EVERYBODY HANG ON!
More trash shooter madness for today's consoles.
This time is Preventive Strike, A.K.A. TocanaDev's Preventive Strike for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC and Android.
Talking about being a large target...
The first thing you'll notice is the extremely short number of stages on this game. Just four combat zones, which might imply this game will be a short trip to give you all the trophies in no time. The controls are different from the basic shooter since the regular weapon uses the R2 button rather than the X button. You have one sub-weapon which are the Missiles (Square button), that act as both Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground projectiles. The Air Strike (Triangle button) which acts as the special bomb that inflicts damages to everyone on screen, and finally the Shield (Circle button) that acts as the temporary invincibility.
Now, let's talk about the gameplay. The game itself is a perspective shooter in the style of RayStorm as you have to take down enemies faster for the sake of making chains and rack a high score. To do that you can rely on your missiles and the Air Strike. With a whole lot of luck you could rack a x20, and I said luck because that's what you're gonna need since the weapons are weak even with most popcorn ground enemies. Also, the missiles are slow and they have limited ammunition, making their use way too strategical when the situation requires their constant use. Along with the multipliers, there's the 5K and 10K bonus items that give you a boost in your score, and health recovery items to repair your helicopter after taking damage, and boy, YOU ARE going to take A LOT of damage. ¿Reason Why?, You know it well: TURRIDAMAGE, your energy bar will drop like dead flies since your ship will take hits non-stop without having a brief after-hit invincibility moment to recover from an enemy attack, on top of that, your helicopter is almost half-screen tall making it a very easy target for the enemy, and to make things worse, if you die once, the mission will fail forcing you to repeat the stage, something that's gonna happen VERY often. It's a short game so they made it as frustrating as possible, but like the AVGN said on his Back to the Future Revisited video "I guess they were too lazy to design a longer game, so they just made it more difficult so it'd take longer to beat, that's all!". Fortunately, the game sends you with a new upgrade on the next stage: Diagonal lasers in stage 2, and a slow homing rocket in stage 3. The game keeps the score you had on the previous level and carries it on the next (If you made 100,000 points on Mission 1 and died halfway mission 2, you'll start the level with the 100 thousand points you've made before). There's no bosses on the stages, except for the fourth stage which is another helicopter followed by a missile that you have to shoot down before it launches and that's the game in a nutshell.
Ah, [EXPLETIVE]! Now what?
Yeah, after finishing all the levels once, this is what you get, the "Continue the fight, for the war is not yet over" cliche. You've might be thinking "They've gotta be kidding me. A sequel threat?", but actually they're hinting you one more challenge: Finish them all over again. ¿Why? This will unlock another level called "It's Not Over Yet", but the game has one horrible surprise for you.
Worst definition of cruel, sick joke.
It's glitched, so you can't play the level and to make things worse, you won't be able to reach the 1 million points Gold trophy and the "All levels clear" Platinum trophy. Broken trophies, just what we needed.
We went from Oversized Vehicle, Large Hitbox, Turridamage, No Extra Lives, Lame Ending and now Glitched Trophies. That's what I call worthless gameplay.
Helicopter Warfare at its WORST.
Graphically, it feels like an PlayStation 2 demo passed through the HD remastering process, as the game feels very little detailed for the console it was meant to be released, the haze on the background of stage 1 is the perfect example of how visibility is lost due to the crappy filtering.
The predominant theme of the game is the modern day military as it has most of the present day technologies and vehicles. For instance the player's vehicle is a mix between the Apache and a Hind-D, and there's a slight touch of futurism in the final mission as the enemy base has technological "super detailing" like lights on the floor and the jets borrow elements from the MiG-31 from Firefox.
As for the music...Oh, there's music?, I had to stop firing to hear this mix of Alternative Metal with electronic instruments. Yeah, the game's sounds DROP the volume of the music keeping you from listening the soundtrack to a point you might think there's no music.
PREVENTIVE FUN FACTS
- The trophy name "Top Gun" is a clear reference to Tony Scott's 1986 film of the same name.
- Unlocking the "Top Gun" trophy requires the player to commit suicide by crashing with the taking off jet in the fourth mission.
- "First Blood" refers the 1972 novel by David Morrell which was adapted by Sylvester Stallone as Rambo: First Blood in 1982.
- "Use the Force" is a reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars: A New Hope.
- "Hit me baby one more time" nods Britney Spears' 1998 song "Baby one more time".
Thanks for saying that Nina.
This game was a waste of time.
With all the potential wasted, Preventive Strike is, sadly, a horrible display of stupidity with all the critical problems that plague indie shmups making the game almost unplayable.
I feel sorry for those (including myself) who've bought that game expecting some decent helicopter action that could bring us back to the Thunder Blade days, but this game fails even on its purpose as a vertical shooter.
*Sing "I can't play this bull$#@%" to the tune of "Can't fight this feeling" by REO Speedwagon*
I can't play this bull$#@% any longer
It won't be enough to say "This game's the worst"
What looked like a good shooter was a disaster
I'm goin' insane, I have to pull the god-damned plug
I think right now that this game is junk, I mean it
And Hell is the place where this game belongs
'Cos this game is an offense and an insult
Disease, abomination
You're a blasphemy and that's it
A swimming pool of vomit
Damned cancer for the mind
You're damned abomination, I'm gonna lose my mind
And I'm getting upset, please get out of my god-damned sight
Damn, I can't play this bull$#@% anymore!
Ugh! God damn it, I think I just had enough!
It's time to end this $#@% and throw the game
To the garbage where belongs, forever
'Cos I can't play this bull$#@% anymore!
Uninstall the God damned game is good enough!
And if I have to sum this up with words
Expletives won't be enough
Damn it, I can't play this bull$#@% anymore!
"Damned turd!" this game has been since the first mission
And I felt my head was gonna lose its mind
Game's to blame and is because its a brain cancer
I can not think of worse disgraces
Nothing's worse than playing this crap
A swimming pool of vomit
Damned cancer for the mind
You're damned abomination, I'm gonna lose my mind
And I'm getting upset, please get out of my god-damned sight
Damn, I can't play this bull$#@% anymore!
Ugh! God damn it, I think I just had enough!
It's time to end this $#@% and throw the game
To the garbage where belongs, forever
'Cos I can't play this bull$#@% anymore!
Uninstall the God damned game is good enough!
And if I have to sum this up with words
Expletives won't be enough
Damn it, I can't play this bull$#@% anymore!