[quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote]
[h1]Overall Rating - Seriously Flawed ★★☆☆☆[/h1]
[h1]First Impressions[/h1]
Looking through my library of games, I knew nothing about Blast-off (BO). From my perspective, it was just a random SHMUP with a review score of around 86%. That's a pretty respectable result, but shortly after trying out the title for myself, I had to double-check those reviews because I couldn't wrap my head around why it fared so well. Considering how few people earn the achievement for completing the four-part tutorial you can finish in around five minutes, is this just a card generator people are being especially nice toward?
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
I think part of the reason you can find so many SHMUPs on Steam is that it can be a straightforward genre. You place the player's ship against several enemies, give them reasonable fire-power to blast away all those foes, and after putting in a handful of levels to clear, you've got yourself a game. With so many available, doing the bare minimum won't help your release get any attention, leading to gimmicks like BO. The main idea is that falling will lead to your death, so it's imperative to fly into thrusters and destroy enemies while directly above them so their explosion flings you further upward. Limited ammo has been an annoyance for me in other SHMUPs, but I think constraining my movement ratchets that frustration even further. Merely flying becomes a burden I need to deal with at all times, instead of being able to move without any restrain or need to consider complicating factors like avoiding damage or down thrusters.
Infinite Mode is the main focus, with four levels to choose between. Honestly, since I suck at this title, I'm not sure if there's a significant difference in how each plays, or if it's primarily just a cosmetic matter, with the backgrounds changing. Their names don't help much: Tube, Plasma Storm, Dyonis, and Bio. Two clearly distinct alternatives come from boss fight and laser dance. The first has you running from a large, metallic enemy that fires lasers, while the other is a narrow corridor with lasers boxing you in, forcing you to weave carefully to avoid dying. I believe the laser dance follows a preset pattern, as each time I tried it, the lasers came in the exact same place each time.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3684306436
[h1]Controls[/h1]
One of the immediate things I dislike about this title is how it feels to steer the ball around the screen. Merely moving upwards, the direction you're meant to go, doesn't have a satisfying feeling about it. Unless you've recently gotten a speed boost, it rapidly turns into a sense that you're pulling against gravity, which I suppose you are. That's not really a force I want to encounter when in a space title, as I want to shed the limitations of real life. In addition, with most games where your focus is avoiding enemies while aiming for targets, moving around the screen is all you have to consider. However, with BO, you can aim attacks and where you'll zip over if you use abilities, meaning that you also have to focus on which way you're facing.
[h1]Story[/h1]
The store page mentions that you're made of anti-matter, but that's as close to a story as the game has. There's otherwise no plot whatsoever, which makes sense with the game modes that were focused on.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3684305965
[h1]Visuals[/h1]
If there was one aspect about this game that really shows that it's an indie title, it'd have to be the visuals. It's true that it takes place in space, but even then the backgrounds are darker than you might expect due to the choice of colors and objects, as it isn't always just the vacuum of space that's behind you. For example, when challenging the boss, it looks like you're flying over something made of either metal or rock. When not fighting the boss, the primary enemies are other orbs trying to crash into you, which begs the question of where they're all coming from.
[h1]Sound Design[/h1]
Personally, songs with an upbeat tempo and energy to them have always been enjoyable to me, and that describes most of the tunes I heard in this game. I'm not sure how many of them I'd consider space age, but since you'd theoretically want to fling through space at high speeds, they're a reasonably good backdrop for the gameplay. According to the store page, there's 30 minutes of original music, and with how short any attempt I made was, that's actually an ample amount of songs for the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3684306172
[h1]Pros[/h1]
🌟 Over time you'll level up and unlock new abilities.
🌟 It's a novel space shooter.
[h1]Cons[/h1]
❌ Having to gather fuel would have been a bit annoying, but how you maintain movement in BO is more complicated than that. You have to consider factors like momentum.
❌ The controls feel awkward, as moving left and right how I wanted didn't feel quite right.
[h1]Tips[/h1]
🔍 Do everything within your power to move upward, while trying to be mindful of enemies that flew past you earlier. You don't want to hit one after catching up to them.
🔍 Don't forget to manually aim where you want to teleport or fire your projectiles.
[h1]Final Thoughts[/h1]
Admittedly, I'm a little confused by how positive the reviews are in relation to the low percentage for all achievements, even the simplest ones, such as clearing the tutorial. Perhaps this is a case where numerous people have a copy of the game, but the few who are interested in playing BO are the right market for what it has to offer. That's not necessarily a bad thing, even though I wasn't one of the people who found it that enjoyable. Games that center primarily around endless modes aren't really my thing, which isn't what I would have expected from a title like this. Either way, I don't recommend the game due to how it controls, and ultimately think only a few people really like it that much, since only six percent of players finish all four tutorials.
[table]
[tr]
[th]PC Specs[/th]
[th]Performance[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080
[/td]
[td]The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - BO is healthy
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
