Creeper World IXE

ive played a *lot* of creeper world games, and this just aint it, like, at all, that tower defense aspect you know and love? slowly building out your defenses, fighting the waves back and taking out those cores? *gone*, like, *completely,* you still take out the cores, sure, but you have a set amount of ships, and the gameplay just isn't anything like what you would expect from the series, it feels more like one of the spin off titles like particle fleet than an actual creeper world. honestly, even on sale, I would suggest you skip this entry.

Doesn't feel like Creeper World

This game isn't really that bad and honestly, I should try playing it more for a further opinion but I think I get the gist of the pattern and I just don't particularly like it. I've been a fan of Creeper World, so much so I was playing the flash versions on Kongregate, Armorgames, and NotDoppler when my age was still in the single digits and I finished 3 and 4 with a very positive experience. The change from 3D to a 2D physics-based pixel simulation is not a bad idea, but I do find it a downgrade overall. The top-down aspect of the previous games strangely gave some kind of vibe that I just didn't feel in this newest sequel. The ships were interesting by design but I feel like the graphical changes, the general gameplay mechanics, and the systems just aren't unique enough to make this game stand out. The little story I've read from IXE is okay. Now, to be frank, Arc Eternal was the one that actually got me hooked into the story the most, and while 4 isn't as explorative as I think it should've been, was still very interesting and kept me going throughout the game. I wonder if that was the main focus of this game, because it does feel as though the gameplay has suffered for the sake of the setting and exposition. Overall, it's not a bad game...But it does feel like a letdown just because I think 4 really was that good.

TL;DR: Not a bad game. It mostly just made me want to replay Creeper World 3 or 4, which are much much better. Gameplay: [list] [*]I actually enjoyed my time playing IXE, because I enjoy watching missiles flying into blue goop and making big pressure waves that then get blasted into fine mist by smaller guns. So there's that aspect of CW which is still present. [*]There are a lot of experiments and gimmicks that aren't explored very deeply - the most obvious one being the powder mixing chemistry, which is clunky and not integrated very well into the main gameplay. Digging out a mixing basin, turning on the dropper, turning off the dropper, mining out the mixed materials, then doing that over and over again is a cute minigame the first time, but not very fun if the game tells you to make 1000 units of ixeide to kill the boss after you've already neutralized it with fifty gunships hammering it into submission. [*]The story missions are quite easy. This was most noticeable on the "survive 15 minutes" mission, where the characters talked about how desperate they were to get out of this dangerous situation while I was comfortably destroying everything. I think the problem for a lot of the missions is just not having any time pressure after the early game. It's trivial to just build up your fleet, poke a tiny hole in whatever big mass of creeper you're killing next, and permastun it while you throw missiles in for 10 minutes until the mass drops enough for you to go in. [*]The missions also have a habit of introducing some big dangerous enemy that immediately gets shut down by a new unit. Digitalis was never a problem in the campaign because the spirit ship just completely deleted it, for example. [*]The final mission is an anticlimactic series of puzzles and low-stakes combat tests. There was really no need to make you hold down the mouse button for 10 minutes shooting balls while dodging slowly moving enemies and, on the off chance you get hit by something, respawning right outside the room and going back in with absolutely no consequences besides wasting your time. I think this should've been relegated to the bonus levels. [*]I did enjoy being able to dig holes in the terrain and then patch them up to guide the flow of anticreeper. Playing with fluid pressure more might have been interesting. [*]Very performance-intensive. I couldn't use any game speed above 1 because the game simply could not handle running any faster. But I'm no programmer so I have no idea how one might optimize a powder game like this. [/list] Other: [list] [*]The music is good as always. [*]The UI and graphics are pretty ugly. The level design is very obviously "programmer art". I can put up with ugly graphics if the gameplay is good, but I really think the game would have benefited from a once-over from an actual pixel artist. Also, the main menu looking like that is a really bad first impression. [*]The writing is, to be frank, terrible. I [i]will[/i] say that the story enhanced my enjoyment of the game: the game would have been worse if it had just been a sequence of contextless levels. But the story was not particularly gripping, nor were the characters interesting, nor was the ending anything other than disappointing. Honestly, I would have preferred if the big bad evil guy was telling the truth at the end, and not just being a scary evil bad guy. [i]That[/i] would have been interesting. [/list] That being said... I had fun. I like shooting big oceans of blue stuff. The game did a lot of things correctly because the developer is quite experienced and knows how to make good games. I also just inherently respect experimental games like this that do new things. Buy it if you enjoy Creeper World games.

Been playing creeper world since I was a kid. This one has the best story, BUT it's not creeper. The game deciding what ships you have and how you approach the issue is not the creeper core. I'll say if you want an interesting game, maybe. If you want creeper world? No.

Another great sequel to all the creeper games ever made... Congratulation to the designer, keep going, I played them all and I will play the next one. Fluid mecanic, fluid mixing mecanic... all ship have a purpose and need to be used together... Live long and prosper

Fun little game, don't expect super deep gameplay or massive battles. It is more a puzzle game with action, where you need to work out the correct paths to attack the enemy from. This is a departure from the previous games, where it was more of a resource management RTS, but don't let that stop you enjoying this one.

The game is so much worse compared to the other Creeperworld games. Just like many games before (ahem Supreme Commander 2) they stray too far from the original reason why people play the game. Freedom and unit spam. The maps feel cramped, and most of the game is sometimes just fast forward until a section is clear of creeper. I would recommend it if it's on sale, but just be prepared for a different experience from the rest of the games.

Lots of day-1 players and purists have said that this is nothing like Creeper World. I beg to differ. This has plenty of weapons from, I think, Creeper World 2, and is using a VERY similar map style except with some extra Noita pixel simulation, and overall is an expected step from CW4, from tower defense, more toward RTS. There is some of my own bias, though, because I'm a big sucker for space fleet battling games and there are SO PAINFULLY FEW OF THEM, and this was a nice change of pace from Starsector as far as scratching that itch. The fleet ship limit, as well, was good for forcing you to be, gasp, CREATIVE with ship placement and timing.

creeper world is one of my favorite series of all time, and this game is okay. but it didnt hook me into it like the other games, and i dont know if im willing to try it again. I know and understand that this is a labor of love from the developers but the question is, Would You Recommend This Game To A Friend? and i dont think that i would. many community reviews say the same thing as me but would recommend, idk i dont have 20 bucks to spend on a game i kinda like for an hour. I have gifted several copies of the other creeper worlds and would recommend doing that if you want to give these guys a couple extra bucks, IMHO you and your friends would enjoy those much more. buy this if you have tried the rest of the series and are just looking for a little more of it with some new twists. it wont be better, but you may enjoy it that way.