Soul Injector Commando

Very bold to alienate an audience by making billionaires the enemies of the game. I guess the game will only appeal to 99.999999% of us.. Seriously though, check out the other games by Jeremy C. They are all wildly fantastical while topical, inspirational and thought provoking, delivered in the most surreal styles. It was a surprise to me that this was a shooter, but surprised in the best way. You're sent out to inject souls into billionaires and as a result, they go on to find a job that is actually beneficial to society. Every enemy is an actual billionaire complete with face and name so you can see how some of your favorite exploiters of industry are rehabilitated in real-time! There are lots of achievements, secrets, a hard mode and a decently long story. If the visuals are intriguing, check this and Jeremy C's other games out, I can highly recommend

The visuals in JC's games are always a spectacle and maybe it's enough to purchase the game, but for me personally, I found the narrative a bit underwhelming, mostly because the previous game had such a seamless commentary that felt intellectual and profound without feeling forced. I felt like the narrative was mostly in your face here, and frankly I just didn't find the writing or the voice acting delivery to be very subtle. Not to criticize the small developer for the voice acting, it's just that, I can actually imagine those characters sounding more interesting, so I think the enthusiasm has to match the visuals, and the delivery was mostly flat across the game. As far as FPS gameplay, it was not too bad, I like how weapons and abilities can often modify the visuals or interact with your momentum, I think they are designed well, but the levels feel like small arenas, and can get very repetitive, even though I like the actual look of the stages. The weapons generally had a cool design, the "sniper rifle" is definitely something I have never thought of as a weapon skin. The feedback for shooting things was kinda okay, but it could also be better, for example, you used the same sound effect for damage and headshots, which is not great. The enemy pathing was kinda janky for melee types, they generally have a hard time finding you, except the ranged enemies that are very good at spamming. One thing I didn't really like with the stages, you have all these cool abilities like the pull and the bounce, but you not really making the stages for them, there are a lot of flat environments with low ceilings, with not as much vertical navigation as you should have with these things. The game can be finished in 3 hours, it supports a bit of collection content, but I didn't really bother with it. You can collect some currency as you play, which I felt didn't have much usage so it was not exciting to collect it, maybe the game needed some upgrade system to keep it more relevant. The game offers a flexible 3 mode difficulty which can be changed at the start of the level, and generally the game is pretty casual overall. In the end, I was kinda waiting for the game to impress me with the world building, or to do something very compelling with the narrative, but it didn't really do it for me, I mostly enjoyed it as another eyecandy, and somewhat serviceable FPS. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) The weird 3D modeling for the characters and the stages was very enjoyable, granted I don't think that I liked it as much as before, EFLI felt more RAW, and I prefer that feel. The stages overall looked nice, I just wish they had more optional areas or more ways to navigate them. (+) The FPS mechanics and the weapons feel was okay, it could be better, but I thought it was serviceable enough. (+) Some music was pretty nice, depending on the level. (+) Has a bit of collection content to extend the runtime. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u]FPS gameplay:[/u] - consider adding a unique sound effect for headshots, it seems you using the same damage effect, their heads look like balloons, maybe a little pop sound, it's good to have some nice feedback for good aiming - reduce the frequency of those turret attacks, also make it possible to kill them with regular guns - I think the aiming mouse sensitivity is way too slow for the regular gun, when you actually looking into a sight, it feels like I have to drag my mouse across the table - maybe increase contact damage for the slide (the actual size of the hit box) - the rocket stage had some kind of lag when they detach, also it's misleading when he says kill all of them, but you just have to get out [u] Some personal nitpicks: [/u] - I felt like the voice acting didn't have much enthusiasm and didn't match the cool look of the characters - the writing was not very subtle like the last game, I was not immersed in it because it just kinda tossed at you, the game felt a bit hand holdy, linear, not much room to experience the writing on your terms (maybe it needed more optional interactions) [b] Overall Thought: 7/10 [/b] Even though there is clearly a ton of work here and more than most indie devs can master in terms of 3D modeling, the game didn't have that subtle social commentary, it just felt very direct with the delivery of the story for me and not as clever. In theory, I think the mechanics and power-ups are decent to make a fun FPS game, but it felt rather repetitive with you forcing me to kill most of the enemies and then look for damn doors. The feedback on damaging enemies could be better, make the headshots feel nicer to do. It might be worth playing for the aesthetic, but the game did not resonate with me personally. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]