This came to XBLA last week, and I downloaded the demo – quite liked it, but was generally a bit worried about getting the full game – since the demo was ridiculously easy.
You control a seriously upgradeable tank, which trundles along the bottom of the screen. Your foes come mainly in the form of different types of aircraft (bombers, skyfighters, missles etc) which fly in from both sides of the screen, at varying pace and with varying firepower / patterns. To stay alive you must avoid their fire, and where possible shoot them before they shoot you.
You can move your tank horizontally left and right, (this is the only movement plain) using the directional pad or the left stick. You shoot using the right analogue stick, allowing for a full 180 degrees targeting area (you can’t shoot downwards because you are always on the floor).
The main game mode is a campaign mode. As you progress through each stage, friendly planes fly in and drop weapons power ups which alter how your main gun behaves; smart bomb nukes, which destroy everything on screen; and Megalaser components, once four of these are collected, for a limited time you control an all powerful laser that can wipe out anything on screen with one touch. At the end of each stage there is a boss fight – which range from easy to challenging, and yield some decent enough explosions upon defeat. After each stage is competed – your progress is automatically saved (great).
What you don’t get a sense of from the demo, is how frantic and frenetic the game becomes after the first few levels. In many ways I think they missed a trick in not showing (or even telling) potential players this, because it is what makes the game so “arcadey” and fun.
I mentioned that the tank was upgradeable earlier. I personally can’t be arsed with the whole weapons changing / upgrading / customising stuff that plagues so many games – I just want to get out there and shoot things. I was therefore a little worried when the first in game occurance after I’d parted with my cash was that I was awarded one “upgrade” point for finishing stage one.
As it turns out, the player obtains an upgrade point for every stage completed, with which he or she can upgrade the various fixed weapons systems on his tank by applying his earned points to the system of his or her choice. The tank has eight weapons systems to upgrade, some attack and some defence (you get the usual fayre, lasers, invincible pods (R-type style) homing missiles etc) and at any time between stages you can interchange upgrade points between them i.e. take two points off of homing missiles and add them onto lasers.
That upgrade system sounds rubbish and annoying right? Wrong. It’s basic, quick and simple and doesn’t get in the way of the main game – and most importantly it allows you very easily to orchestrate your weapons to suit your style of play. If you are crap at aiming but good at evasion, you can stick all your points on your firepower and rely on your own skill and dexterity for your defence.
The best thing about these weapons systems is that however powered up (or not) they become they still all fire at the same time, which means that even by only the fifth stage your tank looks like its sicking up ten times more firepower than the memorable “Super Nashwan Power” from Xenon 2.
Does all this power up malarkey make the game too easy then? While undeniably it does make the game easier, the game itself gets tougher in line with your firepower. Now, the basic gameplay doesn’t change – you control the tank in the same way throughout, instead the game gets much harder and more challenging in many imaginative ways.
Not wanting to ruin some cool surprises, I won’t say too much about this, but one of my favourite devices that the developer has included – is a type of critical shot. Every once in a while, a barrage of hard as nails bomber planes show up in the mix – dropping nukes out of their arses – not only are these bombers themselves hard to bring down, if their nukes hit the floor – it’s game over for your tank regardless of whether the nuke hit you or not. This may sound simple – but in the context of the game, it makes for some white knuckle type moments, and comedy deaths as your mass of firepower becomes overwhelmed by the sheer amount of poor decisions you have made, resulting in your being pinned down on one side of the screen as bombers fly in freely on the other side scorching the earth with their nukes.
While the game comes cheapish at 800 points, there are a few niggles that I think should be mentioned. Firstly, the gameplay is repetitive despite a raft of excellent ideas – you might play the whole thing through in one sitting – but my guess many will do it in two or three. This is a double edge sword, on the one hand it’s great to pick up and play for a short blast, but after a while you might find your attention turning elsewhere. The autosave feature, remedies this in a way though, since you can always start your campaign from the stage at which you left. The music, while lively and catchy at first doesn’t change from stage to stage, so can become grating. If, after playing the demo, you don’t like how it plays – then obviously steer clear, since while your money gets you more of the same only tougher and faster, the basic mechanic doesn’t change.
Heavy Weapon features properly polished old school game play, with nice cartoony HD graphics – loads going on on screen and a tongue in cheek style presentation, and the action is both frenetic and charming, it is rather a kind of Silkworm meets Paratrooper lovechild, albeit hyped up another level.
