will make your character stronger.

Do I recommend this game? You know it. I usually don't spend more than 15 hours in many indie games but Synthetik just keeps pulling me back. Easily worth the asking price and paying a little extra for the supporter pack. These devs deserve it!

One of the very few games and devs I'm willing to give extra money to. The devs behind this game are super responsive and won't hesitate to take player's feedback into serious consideration.


naw jk lol i just bought it for the cutouts lmao

I love both FPS and Tron, so this title caught my attention! A wonderful fast-paced shooter, Vektor Wars satisfies my craving for a quick shooter with lots of weapons and enemy types while boasting multiple game modes. I’ve separated my thoughts into multiple sections with a Pros/Cons list at the end.


The settings menu allow you to change key bindings and adjust audio options including the music and sound fx. Options to adjust controller and joystick input are also available. Unfortunately, this is as far as settings go; there are no video options whatsoever.


While there are no video options mentioned above, the game runs smoothly at 60fps throughout. Depending on your GPU, you may get frame rate drops when there are lots of explosions and particle effects happening all at once, which will happen occasionally when there are tons of enemies on the screen.


As I love the Tron aesthetic, I adore how this game looks overall. Each level has their own look and feel, ranging from snowy landscapes to urban centers to a hellish volcano Mount Doom-esque level.


The game is fast paced as enemies will naturally come to you. You always want to be on the move, traversing the map to pick up new weapons and their ammo in order to survive the onslaught. There are 15 weapons and by the last mission, you should have used most, if not all of the weapons. Each weapon is unique and have their own HUD, audio, and damage profiles. Movement is very smooth, which is good news as you’ll be moving a lot to dodge enemy fire. Each enemy type is unique, ranging from simple footsoldiers to large ships that cover the sky.


While completing the story mode will take you 4-5 hours (if you go around collecting everything), there are other game modes to try each with their own rules.

In the story mode, you play through each level to unlock subsequent levels. There are 9 levels total, each having their own aesthetic and overall feel. The overall story is simple: you crashed landed and a rescue mission is underway. However, there are complications, so you must fend off hostiles through each level in order to be rescued. Each level has power cubes which are collected unlock messages. Once you have enough power cubes (there are 10 per level), you bring them to a satellite dish to receive a message. These messages outline how the rescue mission is going. Each level also has these cute little ‘robodudes’ (7 to 8 depending on the level) where collecting them will net bonus points in the end.

In addition to the story mode, the game boasts 4 other game modes: Arcade, Deadline, Sequence, and Survival.

In Arcade, you start with 3 lives and must survive as long as possible. Every 500,000 points you earn will net you a life.

In Deadline, you must score as many points as you can in 5 minutes.

In Sequence, you have 2 minutes to destroy as many enemies as possible in each zone. There are 5 zones total. When you die, you are taken to the next zone without all the weapons you have found and equipped (besides the starting pistol).

In Survival, you only have a single life and must kill an enemy every 30 seconds or else the time hits 0. Once the time hits 0 or you die, the game ends. Each of these modes use the same levels from the story mode.


Overall, the audio effects in this game is great. Standouts include the sound of your character as he moves, which makes a nice mechanical sound. Whenever you equip a weapon, a unique sound plays while shooting the weapon makes a sound that packs quite a punch!

The music is great and gives an upbeat techno feel.


When I played, this game is relatively glitch-free, though the one that stood out to me is getting stuck when jumping or moving to a sloped section. I had one instance where I was exploring the map and I was stuck on this ledge and couldn’t get out, so I had to restart the level. My recommendation was just to avoid all sloped areas besides ones that lead in and out of the water.


I like this game a lot! It fits my criteria of everything I want in a fast paced Tron-esque FPS. I highly recommend this game for the price being offered. If there’s a sequel, count me in!

Pros

• Lots of unique weapons
  
• Fluid movement
  
• Lots of unique enemies
  
• Lovely aesthetic
  
• Great level design
  
• Lots of different game modes

Cons

• Collecting robodudes or power cubes can be a hassle (I had to look at a guide for the power cubes), especially when a couple of the power cubes are in the water.
  - One suggestion is when you only need 1 power cube or when there's only 1 robodude left, it would highlight on the map where they are. This avoids the dreaded feeling of trying to find the last one, which may take a while depending on the level.
  
  
• Hard to know what each weapon does on the fly.
  - One suggestion is to have a test range with all weapons available where the player can use each of them against dummy targets.
  
  
• No video options
  
• No way to tune down the visual effects (can hurt the eyes if played too long)

Well, what do we have here, you may ask?

