Sentry City

I like to think I had reasonable expectations of a game made by a two-man team when I backed it on Kickstarter. I'm sorry to say that the game, as released, did not meet those expectations. Bugs, I can forgive. Gameplay being generic, no trouble. Graphic/music assets becoming repetitive, I can work with. Platforming mechanics feeling unintuitive, I can handle. Infuriating difficulty in later levels, I'll power through. But all of it put together becomes increasingly hard to justify. I'm inclined to speculate that the game wasn't really even playtested (no testers are named in the credits at least), which, if true, might be a forgivable amateur mistake for an itch.io release. But frankly, asking $9.99 for a game in this condition suggests a kind of baked-in thoughtlessness and/or cynicism that runs through the whole experience, and makes it impossible to recommend.

I'm writing this review to help the game gain more traction. I played a little of it but am waiting for my Steam Deck to arrive to continue playing the game. I got this game for 5 dollars as a backer on Kickstarter and I think it's a better price for what the game has to offer than the current asking price. In any case though, the game has a couple of frustrations, but that's by design. the game's description of the gameplay reads "gameplay that is part trial-and-error, and part reaction time based shooter" and you can imagine that this may indeed cause a little frustration while playing. Luckily though, the levels are short, check points are abundant, dying and restarting is done really quick, and the game looks, sounds, and controls nicely so overall it's a very enjoyable experience.

I really wanted to like Sentry City, but you can't force yourself to like it. And.. It just gets.. tedious and frustrating to the point that I simply had to walk away from it. The pixel art and soundtrack are fantastically done, and the story is decently told throughout the game as well. The level design is punishing, and I wouldn't really consider the game a precision platformer. There are just so many times the game gets absolutely crazy difficult due to the placement of enemies and required jumps. Combat is fine for the most part, but the enemies all have an advantage over you. Your main enemies can shoot at angles, which is something you can't do. That's just an example. I made it to level 12 and just couldn't keep trying as I was taking breaks between the levels due to finding the level design frustrating. Ultimately the game ended up not being for me, but if you like difficult platformers this might be for you.

#SentryCity #Sentry #City Sentry City Firstplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDz84Zvn0xY

Just played it, I really liked the game. Beat the first Boss. I think it plays well, looks good and is challenging.

Sentry City es un título de acción y plataformas con un grado de dificultad de los de antes, de los que un fallo te hace volver a empezar, un balazo y mueres. Empieza siendo muy divertido pero con el paso de los niveles llega un momento que puede ser frustrante y se vuelve repetitivo, tanto por las veces que mueres como por la falta de variedad de escenarios y enemigos. Pero el título de Crashable Studios también tiene sus virtudes, una ambientación y un pixel art muy cuidado, es un reto divertido, el diseño de niveles tiene muy buena estructura y sobre todo los combates con los enemigos finales son originales y divertidos. Creo que podía haber sido sobresaliente pero una serie de fallos lo lastran a ser un buen juego, pero que no destaca. Aún así, si te gustan la acción típica de los años de los salones de arcades deberías darle una oportunidad. Nota: 6,7 /10 Leer análisis completo en Retro & Pixel Press: [url]https://retropixelpress.blogspot.com/2023/10/analisis-de-sentry-city.html[/url]

A fun side-scroller shooter. It took me about 10 hours to complete the game with a gold speed rank on each level, and it might take 6-7 hours if you don't replay levels. The controls are pretty good, and the difficulty is not frustratingly hard, but you might still get stuck for a bit and have to try different things before you are able to get past some enemies or obstacles. I liked the sountrack too.

I still give a positive review for encouragement, because some of the issues seem easy to fix, and they really should be. But I'll start with the positive. It's a pretty decent run'n'gun, with cover-shooting mechanics which work surprisingly well. I think the levels could use those a bit more, but the level design is overall varied and sometimes interesting in other ways. It can even be puzzle-like at times, thanks to enemies being able to shoot each other. Some levels have atrocious enemy placement though, especially considering the insta-death and lack of checkpoints in later levels. This is mainly due to the fact our character can only shoot forwards, while everything else can shoot you diagonally, and at greater distance. It feels like this doesn't really fit the cover-shooting gameplay. Speaking of enemies, they can shoot as soon as they appear on the screen, or even from outside the screen, which causes unavoidable deaths. They can also appear on your character, or next to you and immediately attack which kills you anyway. The visibility isn't that great in that regard. Similarly, sometimes you can't see what's beneath you, so you jump into a pit. There are plenty of deaths that are unavoidable on the first encounter, hence the impression of lack of checkpoints which don't fit this kind of die-and-retry progression. Unfortunately, the worst aspect is the shooting itself. For instance, if you shoot while jumping, you'll lose your momentum and won't be able to move anymore. I don't know why they've put this, but it's not a good idea. Some parts that should be easy are barely playable because of it. Also, you can't shoot while crouching. This is more understandable considering the cover-shooting aspect, but the are still a lot of moments when we'd like to be able to do so. Boss design is very bad too. Basically they run constantly so you need to jump up and down from platforms and hope your bullets hit them before they leave the screen. Pretty annoying gameplay. I didn't expect to see a second phase for each of them though. The game certainly doesn't lack polish, but definitely testing. To end on a positive note, the retro graphics are very well done, as well as the musics. The story is a bit cliché and basic but I guess that fits the oldschool style. Animations are fluid, and the character is pleasant to control overall. Anyway, pretty decent game, sometimes really good, other times just bad. I hope it can be fixed, although the game is now three years old. If I may add, indie devs should really make the difficulty and punitivity of their games proportional to the quality of the gameplay. A bit of jankiness isn't that bad if the game is easy. But this one doesn't deserve its difficulty. Edit: I forgot to mention some issues. ^^' It's really just in case the devs want to fix them, but it's not game-breaking by any means. The parallax scrolling is wrong: The background is supposed to move more slowly than the foreground. Also, it's often unclear whether a tile is part of the playable area or part of the background. Sometimes I'm sure it's one and yet it's the other. Edit 2: I've just played a game called Huntdown and I really think the dev should play it. He'll understand what's wrong with Sentry City.

I really like this game. It's difficult in an old-fashioned, headbangy, trial and error sort of way but feels very consistent and fair. If you enjoy that sort of challenge, I recommend it

The challenge this game gives you makes it so nostalgic and fun for me. Between the shooting, ammo control, timing, jumping, and different enemies/bosses, it'll have you hooked on overcoming the odds and getting to the next checkpoint. But even the minute details seem purposefully for more interesting gameplay, such as not being able to move while reloading. On first play-through, I love that you can't just blaze through it and shoot everything in sight and advance like an unstoppable god. The art in this game is obviously a strong-point. The lighting, cyberpunk pixel art, and the "cut-scenes" are sick. Even going from one level to the next (that motorcycle scene is worthy to be stared at repeatedly). Deffo recommend. Now get out there and destroy those AI rustbuckets. Feels great on steamdeck too :)