BLUE REVOLVER

Genuinely among the few PC STGs released in the last decade that doesn't feel like it actively hates the genre and wants to "modernize it." Fun scoring system, an actual challenge, and really slick stage design, a areat game! 120FPS mode is also a really nice addition and I hope to see more STGs take advantage of high refresh rates when available.

Blue Revolver is one of the best games I've ever played!!! This game singlehandedly catapulted me into the shmup genre, and got me to play so many awesome games I'd have never found otherwise. It took a brutal 16 months of getting my ass beat, but I'm finally standing at 100% completion - and 22nd place on the global leaderboard. What a journey, oh my god. Aesthetically? This game has CHARACTER, especially for a shmup, and frankly you can see it on the steam page. The SFX are quite simple, but I can say the OST is AMAZING across the board - and, in the settings, you can toggle whether you want to hear the original OST, the double action OST, or even some community remixes on individual tracks as you play the game!! It's so sick!! The charm oozes out of every enemy design and background. Blue rolver also has extensive legibility settings that let you tune the visibility of the background, your own bullets/score items, you can even change the color of enemy bullets! It's an extremely accessible game for first time shmup players :D In terms of moment to moment gameplay, I have NEVER felt more compelled or had more fun in a bullet hell than with Blover. Each stage was built around the soundtrack, meaning they have immaculate music sync. Every bullet pattern thrown at you is a challenge but a FUN challenge. There are lower energy and higher energy points in the run, of course, but it never feels overbearing or too slow/empty. Speedkilling midbosses will spawn more enemies to fill the empty space for example. Each of the subweapons and characters you get to choose have so much personality and depth. The scoring system is one of my favorites in just about any score-based game. The jist is that you kill enemies to build a chain of 8 with your main shot, and "cash in" that 8-chain with your subweapon for 64x the score on whatever you kill while flourishing (using up the 8-chain). Bombs can be used defensively, offensively, AND for score, since they extend the flourish window. There is an expansive "break" system, where doing certain things like breaking apart certain boss segments will make the boss/stage harder but award a TON of points. The skill expression available to you is enormous, because while you get extra points for scoring breaks without using your subweapon or bombs, there are ALSO points in stages where you can use your subweapon to flourish at the same time that you get a break bonus for sometimes even more score!! it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ perfect man lmao I adore this game to bits. There's room for absurdly difficult gameplay just as much as there is for calmer, new player friendly gameplay. No matter who you are, if you like bullet hells at all, this game is a TREAT.

