This is particularly handy in terms of strategy or if you're stuck and simply want to make some progress. ![]() If the going gets too tough you can alternate between five difficulty settings at will when you start each mission. Some bosses are brutes that simply chase you down for powerful melee strikes, while a particularly memorable foe pulls off outrageous ricochet shots. These take a lot of hits to put down and are most likely to necessitate level restarts, especially in the closing third of the story. Perhaps you'll be utilising movement to flank enemies more, trying to gamble and initiate powerful melee attacks, or seeking all-rounders that can survive the toughest encounters.Īll of these strategies matter, especially as enemies become more diverse and tricky to handle, while Boss encounters are also particularly challenging. Varying your crews early on to see how each character levels up is a key tactic, and also fun, and as you approach the close of the campaign your strategies will be unrecognisable from the start. Levelling up a character unlocks a mix of improved stats such as health or, more usefully, new abilities. Any robots shot to pieces in battle do return on your hub ship, but the lost character does lose its share of earned experience points. Each stage has three stars to earn - two for objectives and one for picking up the 'epic swag' item - while each lost crew member deducts a star. ![]() Completing levels shares experience points among the bots you took on the heist, and the volume of XP varies depending on performance. Fairly aggressive tactics can overcome this, while adopting cover and strategically utilising solid walls and floors - rather than those that can be shot through - provide the means to ultimately plan for the enemy's attack.īeyond basic weapons each has their own special moves and buffs to offer, which later in the game allowed us to settle on a core team that matched our preferred style. Our only minor criticism of the overall combat system, meanwhile, is that learning enemy unit move distances is trial and error you can't select an enemy, for example, and assess their movement and attack range. This can be worked around with Circle Pad camera movement, meaning the occasional need for 'longshots' where you cross your fingers and hope for the best. One point we've noticed in general play, however, is that the visible real estate on screen is relatively limited - which will likely broaden and zoom out in the HD Wii U version, as happened with SteamWorld Dig. On the one hand all of these factors combine to deliver a fairly substantial set of mechanics, and on the other it's very simple and easy to understand when actually playing. ![]() Taking cover is also integral, while explosive barrels and more complex environmental aspects later in the game give more to ponder. After a brief tutorial it feels natural to move with the D-Pad, either a little to then complete an action or shoot, or perhaps to 'sprint' further and sacrifice a shot or item use. It's effective at adding tension to the scenario and, in a particularly deadly way, enforcing a 'one-more-go' mentality that can see multiple hours pass by in a single sitting.Ĭombined with carefully crafted balancing, which we'll address more further on, this system works wonderfully. As a result it's a smart gameplay mechanic - though statistics such as your attack power, enemy health and so on still matter, a moment of outrageous skill can tilt a battle at a critical point. At times we've set up the scenario well only to make a bad mistake and miss with an easy shot, while some of our most memorable moments have been pulling off unlikely distance or trick shots when our backs were to the wall. The perspective is locked on a 2D side-on angle, with caters to the skill-based combat system at play though much of the usual strategy ideas are here, such as managing a team and positioning your crew carefully, the manual attacks serve to add a new layer of pressure to proceedings.Īs a system it's certainly fresh, and undoubtedly addictive. The core gameplay loop involves a team of steambots, from solo battlers to teams of four, taking on a host of stages that each form varying challenges.
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