Zotrix

I had my eye on this game for a while, as I was making a similar game to Zotrix a while ago. The idea of a simple shoot 'em up with a more modular ship appealed to me, and I finally grabbed it. In a way, I had a lot of fun with it, as I was just looking for a mindless game. Shooting stuff is fun! Unfortunately, the pacing, progression and difficulty curve are all completely off. I don't know how the game was in Early Access for 4 months and these glaring issues haven't been dealt with... It's a basic modular shoot 'em up, with levels being composed of several preset waves. The waves are fairly well done, it was fun to play, for a while. The first problem happened right at the beginning. So, the game has several different space stations that you need to go to to complete quests and buy equipment. The paths have different levels of difficulty, which is good. However, the beginning of the game is really bad! Instead of introducing the shop and resource mechanics, you go for a 2-3 missions without being able to buy anything [i]worthwhile[/i]. On the third mission, it's also incredibly hard to get to the end without buying anything. I restarted the game 3 or 4 times before I managed to buy the [b]one![/b] right item to beat the level. Where was the problem? In part, it was in how the game explains its upgrades. Items are divided into "permanent" and "expendable" upgrades. It seemed clear that expendable would be consumables, while permanent would be... well, permanent. That's not quite the case... Shields and Drones, for examples, are listed as expendable, but they actually carry over from mission to mission! The only "expendable" feature is that, for a given level, they can be destroyed and do not replenish until you finish that level. From their description, I assumed shields were just a consumable that would be activated for 20 seconds, or so. Turns out, they were actually all I needed to beat the mission. That's not all, though. The first, cheaper shields, are useless. They get destroyed by bullets too easily, rendering them useless. The higher level shields, on the other hand, are basically indestructible by bullets. The only way of destroying them, is by having ships ramming into you. Several in a row. Well, ok... just a minor misunderstanding. The bigger problem is: the higher level shields are really cheap! I bought the second highest on the third mission, and a couple of missions later I had the best. I was almost invincible. The only tough mission was the third. And that's because the game didn't communicate as it should have... Anyway, fast forward a bit, after a few mindless levels, I started looking at the resource trading and more expensive upgrades. In each level you gain some resources and credits. The resources you get are almost laughable, not really of any use. The credits are fine. The thing is, the economy is extremely basic. Assuming you're following the missions, you see what the next station is, and the game tells you which resources are higher. Then, you buy all the resources available to you, and sell on the next station. After a few levels, you have all the money you want. The game has 40 missions (each consisting of more than 2 levels, generally). Before the 15th mission, my ship was fully upgraded. I had virtually infinite money as resources. Only I had 25 missions left. At this point... what's the point? The story isn't particularly good, as the actual missions are simply "Go from here, to here, to there" because of a random excuse. There is no consequence or choice at all. It reminds me of a Clicker game, in some ways. Or an MMO, with the power creep thing. You just go around the places getting more powerful. The level don't keep up at all. I was steam rolling the game... With no purpose at all. The game has secondary weapons, like missiles or bombs. But you buy these individually. And if you use a missile, it's gone. Moreover, they're far, far weaker than your main weapon! It's useless. The drones are also a nice idea, but pointless is execution. They shoot automatically, but, again, they're very weak, and they also miss a lot. The levels are very basic too, as you leave exactly as you got in. There are "upgrades" in each level, as you start with a single shot, but can collect double and triple shot for that level. It's very linear, though, and you'll also get both upgrades at the same points. ... Oh well. There are other minor annoyances (and the music is simply there, tracks playing without a point) and some of the sound-effects overpowering everything else and being annoying. I was very negative in this review... Which doesn't really reflect my experience! I enjoyed the game a lot, as it was exactly what I was looking to play at the time. Something mindless and simple. It was cool! But the game itself, objectively speaking, has some very critical problems that make me not recommend it. I enjoyed my time, but I stopped playing after mission 18 because the game didn't keep up with the player. That's a huge problem. If you think you'll enjoy it anyway, give it a go, the shooting can be fun! :)

On paper, this would be one of my favorite games. I love top-down arcade shooters, and resource trading/management, and upgrade loops. Zotrix has all of these things, and it does them all in a very mediocre way. The shooting, where you'll spend most of your time, is incredibly boring and easy. Enemies will slowly march onto the screen, single file, where you will immediately wipe them all out by firing in a straight line - even without any upgrades. As the game grows in difficulty (at a glacier pace), occasionally two lines of enemies will come out simultaneously, which means you might miss a few, so you'll get fewer credits at the end of the level. You're never really in danger, and you easily become disinterested. This is not how you should feel when you're alone in space against thousands of aliens. Resource trading is also devoid of complexity or meaningful choices. Different stations sell different resources at different prices - but you can preview the price of any resource of every station before making the trip, meaning that there is no decision making, no research, and no risk at all. You can expect a small (5-10%) profit every single time you make a jump. This adds absolutely nothing to the game. Upgrades are weird and usually trivial. It's hard to know what things do or why you'd need them. Nothing that I found changes the game at all; it's simply bigger numbers (more damage to a primary blaster cannon, etc). On top of all this, you'll find numerous quality-of-life annoyances throughout the entire game. There's no Sell All button in the resource trading, so you have to type in all the numbers by hand (also, no numpad support). Sound effects for shooting are obnoxiously loud, completely obscuring the music. English is likely not the developer's first language - you'll see numerous grammatical oddities. Et cetera. Zotrix is an unpolished, uninteresting game that does not even come close to its potential. Avoid.

