Photon Rush

(Review updated to reflect the latest changes) [h1]Verdict[/h1] Photon Rush is a cool and fun [b]local[/b] multiplayer game for 2-16 players in splitscreen. A neat feature is the ability to have 2 players per controller which is great for party sessions. Game now supports multiple monitors. Price has been adjusted and is fair now so buy it if you have friend/s to play locally with. [h1]My thoughts about the game[/h1] Fun competitive gameplay: + Blocking enemies and killing them with well timed power-ups is rewarding. + Round based games are especially fun since there is a target indicator marking the player in the lead helping players cooperate to take out the leader. [b]Party game:[/b] + Pick up and play It's easy to understand the game, the controls are simple and the analog steering works very well and is more intuitive than the 90 degree turns of the classic Light Cycle games. + Supports a lot of players Up to 16 players if you have a big screen + Several players per input device: 2 players per gamepad and up to 4 keyboard players with 2 keyboards. + Supports multiple monitors. [b]Game modes and modifiers:[/b] Game modes: Death match - The only game mode in the game so I'm glad it's fun. There are several power-ups and also stamina based abilities to speed up, slow down and block opponents' steering if within range. I think the power-ups are well designed since several of them can both be used as offensive weapons or save you from smashing into a trail. Power-ups can also be stacked so you can pick up as many of them as you want. Modifiers: Random Blocks - Random blocks that spawn in the level. Snake blocks - Blocks spiralling in from the outer walls making the arena smaller as time progresses. It would be cool to have more game modes and modifiers to play around with. I've suggested this in the forums and the developers are open to suggestions so hopefully something like this will be added later on. If you check out the forum you can see that there is a file you can create/modify to alter some variables in the game if you want to do some tweaking. [b]Visuals:[/b] Visuals are OK. They are more crisp now after the latest update so it's easier to see what's going on. Still think it would be nice to have an option to remove the floor grid altogether so the obstacles and walls are even easier to see without the floor lights. [b]Local multiplayer only:[/b] There is currently no single player content or online multiplayer support. Not really an issue for me though since I'm into local multiplayer gaming but it would be cool if there were AI players since that would both enable single player and the possibility of adding AI players to local multiplayer rounds. [b]Performance:[/b] Performance has been improved a lot! I now get a steady [b]60 FPS[/b] with 16 players on my machine with these specs: Processor: Intel Core(TM) i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50 GHz (4 cores) Ram: 8GB Graphics: NVIDI GeForce GTX 970 OS: Windows 10