Redshift This took some time...
Not only did it take time to finish (yes I beat the final bonus boss), but it also had to have taken a long time to create. I haven't played blueshift but I can tell from its reincarnation it was great. Awesome gameplay and a myriad of weapons highlight beautiful backgrounds, sweet-as-honey sound effects, and a decent difficulty curve throughout the game. The final area was an extra bit for those of us who don't like to give up and also gave us many rewards during the long-as-hell level.
Pros- Easy Gameplay to get used to, a huge amount of depth later game, beautiful scenery, colorful characters, hundreds of weapons and shields, and a bonus dungeon mimicking the difficulty of bonus dungeons from those classic Japanese RPG's.
Notes: I found it interesting how you still got lower class items late-late-late game and the ceiling of high-level items went up as you progressed. This isn't bad or good, just... interesting. However, a con to this is when you are recycling items you get a random item rather that an item of equal, greater, or even one around the same rating as the ones your recycled. Most of the time I just acquired more duplicates and only once did I get a higher-level item from recycling. Nonetheless, it did free up space in my inventory.
Frankly, I am a customization whore, so games like Shellcore Command and KillKar really get me geared to getting the best... well... gear. This game had enough gear to make me happy every time I got a new piece, all 6 or 7 times- and these are major equipment changes, not the little stuff. So Bravo on that. As for the other people asking for trivial customizations such as character modification, ship colors, or anything in general that doesn't directly affect gameplay- that's really up to you but I would advise against it unless you can find some way to tie it in to stats, gameplay, ect.
Con's
- The inventory screen could use a little work (thank God for the "Recycle Duplicates" button).
- You have good characters but no real connection or story. You can work on it if you want but the gameplay alone makes this game shine. Try toying around with a general plotline that follows all the planets rather than your protagonists (because they as protagonists shouldn't make the story, they should advance it) or the enemy (because its been done a million times before).
Ideas: I know I have no right to propose Ideas as I am not a published flash creator myself (though I am working on one) but otherwise here are a few ideas:
- Customizable weapons and power-ups
- Customizable Ships (as in equipment, not rainbowy colors)
- As stated by reviewers before, try dabbling in random and / or more varied enemy patterns.
- Perhaps special abilities? That may make the game too complicated.
- Perhaps a shop? I liked how there wasn't a shop because it felt good to earn the equipment, but others feel that accomplishment should be bought with money (jk).
And Thank you for a wonderful 3-4 hours of awesome gametime!