Other cool features include: Boss Attack Mode, Survival Mode, and the game is two player across Live.
You control a seriously upgradeable tank, which trundles along the bottom of the screen. Your foes come mainly in the form of different types of aircraft (bombers, skyfighters, missles etc) which fly in from both sides of the screen, at varying pace and with varying firepower / patterns. To stay alive you must avoid their fire, and where possible shoot them before they shoot you.
You can move your tank horizontally left and right, (this is the only movement plain) using the directional pad or the left stick. You shoot using the right analogue stick, allowing for a full 180 degrees targeting area (you can’t shoot downwards because you are always on the floor).
The main game mode is a campaign mode. As you progress through each stage, friendly planes fly in and drop weapons power ups which alter how your main gun behaves; smart bomb nukes, which destroy everything on screen; and Megalaser components, once four of these are collected, for a limited time you control an all powerful laser that can wipe out anything on screen with one touch. At the end of each stage there is a boss fight – which range from easy to challenging, and yield some decent enough explosions upon defeat. After each stage is competed – your progress is automatically saved (great).
What you don’t get a sense of from the demo, is how frantic and frenetic the game becomes after the first few levels. In many ways I think they missed a trick in not showing (or even telling) potential players this, because it is what makes the game so “arcadey” and fun.
I mentioned that the tank was upgradeable earlier. I personally can’t be arsed with the whole weapons changing / upgrading / customising stuff that plagues so many games – I just want to get out there and shoot things. I was therefore a little worried when the first in game occurance after I’d parted with my cash was that I was awarded one “upgrade” point for finishing stage one.
As it turns out, the player obtains an upgrade point for every stage completed, with which he or she can upgrade the various fixed weapons systems on his tank by applying his earned points to the system of his or her choice. The tank has eight weapons systems to upgrade, some attack and some defence (you get the usual fayre, lasers, invincible pods (R-type style) homing missiles etc) and at any time between stages you can interchange upgrade points between them i.e. take two points off of homing missiles and add them onto lasers.
That upgrade system sounds rubbish and annoying right? Wrong. It’s basic, quick and simple and doesn’t get in the way of the main game – and most importantly it allows you very easily to orchestrate your weapons to suit your style of play. If you are crap at aiming but good at evasion, you can stick all your points on your firepower and rely on your own skill and dexterity for your defence.
The best thing about these weapons systems is that however powered up (or not) they become they still all fire at the same time, which means that even by only the fifth stage your tank looks like its sicking up ten times more firepower than the memorable “Super Nashwan Power” from Xenon 2.
Does all this power up malarkey make the game too easy then? While undeniably it does make the game easier, the game itself gets tougher in line with your firepower. Now, the basic gameplay doesn’t change – you control the tank in the same way throughout, instead the game gets much harder and more challenging in many imaginative ways.
Not wanting to ruin some cool surprises, I won’t say too much about this, but one of my favourite devices that the developer has included – is a type of critical shot. Every once in a while, a barrage of hard as nails bomber planes show up in the mix – dropping nukes out of their arses – not only are these bombers themselves hard to bring down, if their nukes hit the floor – it’s game over for your tank regardless of whether the nuke hit you or not. This may sound simple – but in the context of the game, it makes for some white knuckle type moments, and comedy deaths as your mass of firepower becomes overwhelmed by the sheer amount of poor decisions you have made, resulting in your being pinned down on one side of the screen as bombers fly in freely on the other side scorching the earth with their nukes.
While the game comes cheapish at 800 points, there are a few niggles that I think should be mentioned. Firstly, the gameplay is repetitive despite a raft of excellent ideas – you might play the whole thing through in one sitting – but my guess many will do it in two or three. This is a double edge sword, on the one hand it’s great to pick up and play for a short blast, but after a while you might find your attention turning elsewhere. The autosave feature, remedies this in a way though, since you can always start your campaign from the stage at which you left. The music, while lively and catchy at first doesn’t change from stage to stage, so can become grating. If, after playing the demo, you don’t like how it plays – then obviously steer clear, since while your money gets you more of the same only tougher and faster, the basic mechanic doesn’t change.
Heavy Weapon features properly polished old school game play, with nice cartoony HD graphics – loads going on on screen and a tongue in cheek style presentation, and the action is both frenetic and charming, it is rather a kind of Silkworm meets Paratrooper lovechild, albeit hyped up another level.
Other cool features include: Boss Attack Mode, Survival Mode, and the game is two player across Live.
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