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Not A Hero review (PlayStation Plus)

6th February 2017 By Qazimod Leave a Comment

The title of Not A Hero seems more appropriate now than it ever did. A brightly-coloured objective-based 2D cover shooter developed by roll7 (of OlliOlli fame) and published by Devolver Digital (of, well, take your pick), it was a riot of gunfire, blood and action… but I feel like it only found favour amongst those in the know. Indeed, when rllmukforum (an online entertainment community and the birthplace of Disposable Media) polled people on their favourite games of 2015, Not A Hero fell somewhere outside of the top 100, and now it risks the Curse of the Instant Game Collection, where (certain) people inevitably play a game for ten minutes, make their minds up, and potentially remove it from their storage forever. It deserves better, not least from myself – by the time Disposable Media relaunched, Not A Hero had been out for a while on PC, and even though I bought and played it on Steam, my coverage here was hardly extensive – I gave a brief overview of the game following news of the PS4 port, but nothing since then.

Not A Hero takes a simple premise – help a purple rabbit win an election by murdering people – and uses it as an excuse for tight action and explosive firefights. You move left and right through a building, changing floors either by crashing through windows, using lifts or taking the stairs, and carry out objectives such as saving hostages or tearing down rival campaign posters. Aiming to make your job harder are numerous trigger-happy goons, and whilst a few shots can deplete your health in seconds, you can take cover to protect yourself, firing back when your foes are vulnerable (which may be when they are reloading, facing the other way, etc.) Death comes swiftly and easily, even after you think you’ve started learning the building layout, and the loop of dying and restarting is every bit as compelling as the wipeouts and retries of OlliOlli.

Not A Hero is a game that owes a debt to classics such as Elevator Action, the 80s Taito game where you would move from floor to floor of a building, engaging in firefights with enemies and ultimately escaping to your car at the ground floor. Roll7’s game might have more complex environments, more depth, more speed, but it shares the feeling of systematically clearing out each area before making a safe getaway, and the modern tweaks make it a much more fleshed-out experience. Collectible secondary weapons always help you find a way out if things are getting out of hand, and unlockable characters offer different gameplay benefits (similar to the masks of the Hotline Miami games). There are even secondary objectives for each level; some ask for a certain target to be killed, others request that a particular item is found, and so on. It brings to mind the objective-based gameplay of OlliOlli, but the side-scrolling shooter format makes character control a lot more straightforward in this game.

My only real caveat is that the final stretch of levels can get pretty intense, and you might find yourself attempting to get past one or two sticking points for a while. However, you’ll still have had plenty of fun in the preceding levels, and the level select screen clearly tracks your secondary objective progress so that you always have something to go back to. As a PlayStation Plus freebie, it’s certainly worth a look, and it’s so easy to jump in and out of 15-minute sessions that it can quickly find a slot in your gaming schedule amongst more time-consuming titles. What’s more, the pixel look works really well and the soundtrack is packed with lively chiptune music (the character voices might divide opinion, but they’re not that obnoxious.) Download it this week and try it for yourself.

Transformers Devastation review (PS+)

4th October 2016 By Qazimod Leave a Comment

Transformers Devastation represented a unique kind of exciting moment for me. Generally I don’t tend to buy every home console and handheld as soon as it’s released, because I simply wouldn’t find the time for all of those games. Consequently, I’ve never owned a Wii U… and as a result it had been a long time since I had enjoyed anything from Platinum. Transformers Devastation might not appear to match the heights of Bayonetta or Vanquish, but it’s still representative of the uniquely entertaining character-action fun that only Platinum can produce, and even if you’ve come back to this kind of game after being distracted with other titles, it still feels comforting and familiar.

Transformers Devastation: strings and slow-motion

For instance, if you’ve played Bayonetta and pick up Transformers Devastation, you’ll instantly recognise the way in which light and heavy attacks can be stringed together in a variety of ways. You’ll notice that enemy attacks are heralded by a glint of light on the incoming weapon (or limb), helping you to focus during the chaos, and you’ll find that a last-minute dodge delivers the resulting slow-motion payoff you would expect. The latter mechanic bathes the screen in a blue tint and allows you to pile on the damage – something that’s incredibly useful against bosses – and it never stops being satisfying. Also returning from Bayonetta is the panther run – in that game, Bayonetta would transform into a panther and run at speed if the right trigger was pressed twice. Here, it serves as the iconic car transformation and allows you to speed around the environment. Transformations aren’t just limited to this move, however; they also serve as enders for combos, named “Vehicle Attacks”. This makes for a unique way of using the heroes’ most recognisable ability as a signature Platinum gameplay trope.

Transformers Devastation: padded action?

This tried and tested system of custom combos and satisfying dodges is as enjoyable as ever, and it’s just as well, because the game structure and progression can be slightly wearing. There are hidden verses and the maps branch out allowing you to explore other areas, but at times it feels like you’re going through the motions, waiting for the next moment of excitement from whatever boss is at the end of the chapter. For some people that’s not such a big deal – certainly, I could do the same battles against the same enemies for ages and still be having fun – but others might be looking for a little more substance. There is depth to be found outside of the main gameplay; tech can be crafted for random buffs, new weapons and moves can be obtained, certain weapons have status effects and elemental properties that you can see when arranging equipment. There are also multiple Autobots to play as, each with unique movesets. However, the missions themselves can sometimes feel a bit like padding, with recycled bosses or recycled areas.

Transformers Devastation: familiar fun

As mentioned, however, that’s not always a bad thing. I welcomed more of the same because I was keen to try out new combos with the weapon I had just purchased, or find out if the unlockable parry ability is as satisfying as Bayonetta’s Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa (spoilers: it is.) If you like Platinum’s character action games and don’t mind going through another series of battle arenas with another satisfying combat system, there’s a lot to enjoy here. Even after you’re done, you can also try one of the other two available difficulty levels if you want further challenge, and there are more unlockable difficulties beyond the initial three. In summary, Disposable Media recommends Transformers: Devastation. For some people the cut corners may have been a bit disappointing in a £44.99 release, but on PlayStation Plus you can still have plenty of fun with it.

Shütshimi review (PS+)

14th April 2016 By Qazimod Leave a Comment

Shütshimi is both a game with a comforting level of familiarity and something with unique gameplay elements that set it apart from other titles in the genre. It’s a horizontally-scrolling shoot ’em up that started out on Xbox Live Indie Games but was recently made available for PS4 and Vita owners via the Instant Game Collection of PlayStation Plus. However, rather than presenting you with conventional levels that take between five and ten minutes to complete and have a natural sense of progression, Shütshimi is close to Wario Ware in terms of gameplay – it’s USP is that the player must survive ten-second “waves” of enemies broken up by shopping excursions between waves where the player picks a gameplay modifier from those on offer. Some of these modifiers are helpful, others can prove to be problematic, and the vast majority of them have text descriptions that are near-useless in telling the player what they do during waves. Even this shop has a timer that’s only a few seconds long, so you often find yourself picking the first thing that sounds like it might be useful and then hoping for the best.

The happy unpredictability of Shütshimi

On paper, it sounds like it should be a recipe for disaster that results in a mess of a game, but the hopeless perk descriptions and variety of waves turn what would be a run-of-the-mill shoot ’em up into something that’s a lot less predictable. One perk taks about the opportunity to have “way more friends” in the next wave, and I thought that this might be a positive – maybe the description meant that I would have Gradius-style Options with me or something – instead, this perk ended up flooding the screen with even more enemies than usual. Other descriptions are a bit more blunt and easy to predict, particularly the ones that grant you traditional power-ups such as rapid fire, laser shots or a shotgun, and eventually if you play the game enough you start to see through some of the more misleading descriptions. However, even when you know what’s coming the shop timer forces you to make quick decisions and these can lead to mistakes when selecting modifiers – consequently, the gameplay rarely becomes stale. Outside of the shop items there is extra variety in the music, backdrops and enemies, but the overall style of the game is consistently charming and has a sense of humour that’s inclusive and rarely crass. (One modifier does replace the background and some items with “butts”, although even this is presented in a simple cartoon fashion and can’t really be considered overly offensive.)

Shütshimi – a chaotic novelty

Shütshimi might sound chaotic and haphazard but there is some form of structure and progression in the game – every few waves you encounter a “boss” with a large health bar, but since you only have a few seconds to do damage, you sometimes have to wait for the boss stage to come around a few more times before you can drain the health bar completely. This makes “learning” the shop item descriptions valuable in the long-term, since you eventually learn to know when a boss encounter is coming and try to select high-damage or rapid-fire modifiers in anticipation of the encounter. Even when you’ve defeated all of the bosses there are extra difficulty modes to unlock and try out, so there’s a bit more depth to Shütshimi than the cheap and cheerful indie stylings might suggest. At the same time, I imagine that the novelty of the game will wear off quicker for some gamers, and anyone looking for more structure and progression in their shooters might be disappointed. For those people, there are games such as Velocity 2X and Resogun, but if you’re subscribed to PS+ there’s no harm in trying this out.

Shütshimi is currently available for free during April for PlayStation Plus members

Transformers Devastation: strings and slow-motion

Transformers Devastation: padded action?

Transformers Devastation: familiar fun

The happy unpredictability of Shütshimi

Shütshimi – a chaotic novelty

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