Redux: Dark Matters

Bom jogo recomendo, "quase igual ao rtype"

Kaunis ja lähestyttävä R-Type-klooni, jossa on potentiaalia. Suosittelen SHUMP-harrastajille. Peli on kaunis ja pyörii ilman mainittavampia ongelmia. Redux ei ole tämän lajityypin helpoimmasta päästä, mutta jyvälle pääsee harjoitettelulla suhteellisen nopeasti. Steam-integraatio on vähän ehkä puutteellinen esim. maailmanlaajuisen pistetaulukon puuttuessa pelistä. Pelin ääniraita on ostamisen arvoinen ja siinä tulee neljän levyn verran hyvin tehtyä musiikkia.

游戏一般，本以为会像小时候的超时空要塞一样，结果游戏体验不是很好，有点太动画的感觉，如果原价购入的话，感觉不是太值。

The game experience is also good oh!

I have to say I'm somewhat biased because I generally don't like bullethell/shmups that much and would only play them if I got them for free or they were inside some game bundle. That said, I did play my share of Shoot ' em ups and in my opinion this is not a very good one. Since all the games are so similar you do have to come up with something special and I do not see anything great in this game, graphic-wise or gameplay-wise. Perhaps there is a small group of people who would enjoy Redux:Dark Matters but I would not recommend it.

Redux: Dark Matters is a solid effort for a small indie dev. The graphics are smooth and nice too look at, scrolling is constant 60fps. But it's not challenging until Stage 7. Nice try!

This is a game that draws heavy inspiration from R-Type and Pulstar but doesn't really do much to draw people in. There's no stage select, only start game and options choices. There's two ships, one of which will make the game really easy and a 2nd ship which might give some people a run for their money since it lacks a shield. It's a pretty straightforward point collecting shmup which isn't really all that challenging for veterans. Maybe a pickup on sale for those that aren't veterans but there's only so little mileage possible to get out of this game.

游戏体验不是很好，因为抢的种类单一！ 虽然说飞机游戏都是一个德行，但是这游戏也忒难了点吧？

On this 5 star rating scale; ★★★★★ Loved it / Recommended ★★★★☆ Liked it / Recommended ★★★☆☆ It was OK / Not recommended ★★☆☆☆ Disliked it / Not recommended ★☆☆☆☆ Hated it / Not recommended It was a ★★★☆☆ for me. Redux: Dark Matters is an old school inspired shoot 'em up. It's the second revision of a game called Dux. At first, I didn't like it that much. Though, the more I played, the more I started to appreciate the things this game does do well. There are 7 stages to this game, 1 loop only. So just under half an hour for a run. For a game that is in its third version, there are few ways to play the game: a 'normal' mode and a 'veteran' mode. There is a big difference to how the modes play, because of the unique spacecraft used in each mode. 'Normal' is kind of easy (except for the difficulty spike that is the last level). See, the spaceship used in this mode can use various power ups: regular power ups to upgrade your forward firing gun; missiles that can fire both vertically or horizontally; and force bits that shield your ship from enemy bullets. The ship is capable of a charged shot as well, that passes through obstacles. In addition, this ship has a 'Soak' ability that absorbs most enemy bullets, spores and the likes, and lets you spit them out in the form of a homing laser if you press the 'soak' button again. The more bullets you absorb, the more your soak meter refills. It almost feels like cheating! Nevertheless, it's how it is meant to be played, as you get a score bonus for absorbing bullets and destroying enemies with the homing laser. Level design is good for the most part, and will force you to use the charged shot, soak ability, and the sub-weapon (i.e. the missiles) if you want to route it optimally. The boss designs are a big no-no, for they are all designed the same way and all beaten easily by just flying to the left en staying there in the middle of the screen, with the occasional dodge up or down to avoid some unstoppable laser or projectile, while soaking up the rest of the bullets. Weapon upgrades reset one level if you lose a ship, so recovery is possible, although I found tackling stage 7 without a fully upgraded ship hard at that time! 'Veteran' then - as the name suggests - is the game's hard mode. The spaceship you fly in this mode does not have the 'soak'ability, nor can it attach force bits. You will have to rely on dodging only, to navigate the bullets spewed at you. This makes the boss fights infinitely more interesting than in 'normal' mode. But presented a problem for my limited gaming skills on stages 2 and after, where recovery is really hard as you will quickly get overwhelmed because you can't kill enemies fast enough when not fully upgraded. Sticking with it, I did learn some tricks to get through some sections easier and was able to recover from being set back to level 0 shots. The 8-way controls are fine and are remappable for keyboard and controllers (don't know about joystick compatibility), although the UI could do with some more work. I think it looks very nice for a shmup. Sure, the liberal use of colors everywhere make it more of a love or hate affair. But there is no denying that the sprite work, foregrounds and backgrounds are well all realized with some fine detail as well. It does suffer from visual clutter, IMO. As the pod in front of your ship stops most of the bullets, but not all. The same goes for the bullet sucking ability. So, with the 'soak' ability activated, the visual overload did get overwhelming and confusing at first. I found it hard to distinguish the stuff that will destroy the spaceship, among all the ore (which converts into points) and enemy bullets that do get absorbed. Also, in 'Veteran' mode, some enemy bullet sprites go underneath your own bullet sprites when they overlap, making them basically invisible. Is it a bug? Or on purpose? I don't know. But having no sound whatsoever from your bullets firing didn't sound right to me, although I got used to it. Otherwise, the SFX do their job. The music is a more subdued, spacey affair, which I only started to appreciate when I turned down the sound effects to 1 in the options menu. Redux's technical aspects on Steam: Graphical assets are at 1920x1080. Higher resolutions will upscale from that. The game runs at 60fps. I believe you need to engage a frame rate limiter, or else the gameplay will speed up if you run at refresh rates above 60Hz. The sound and music are presented in stereo. My game always crashes to desktop after I want to restart for a third time. You're greeted with the two opening splash screens every time you restart. Why? Finally, Redux: Dark Matters on Steam only has a local high score table. All in all, I got it cheap, and it provided some entertaining hours, so I don't regret my purchase at all. But I feel it's not fine-tuned enough to recommend even in its third iteration (Dux, Dux 1.5 and Redux: Dark Matters).

Cluttered and zoomed in with limited continues.