is that soldier-x sidescrolling shooter anygood?
- Thread starter evil son
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StealthLurker
Naomi Yamazaki's Wingman
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Got my copy Friday, gave it a quick run today. Initial impressions... meh. Nice parrallax scrolling, high res... but somewhat bland. Just like you probably thought, very much like an Amiga shmup. Kinda "slow paced", felt like I was playing a modern version of the Amiga classic Blood Money. As far as "recent" pc shmups, I'm more impressed with Trouble Witches in terms of fun factor.
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One-Up
Armored Scrum Object
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Besides the game-play, which I think is better than okay, there are some nice and some not so nice things about the game:
- it runs directly from the CD (no installation necessary, though you can copy it to the harddrive for faster loading times)
- it supports only some resolutions, unfortunately nothing above 1280 (I really miss 1680)
- it is not a console game, which I think is stupid. The PC is not really the right platform for such a game. I don't think not being able to play it in a few years is an issue (I run really old games on current hardware, there is always a way), but I still think this belongs on a console.
- some of the ingame voices are terrible, some of them even break the fourth wall, which really sucks.
- the graphics are pretty nice.
- you have to download a patch to be able to reconfigure the controls. This is especially bad, since it basically nullfies the "no-install" idea. And it is rather necessary if you play with a keyboard instead of a gamepad (some people do!), since weapon selection is set on the number keys, while shooting is on ctrl and steering on the arrow keys - so it is really not very comfortable to change the weapon, unless you have rather large hands.
- the power-up system with chaining is not really thought through too well, you get a lot of useless power-ups, which makes chaining, a game element which is suppossed to be rather important - next to useless.
All in all, 50$ is a bit steep, since it does not include shipping and customs and the additional stuff is not really interesting (soundtrack and booklet), I'd say for half the money it would be a sure buy. I am not unhappy I bought it, but it is not really good enough for that amount of money. But I am glad games like this one are still made at all.
- it runs directly from the CD (no installation necessary, though you can copy it to the harddrive for faster loading times)
- it supports only some resolutions, unfortunately nothing above 1280 (I really miss 1680)
- it is not a console game, which I think is stupid. The PC is not really the right platform for such a game. I don't think not being able to play it in a few years is an issue (I run really old games on current hardware, there is always a way), but I still think this belongs on a console.
- some of the ingame voices are terrible, some of them even break the fourth wall, which really sucks.
- the graphics are pretty nice.
- you have to download a patch to be able to reconfigure the controls. This is especially bad, since it basically nullfies the "no-install" idea. And it is rather necessary if you play with a keyboard instead of a gamepad (some people do!), since weapon selection is set on the number keys, while shooting is on ctrl and steering on the arrow keys - so it is really not very comfortable to change the weapon, unless you have rather large hands.
- the power-up system with chaining is not really thought through too well, you get a lot of useless power-ups, which makes chaining, a game element which is suppossed to be rather important - next to useless.
All in all, 50$ is a bit steep, since it does not include shipping and customs and the additional stuff is not really interesting (soundtrack and booklet), I'd say for half the money it would be a sure buy. I am not unhappy I bought it, but it is not really good enough for that amount of money. But I am glad games like this one are still made at all.
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One-Up
Armored Scrum Object
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One more thing, which does not concern gameplay, but is a technical point which can become pretty serious:
The game does support the sleep mode of laptops. This means, if you are used to just close the lid and pack the thing away, you are in for a nasty suprise. The laptop will simply be closed but up and running, not sleeping. If you put it in a bag this way, you might damage it with the heat generated by the device. I consider this a serious issue.
The game does support the sleep mode of laptops. This means, if you are used to just close the lid and pack the thing away, you are in for a nasty suprise. The laptop will simply be closed but up and running, not sleeping. If you put it in a bag this way, you might damage it with the heat generated by the device. I consider this a serious issue.
One-Up
Armored Scrum Object
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I played it some more and I have to say I hate it more and more. There are some seriously unfair situations, which simply annoy me - true to the old school games or not. And if you die, it can happen that you are re-inserted in the game at a point - in a labyrinth for example - which will make you loose health or even die at once all over again. Which sucks a lot.