I really really want to give this a "mixed" but feel the need to give it NR since I can't straight-up recommend it (had a few untracked hours of several 1CCs). I know the devs really want their high % and *probably* deserve it but I hope this review won't really dent it. Does that make sense? For me, it's an "okay" game. But I don't feel it has the staying power. Anyway, the short of it is that I think I just don't "get" this game. Maybe it's a me thing, maybe it's the fact that I don't really fw CAVE shmups that much, but even after a few hours of just doing runs and clearing the game, nothing has ever "clicked" with me about it the way most other shmups have. My hunch is that this game is very much scoring-based and tailors to those who can squeeze the score out of the system as the main goal, but maybe I just don't vibe with the way sub weapons work here. They are VERY powerful at times and other times just another option (again, maybe more for scoring). More importantly, I don't find the gameplay too memorable. In fact, I'd say that even on Parallel, this game feels more of a euroshmup in the way of lots of aimed bullets and fat mooks that don't die instantly but still darn pretty fast to the point there seems to be plenty of downtime that keeps ebbing and flowing in and back again. I haven't timed it or anything - I think the game is short for one session, but it doesn't FEEL short to me. Given what I've seen people say about it being more akin to DDP, you supposedly have to actively memorize the stages to get mileage out of it? But I'm sort of operating on pure instinct each time because I sort of don't remember what I'm doing and (to its credit) the shottypes play pretty differently. That said, I can really only remember the theme of each level and not what its quirks are (there's the one stage that has a % filling up for some reason, you get to fight Val who's one pattern is moving from side to side that I remember mostly because of how she's small and you have to catch her, the big stage 4 boss is cool ig). I really do feel like most of the dodging and the way to take down enemies is very much the same no matter where you are at in the game. It's not that it's a particularly difficult game, either. Parallel was very much comfortable to me, and I'm not afraid to lay waste with bombs. But that's why at times it felt cheesable which can either be satisfying or gives a hollow feeling. Additionally, I don't find the game very beautiful. The rotsprites and thick chunky spritework are a bit unique but really don't do it for me given how the sprites and backgrounds are paletted because I think there's much variation in the designs of enemies. It kind of all turns into mush especially with the default colors (filters don't really do it for me) and I believe visibility is a problem with the default settings. Having to turn the background way down is a crime and so is turning the player shots and score points down, but it's the only way to fully see what's going on. I really like how the BGs seem almost painterly and abstract but I just can't do it as-is. Music is okay. I don't really know if I should comment on it much, it's very much electronic, I suppose. It's a plus that there's a big variety of it and you can unlock more variations of them to your choosing, but the one I really like the most is the Stage 2 one which leads me to believe that every water-themed shmup stage has the best song. However, sound design is a bit of a letdown. For a while I wasn't even sure if there was a sfx for the player shooting and don't know if there's one for when damage has been done to an enemy. Explosions sound muddy and eh. There's just a lot of actions in-game that could have more auditory feedback but lack them. That's about it for my thoughts, which are a bit more than I thought I'd write about. It's probably rambly. I thought maybe XP-Mode would tickle my fancy but it's not really a real mode since you can only do it in Stage Select for one stage and I *still* didn't "get it" either. In a way there is definitely a lot of labour of love to be had in this game if they straight-up added what's effectively a 2.0 with more music and an overhaul, but it just really doesn't do it for me. Maybe I'll try the original arrangement sometime but doubt I'll feel any different. It's just that this game seems very popular, though I feel it's just in spite of how it's fending for itself as an indie shmup (niche genre). That's why I can't say Blue Revolver stands out to me as a game I'd egg people to play. Maybe get it on sale if you'd like what this game is trying to replicate and then you can up the score on my behalf. Also, I don't fw the twitter-ahh blazblue character designs. Wish story was more in-the-way.

Моя первая полноценная игра в этом очень специфическом, но крайне любопытном жанре. Пожалуй, больше всего я ценю в Револьвере именно то, что он ведет себя по отношению к игроку жестко, но при этом максимально честно. Практически во всех допущенных провалах и ошибках виноват был именно я, а не сама игра. Такая отзывчивость и проработка основных механик - большая редкость в наше время, и уже за одно это разработчики заслуживают похвалы. Револьвер также можно назвать отличной игрой для знакомства с жанром шмапов: в нем нет замысловатых и сложных в подсознательном исполнении механик, меню выбора этапа позволяет предварительно настроить и отрепетировать самые душные и тяжелые боевые эпизоды, а наличие трех главных героинь, каждая из которых обладает своими уникальными особенностями и набором оружия, позволяет реализовать наиболее удобный и интересный стиль прохождения. Все прочие аспекты (визуальный стиль, саундтрек, сеттинг и лор) тоже заслуживают только положительной оценки. Игра получилась красочной и самобытной, но при этом ламповой и вызывающей чувство ностальгии. Если Вы заинтересовались жанром шмапов, то я однозначно рекомендую BR к покупке. Для таких новичков, как я, это замечательная точка входа в жанр. А ветераны, думаю, уже давно взяли в нем платину и побили все мыслимые рекорды. P.S. Ди - самая лучшая героиня во вселенной этой игры.

Fantastic game. The mission mode is pure genius. I'm a shmup scrub just starting to learn and the missions really have taught me a lot about how to think about scoring and resource management. Definitely plan to work towards the parallel clear.

The Gold Standard. It has everything a modern shmup should have and more. Quality AND quantity. At $15, it's a steal.