Necromonads

I really don't know why these developers thought the world needed a simpler and easier version of Defender... The original Defender is one of those stupid-hard classic games where even getting to level 5 is a pretty decent accomplishment, but in this game I made it to level 7 without even getting close to getting hit and I just quit out of boredom. In those 7 levels, there was only one type of enemy and there was only one thing to do... Shoot them and wait for the timer to expire, so you can move onto the next incredibly slow level and repeat. What's bizarre is that the original Defender, which was released in 1981 for those who don't know, is actually much more complex than what I saw in this game. It has more enemies, more types of events, is much more challenging and it has a very convenient minimap that really is the key to the fun of the game. This game has done away with the minimap for no reason. The thing with the minimap in Defender is that it allowed you to plan your moves and take out enemies in the right order, instead of just mindlessly riding back and forth across the screen to find enemies. The minimap also let you use the screen wrap feature, where you re-enter the level from the left if you exit the screen from the right, to your advantage and was (and still is) a pretty interesting way for the developers to play around with how we use the screen in a game. This game has replaced that with a more modern but much less interesting and powerful direction indicator, like you would see in a first-person game (a marker on the screen that points you in the general direction of the enemy). They probably thought this was a modernized improvement but it really just simplifies the game and takes away the most important thing that made the original special. But, forgetting the fact that they, in 2015, made a simpler version of a game from 1981, the worst sin this game commits is just being flat-out boring. I saw in another review that it doesn't even get started until level 15, which takes forever to get to. The 20 minutes I've spent in the game was the time it took to get to level 7, and I was not challenged at any point during that whole time. Playing a good 40+ minutes to get to the good part, if it even is good, every time you start the game is just unacceptable. This game sucks.

One of the best game on earth. 10/10 -S0YxSauCe

Overall it's slow and boring. It'll take you 20 minutes just to get to levels where you are challenged by anything more than the inabiity to see enemy projectiles against the background, or amongst the explosion particles of ship destructions. There's heavy RNG in the each level layout, so you are blessed or cursed on how many huts there are for your civilians and how evenly spaced they are. Attempting to aim the ground attack is frustrating due to the fact that the ground is slanted at various angles for most of level, so it'll take multiple attempts to hit targets. There's no audio queue for when the gas shooting enemies spawn, so you just have to wait for it to launch its first gas wave or visually see it before you know it's there. The title screen had some nice music but you don't hear any of it during the game, leaving a lot of empty silence with only your ships thrusters playing. Thankfully I got it with a humble bundle, but I would not pay the $4 asking price for this game. I'd give it 2 quarters at an arcade and that's it.

[h1]Red Dead Infection[/h1] [b]Necromonads[/b] - это бесконечная аркадная ретро-стрелялка для набивания рекордов. Суть игры - управляя небольшим космическим кораблём, надо отбивать огнём атаки спускающихся инопланетян-захватчиков на сгенерированную поселенческую колонию . X колонистов начинают делать ноги сразу, как только завидят НЛО, и пытаются законсервироваться в случайно расположенных Y саркофагах с двумя входами. Сначала опасность представляют лишь утягиватели-плевальщики, но через каждые 5 уровней нас ждет сюрприз - гражданские ограждения, луч-дезинтегратор, выползающие сбоку судна-заразители. Условия победы на уровне - успешное спасение более половины человечков и выживание нашего пилота. Кроме непредугадываемой генерации операцию по спасению нам может усложнить инфекция. Захваченные в плен/вдохнувшие испарения людишки начинают гореть красным, сигают за барьеры и пытаются перевести на сторону врага своих коллег. Заразится половина живчиков - и игре конец! Помогает только очищение бомбами... Минусы игры: - нет автоогня (хотя боеприпасы бесконечные), всё время надо самому нещадно тыкать кнопку в самых потных сражениях - помогает макрос или автокликер; - устанете слушать тарадахтанье собственных пушек и бомб - придётся отключить звук; - сложность скачет от уровня к уровню и зависит от случайного количества граждан и выходов - можно сидеть 5+ часов для ачивки на 100K очков и так и не высидеть; - на ярких фонах-планетах трудно разглядеть снежинку-убийцу; - иногда новые жизни для пилота не начисляются - приходится перезапускать игру; - рекорды только локальные, в магазине врут про Steam Leaderboards; - настройки управления не поменять; - сопроводительная мелодия одна и играет только в меню. Проект чисто на одну сессию, запоминать, кроме стилистики и механики заражения, реально нечего. 5/10

[i]Edit: Online leaderboards have been added since I wrote this review, so that's one problem fixed. There are still several other changes that would need to be made before I would recommend this game to anybody.[/i] Good sound and music, but that's pretty much the only aspect I liked about Necromonads. A list of things I didn't like: - Scanlines cannot be removed. The screen curvature [i]can[/i] be removed, but only by darkening the overall image, which makes it look even worse. - No d-pad support on dual-analogue gamepads. Also, the game does not have "Full controller support" as it claims. You can pause the game using the start button, but the only way to unpause it is using the keyboard. - The game is locked at 60 FPS, which is fine, but there are frame-pacing issues that cause stutter when flying across the map. How much this bothers you will depend on how sensitive you are to stuttering (a fair amount, in my case). All those problems could be overlooked, but Necromonad's biggest problem is that it is way, way too easy. Compared to [url=https://youtu.be/GdUlS_cSMoE?t=39]Defender[/url], this game is baby food. The enemies are never any threat to you, unless you accidentally collide with them. There's only one enemy that even fires bullets at your ship, but those bullets move so slowly you can literally fly circles around them. There is no challenge whatsoever until at least level 15. And even after that, it becomes more tedious rather than difficult. You'll need to tap the fire button more and the stages will take longer to complete, but there is still no danger of actually losing. I reached level 20 on my first playthrough (which took about 40 minutes). By that point I had gathered 7 extra lives (up from 3 at the start), received a perfect score (no captures or infections) in all but one stage, and was so bored I ended up killing myself 8 times.

[b]Necromands[/b] has several issues. Firstly, they removed all the music in the game. Then there are the control issues, if you pause the game with a controller there's no way to resume without using a keyboard. Xbox One controllers don't seem to work but 360 controllers do. If you play with duplicated dual monitors you'll just see a blank screen and cursor. The game itself is dull compared to similar titles. Overall I'd recommend buying something else.

Defender, but it's ♥♥♥♥♥. As monotonous as you could imagine.

Tedious, I'd die of old age before completing these achievements.