What we have here is probably one of the best indie titles I've played this past year. At the time this review is posted it may say that I have little to no hours in this game, but rest assured that I’ve had 40+ hours in this game before it came out on Steam. I got my 40+ hours using Desura, a game distribution platform not too dissimilar from Steam, where this game was published with constant updates. That being said, my 40+ hours came from playing different builds of this game, from the Alpha to the latest build, v1.0.10. And let me be frank here; every reiteration, as in every update, made this game more and more enjoyable in almost every aspect. The developer, Phroot, took the time to add new features along with many important bug fixes with every update. In other words, he knows what to do and how to take care of his game. Now on to what the game is about:

Gameplay:

The gameplay of 3089 is set in first-person, as seen through the screenshots. Now you may be thinking, "Oh another FPS??!?" Rest assured that even though the game is set in first person, the gameplay is far from your traditional FPS for many reasons:

1. Non-linear procedurally generated environment.

No two playthroughs are the same. Everything about the environment is different from where enemy bases are spawned to randomly placed towers (in a good way). Bridges, roads, buildings, and bases are randomly placed in the huge sprawling world known as Xax. The only thing constant throughout every playthrough is that you, the player, is always spawned in a friendly base (and even then, the base has randomly placed buildings). Every building, bridge, road, etc is sprawling with life as there are always friendly and enemy robots roaming about, sometimes fighting each other to the death. It's a magnificent sight to see groups of robots fighting it out while you just sit watching. The world is alive; never have I felt that I'm completely alone in this single-player game.

2. Variety of playstyles.

3089 has done a fantastic job of allowing multiple types of playstyles, such as a stealth run to a full run-and-gun experience. The game accomplishes this with skill points, and as you complete quests you can apply those skill points into a variety of different attributes, such as Stealth to avoid easier detection by enemies to Vehicles which allow you to pilot better vehicles. There's even a Leadership ability in which I can recruit a large amount of friendly robots to follow me wherever I go. It is so satisfying seeing my cadre of robots go after a group of enemies for a particular quest. In short, there are so many attributes that can be applied to your unit, and combination of each of these attributes can add to an entirely new playstyle.

3. Combat.

The combat of 3089 is familiar to other games, but still satisfying nonetheless. There are a variety of different weapons to choose from, ranging from simple pistols to swords. That's right, swords. Now I haven't used swords a lot since melee combat isn't my thing, but I can testify for the gunplay. The gunplay is solid as there are different weapons to choose from along with the extensive customization (which I'll go into detail soon). There are rifles, launchers, pistols, and energy rifles. Honestly my favorite type is rifles as they just feel so solid and powerful with the right customizations/attachments. The combat of 3089 can be challenging as you have to manage your ammo inventory and your 'Burst', which is how many shots you have before 'reloading.' You have to time your shots and make sure they hit their mark if you want to make it out unscathed. Like I said, the combat is challenging yet super rewarding. Along with the variety of weapons, there are also a large number of enemies, ranging from simple robots to giant spider bots. These spider bots are fudging huge and have powerful weapons!

4. Loot and customization.

This has got to be one of my favorite aspects of this game. Loot is acquired from killing enemies along with 'uncrating' random crates you find along the way. The loot you find is proportional to the level of the environment, so if you kill an enemy in a level 10 environment, you get an item that is level 10 (the level of a certain area is seen when you open up the map. The level is denoted by 'Difficulty', so a difficulty of 10 of an area would house level 10 enemies and level 10 loot. The area you start in is Difficulty 1, so the farther you stray from your starting area, the higher level and more difficult the game is). The loot you find can be anything from parts of weapons to armor pieces. In 3089, you can customize your weapons to a nice degree with these parts. For example, rifle parts include barrels, magazines, bodies, scopes, and silencers. Armor parts include leggings, helmets + visors, and lower torso and chest pieces. All parts of a particular weapon are interchangeable, so you have the ability to make a powerful weapon catered to your liking.

Graphics:

I'll be honest here; when I saw this game for the first time, I was like, "What is this???" But as I went through the screenshots on Desura, it changed my mind. The vast hills in the distance with simple buildings in the foreground from a screenshot got to me. So I gave the game a chance by downloading the demo. In short, I was amazed at the beauty of the world. Vast landscapes on this alien world with large areas full of robotic life. The aesthetics are simple, but does extremely well to show off the world. With every update, the landscape look more 'alive' with more things added to the world, like bridges and ramps and helipads. Before you pass this game off because of the graphics, please reconsider. Download the demo and see how gorgeous this game can be. The screenshots don't do it justice.

Story:

The story is quite simple and self-explanatory, so I won't spend much time explaining what it is. What I will explain is how to get the most out of it. To get the most out of what's going on, it is best to read every data text that you come across. You get snippets of the story through these data texts, which can be acquired from completing quests and following objectives. These data texts, which are just a few sentences, explain what the fudge is going on and what you can do to maximize impact on the world.

Conclusion:

Possibly one of the best indie games I've played in a while. I find it astounding how this game made by one person with the help of others can provide me with more enjoyment than some AAA games out there. It may sound like I'm exaggerating but it's the truth for me personally. If you love exploration games with lots of freedom with a gorgeous living world, then this is the game for you!