Steel Storm: Burning Retribution (PC)
Platform: PC
Developer: Creative Artel
Publisher: Creative Artel
Genre: Shoot-em-up
Released: May 11, 2011
Metacritic: 55
What is it: Blow up everything in front of you, move to objective, lather, rinse, repeat.
0:00 - No fancy intro stuff, just a menu (with tons of options) and some dramatic wartime music. A bit of customization and I’m off!
0:01 - Okay, so this isn’t a shoot-em-up in the style of Gradius or Ikaruga, but instead in the style of Assault Force or the top-down levels of Contra 3. Either way, time to destroy everything.
0:04 - Well that was a fast first mission. Two things I immediately like about this game are the graphics, which are simple but have a nice cell shaded design to them, and that the game rewards you for destroying everything. The point of a shoot-em-up like this is carnage. Glad to see the developers promoting that.
0:06 - A suggestion to game developers: if you’re going to give out bonuses such as double kill, triple kill, etc, have a voice that announces it, Unreal Tournament style. Really would help add to the feeling of power that goes along with games that encourage total destruction.
0:13 - I know AI isn’t a major point in shoot-em-ups, but so far all enemies can be defeated by simply circle-strafing. Either the game is holding back early on, or all deaths are going to be due to overwhelming enemy firepower.
0:15 - Mission objective: destroy all heavy tanks. This is the kind of game design I can get behind!
0:19 - Really the best way to describe this game (so far) is it’s a shoot-em-up corridor shooter. Just progress down the corridors, it’s impossible to get lost or miss your objectives, and shoot everything in your way. That’s it. It won’t win any awards, but it makes for some fun mindless blasting.
0:21 - A beam cannon? Now we’re talking.
0:23 - Hey, there’s a story to this! Apparently aliens have invaded and I’m piloting an experimental hovertank behind enemy lines to try and get rid of them. And the credits roll. That can’t be the whole game… can it?
0:24 - Okay, there is more game. For some reason they run the credits at the end of the tutorial levels. Odd design choice, but whatever.
0:30 - New levels, new enemies, yet it doesn’t feel any different. I’m still enjoying it, but waiting for some new variety.
0:33 - Two problems I’ve noticed. First, is the horizontal layout of the game. It has to be due the computer monitor being horizontal, but it makes it harder to target enemies. If you see an enemy on the left edge of the screen and spin around to target it, you can’t see it anymore, but it sure can see and target you. Secondly, when you die the game takes away all your weapons besides the default machine gun. Games like Gradius can get away with that since they’re about precision, but this game is all about blowing stuff up. Don’t take away from that.
0:36 - One thing the game adds in the main campaign is a station you can run over and swap your weapons out. Problem is it doesn’t pause the game and takes up about 3/4 of the screen and isn’t easy to get out of. Accidentally trigger it while trying to avoid enemy fire and you’re dead.
0:43 - Remember what I said about death by overwhelming force? The game has developed a nasty habit of artificially creating difficulty via spawning massive amounts of enemies completely surrounding you whenever you accomplish something. Opened a force field? Congrats, here’s seven enemies on every side already firing at you. Enjoy respawning and losing all your cool weapons!
0:44 - “You’re a maniac!” the game proclaims after a long kill streak. C’mon game, you can’t say something like that and just ignore the obvious musical cue.
0:46 - Okay game, I get it. I’m in an ice level. You don’t need to loudly play the sound of ice cracking every 10 seconds.
0:49 - As much as I’ve complained in the last few comments, I’d like to restate that the core gameplay, blowing stuff up, remains a lot of fun.
0:53 - Out of ships, game over, retry level. It’ll take more than 7 minutes to get back to where I was. Yeah, I’m calling it on this game.
Will I play it again: Yes. The game has a lot of annoyances, but there’s something undeniably fun about blowing stuff up. As long as the game doesn’t get in the way of that, I’m willing to keep playing.
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gamingproject2012 posted this
