Olive Raiders

Although the game comes with an “early access” tag, the attention is solely on “early” because it does not play well and feels more like a prototype. Getting familiar with the game’s mechanics is a hassle because there is no proper tutorial. All you get is a video clip that crams in everything and does not let you go through it at a slower pace. If you miss something, you have to rewatch the entire video. What is worse, you cannot even check all possible controls in the settings because the feature is missing. This means you are stuck with preset buttons and keys for actions. After selecting one of the four bounty hunters, you start the first stage. Which character you pick is not important because they all play the same and have the same moves. The only differences are their appearance and weapon. The gameplay fits the arcade shooter formula, where you move to the right and kill everything in your way. However, there are problems. The first problem is the default camera, which is too close and does not let you see your surroundings. As a result, you often see bullets coming at you without seeing the enemy. This can be fixed in the settings by pushing the camera back, but the setting only works during a stage and resets every time. The second problem is that the core gameplay itself is not very good. You can jump and mainly crouch to dodge bullets, but you have to press the buttons at exactly the right moment because enemies are very precise. On top of that, you die after taking only a few hits. The same goes for enemies, which either require several shots or can be taken out instantly with a melee attack. However, you rarely get enough chances to get close to them. Death means you lose a life, but you respawn a few steps back. Defeated enemies do not respawn, and you appear with a few seconds of invincibility. Even so, you will still die constantly. Enemies often spawn behind you when you reach certain points and fire so many bullets that dodging becomes impossible. Although there is a “charge” move, it is risky to use because it causes your character to clip through scenery. After losing all lives, you need to pay to continue. This is not a major issue since you earn money for each kill. However, you can easily waste it during boss fights, where there are no enemies to farm except the boss itself, which fully recovers after you die. Boss fights are also poorly designed. The first one, for example, features a man on a balcony that you need to shoot, along with barrels on the ground. During my first attempt, the barrels started flying at me and exploding. During my second attempt, the barrels simply stayed in place and only exploded after I defeated the boss, which also killed me. This also happens after the second boss, which I managed to beat by spamming melee attack. Overall, the game’s current state is not ready, and its high price does it no favors. For now, this is not recommended, but I will change my review when updates are released and the game gets closer to full release.