This game is pretty good. Frustrating? Yes. Difficult. YES. In space? YES! The only thing I don't understand is the optimization of the particle effects. My CPU and GPU (i5 and the highest radeon series) are equipped to handle that stuff, yet I get severe lag when too many particles are on the screen, with a density of 20 parts/cm^2 or greater. I know, one can turn the particles down, or even off, but I don't need to. My computer can handle what the game is doing, but for some reason the game is way, way too taxing in terms of particle effects. One UI thing that bothered me was the fact that you can go to the resource trade menu from the equipment store menu, but not the other way around. It's nit-picky, but that's what critiques are about. The graphics are amazing, so I have no issues there. The music is one of my favorite parts of this game. I would list the artists here, but there is a metric ton of people behind the music design, relative to how small the game is. There are also sound bars that are present in the main menu and the starting screen. Each level begins with a (usually) different-than-the-last-one-heard soundtrack, with the title of said soundtrack appearing on the screen. Obviously this game had a big focus on sound quality. The gameplay is pretty much what this genre is all about; you fly a colorful collection of pixels around a black and white background, shooting squares at other collections of squares as they shoot squares back at you. The game features newtonian mechanics. For example, there is a pushback effect from shooting, which is actually pretty unique in 2D space shooters. The ship, however, just kind of stops. This is counter-intuitive, unless the ship has some kind of RCS that the player can't see, which is what I'm guessing. The innovation here is that it's a 2D space shooter with resource trading and upgrading. It's not a roguelike, like FTL. It isn't as huge and encouraging of exploration as in EVE online. It also isn't just some boring Galaga clone. It's some hybrid of those games. If you want to play a casual space shooter and feel an actual feeling of accomplishment after beating a level without ejecting out of your ship, play this.

It's trully a blast to the past. Zotrix is reminiscent of the finest golden-era shooters that us veterans played in 80's :) Though the basic premise of 'shoot everything in your sight' is still the same, it works suprisingly well on many levels, succesfully incorporating trading mechanics as well as some basic economics. Seeing this as a first game of this genre from this young Croatian studio, I can only look forward to future updates and refinements!

[i][b]Скрол шутер про космос, ну как же иначе, имеется торговля, апгрейд корабля, неплохая музыкальная составляющая, вот и все, слишком дорого, слишком однообразно.[/b][/i]

I didnt not play alot, but i surely will. This game brought alot of old gamming memories back, it made my early gamming childhood alive once again, a awesome 2D indie game which is worth even the full price of 9.99€ Trust me, this game is a awesome little game to have tons of fun with. A little package with alot of fun inside it ! The only thing i do not like it has not a option for resolution but that will be surely updated since it is Early Access! The game is a must have if u want to play a old school type of game which is from a awesome and really friendly developer. U wont make any mistakes if u decide to spend that money u have laying around for games on Zotrix! If u wont even play it, u can just open it and listen to the awesome soundtracks! It is a 10/10 from me ! A Must HAVE!

The current state of the game does not support Xbox controllers well. For strange reasons the game requires a lengthy gamepad calibration the first time you activate the Xbox controller in game. The calibration stage is cumbersome yet producing bad calibration results, and it is impossible to steer and aim in the game in any meaningful way. Bad impression regarding the gamepad controls, as I have yet to see a gamepad compatible game on steam that requires calibrations. Most games just work with gamepad right off the bat. Maybe the developer try to ensure precise aiming, by mapping the range of the twin sticks to the corners of the screen of the current frame size? Anyway, stay away from using gamepad for the moment before a fix is available. However, the graphics and sounds in game is pretty superb, albeit the in game dialogues can not be fast forwarded/skipped. If you do do that, please make an effort to make the dialogue brief, relevant, and interesting.

[h1]Покорение бесконечности Вселенной![/h1] Писать длинный обзор и детализировать эту игру не имеет смысла! Это обычный скролл-шутер, но с необычной задумкой прокачки космического корабля и продвинутой экономикой. Чтобы игра мотивировала, разработчик предлагает пройти 40 необычных квестов, аналогично полагать, чем выше шагаем, тем сопротивление в космосе врагов интенсивней и плотность их на экране немыслимо велико, что иногда даже теряешь из виду свой космический болид. Игру рекомендую, но нужно иметь в виду и учитывать тот факт, что продукт нацелен на определенную аудиторию игроков.

[b]Overall rating: 8 / 10[/b] Zotrix is a space shooter coming from an experienced Indie game development team - ZeroBit Games. Zotrix is also their first game published on steam platform. Whilst, as any early access game there is a lot of room for improvement the game runs rather smooth and promises quite a lot. I've had the privilege of discussing the game with its developers and the impression gained is quite positive. Aside the fact of ZeroBit's constant feedback collection and the friendly nature of its developers there is also no lack of ideas and possible twists the game could take. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [b]Graphics: 8 / 10[/b] The game runs smoothly, which is really important for the type of games that is Zotrix. It is pleasing to the eye and with the adjustable amount of particles you may choose whatever you are most comfortable with. [b]Sounds: 7.5 / 10[/b] Suitable music throughout the stages. I feel as if the music volume is a bit too low and SFX a bit too high by default, but you can adjust them to how you feel works the best and from there to enjoy the experience that it builds up. [b]Gameplay: 8.5 / 10[/b] At the current stage, players can select from an alright variety of upgrades for the ship which are not permanent. Every upgrade bought can be lost with the destruction of your ship and will have to be re-purchased. The story itself is currently not too big, but I can positively say that the possibilities of further development are endless and the game might become much bigger than it currently is depending from the path developers continue guiding the game to. There is currently a very interesting mechanic in the game that allows you to go "in the background" by pressing space and thus avoid enemy bullets easily. Whilst I try to play without using this function, it is very good in case you cannot beat a level and in that way it provides an easy way out of a sticky situation in case you decide you need it. There are also small instructions currently implemented in the game that you may access by pressing f1 during the mission. [b]Fun factor: 8 / 10[/b] Recommended!

This is ridiculously bad