a complex item generation system with a lot of stat modifiers to optimize, unique items with "game changer" powers.70 active and passive powers with various effects: dash, area of effect attacks, time control, etc.100 levels of difficulty to climb with your skill or your ability to optimize your gear and powers.randomy generated missions for replayability.Then and only then a different kind of shoot'em'up, accessible to a wider audience than usual. That's what is Drifting Lands in essence: first and foremost an action-RPG (Hack'n'Slash or however you may call this). This is a game you shouldn’t miss.Imagine a Diablo-like game with the mouse clicking part replaced by an horizontal shoot'em'up core gameplay. The game embodies the “one more level” mentality as you try to make another run in an attempt to get better loot to outfit yourself for higher difficulties. Alkemi does this in an all-around clean and crisp presentation. The game has a weird way of keeping things on an even keel when giving you more powerful items.ĭrifting Lands combines some really great genres into its own thing that works really well. Items of different rarities begin to appear, and so does this increase the flaws items will have. Items of special value have unique traits, and even flaws when equipped. You can regain energy over time or recharging in areas that appear during the level.Ī game driven by loot has to have some pretty good loot, right? Drifting Lands has that in spades, though I wish there were some clever names of items that helped with their identity. The actives can let you use energy to explode in area of effect damage, dash, or shoot energy beams to do massive damage on condensed areas. The passive abilities have an auto-retreat option (or one you can engage) manually. What does it all mean? Well, there’s a lot to keep up with in addition to the on-screen chaos. The passives at least, are just that, passive – you don’t have to do anything with them. In addition to that, there are four active skills which have a cooldown on them. While the gameplay is equally so, there are four meters that you must monitor at all times: Shield, Focus, Energy, and Health. Everything is perfectly legible, and easy to read from near and far, and is really crisp. Something worth noting is the excellent and clean interface of Drifting Lands. Normal is forgiving in every aspect, and again serves the “my first shmup” mentality the game subtlety refers to.The Hardcore mode isn’t as devastating as it seems by the name, but it does mean with any death you can lose any number of items in your possession or cargo hold. But it asks whether you want to play on Normal or Hardcore. The game asks a simple question up-front, but it’s hard to discern what you want out of the game until after you’ve played it. Regardless of how difficult you make the game, it’s never going to feel the same as you play through it. Missions have level-ranked missions for their difficulty, and the levels themselves are procedurally generated. Sacrificing either in the other two ships is best for more advanced players. For new players to the game, and the genre, the mid-ship is the best of both worlds in terms of speed and survivability. They follow the archetypes of light, medium, heavy, but are more nuanced than that. When you start the game, you pilot one of three styles of ships. This enables you to purchase upgrades from vendors to outfit your ship in more meaningful ways – more about that later. First and foremost is the switch from a score-based game to one where you’re gaining income from kills and modifiers and multipliers increasing it at a fervent frequency. It just doesn’t matter much once the bullets start flying and the loot starts dropping.ĭrifting Lands doesn’t go out to reinvent the shmup, but does introduce new and interesting things that make the experience worthwhile. Blending shmup, adventure, and RPG games in the game, Drifting Lands’ story feels the most out of place despite giving an excellent backdrop into the goings on. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world, the continents are literally drifting away from each other on this shattered planet where private corporations are vying for control. Much like the re-released Sine Mora EX, Alkemi’s Drifting Lands has an interesting story that will almost certainly be skipped to get straight into the action. Drifting Lands also serves as an introduction to shmups without being overly difficult or impenetrable as sometimes the series is known for. Drifting Lands is a new type of game for other developers to follow, but will be hard to duplicate how well Alkemi put this together. Alkemi blends shmup (shoot’em up) side-scrolling bullet-hell with action RPG elements where loot is key. Drifting Lands from French studio Alkemi brings a hybrid of genres yet unseen until now.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |