I wanted to give Kamio Recoil a neutral rating, but Steam doesn't let me, so I had to flip a coin.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
The core gameplay is pretty fun, and this is where the game shines. This is a typical recoil 2D shooter, where gravity pulls your character down, and shooting propels her in the opposite direction. It's mostly focused on action, navigation, and resource management.
The player can switch on the fly between 5 characters, which have very different shot types. For example, there's a missile that deals a lot of damage and has explosion damage, but has a slow fire rate and takes some skill to use. Another character uses a lazer that passes through enemies or obstacles, and is great for dealing with groups of enemies or clearing the path, but is inefficient versus single targets due to high ammo consumption. And then there's a character whose main "shot" doesn't do damage, but is quite fast and hardly uses any ammo.
Each character also has a secondary weapon.
Speaking of ammo: The game keeps track of each character's primary and secondary weapon ammo, and only the active character receives collected ammo.
So there's some strategy which character to use in a given situation, and which characters should pick up ammo depending on the level.
The primary weapon ammo is also a character's HP, so getting hit essentially costs the character ammo, fuel, and HP.
The goal in each level is to reach the exit, or to fight the boss in a boss level.
[h1]Level Design[/h1]
The level design is rather mediocre, and this is what holds the game back IMO. The more basic levels are alright, and still fun due to the core gameplay, but can get a bit repetitive. While some of the more labyrinthine levels are okay, they often feel tedious due to the trial and error aspect, limited ammo, or you sometimes have to spend quite some time to "dig" through obstacles without doing anything else.
One world has underwater levels with currents that change direction, and affect character movement. While this can make fights more interesting, what it mostly does is making labyrinthine levels more tedious, as it prevents you from acting when it's inefficient, or consumes time and ammo when you can't do anything about it.
One world had switch puzzles, but I hardly saw any of those.
There's a world with a space setting, but the stages play normally, with gravity pulling the character downwards.
[h1]Controls[/h1]
For the most part, the controls work fine, allowing you to shoot with the mouse buttons in the direction you're pointing at, or targeting specific enemies with secondary weapons, while characters can be changed by pressing 1-5.
You can also switch characters by clicking on character icons. However, this is quite inefficient, can cause you to accidentally switch characters, and can't be disabled, so this is more of a downside.
Controls can't be configured, and there is no gamepad support.
[h1]Music[/h1]
I liked the music in this game. Not the best you can find in arcade games IMO, but pretty solid, enjoyable to listen to, and fits the levels.
[h1]Other[/h1]
[list][*]The game runs fine even on older hardware.
[*]The only option the game offers is to switch between fullscreen and window setting with a key press. There is no volume setting for music or sound effects.
[*]Not much effort went into the menu. There's not even a way to quit the game other than by pressing Alt+F4, or clicking on the 'X' icon in window mode. However, apart from this the menu is functional, and works.[/list]
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
A recoil shooter with fun gameplay and some interesting design choices, held back by mediocre or sometimes annoying level design. If you like recoil shooters, it can be fun when played in short bursts.
