Destropolis (XB1 - X|S - PS4|5 - Switch - PC)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Destropolis (XB1 - X|S - PS4|5 - Switch - PC)

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

TRASHFALL FINAL III: THE THIRD IDIOCY (PART XIV)
WHEN MINIMALISM CRASHES WITH THE HARSH REALITY




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Here we go again...


Damn, can catch a breath from trash shooting.
Today's review is no other than Destropolis.



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The Hexa-Tower is the most persistent enemy of the Geometry.

Destropolis is an arena shooter with a perspective angle rather than being full vertical. Its simplicity is too clear at the point that you can fire your weapon by using either the Right Bumper or the Right Trigger. You can pick two weapons and switch them with the B button (A is for pick them). Along your way you'll be finding other items that will temporary provide you from double the score obtained (Double Points), double the damage dealt (Double Damage) to speed slowdown to avoid tight spots (Bullet Time) and the best of all, Force Fields that allow you a second, yet temporary shield, and I said second because you have a Shield gauge that prevents you from losing HP with from enemy attacks.
There's no mission objectives in this game or stages, there is not even an ending as you are confined in this single arena until you're finally defeated, something that will happen after reaching 10 levels and the enemies finally outnumber and defeat you. A 1 stage game if you ask me, but still functional as a game taking notes from old arcade games.



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Make a decision and hope for the best.

As you defeat enemies you will be getting experience points in order to level up. Leveling up increases the game's difficulty drastically, but also allows you to unlock one of many skills which will definitely give you a hand based on what you select: Increasing your HP, your Shield gauge, increase your weapons damage and even break buildings by ramming them and make buildings drop items, this one is very useful to obtain Force Fields and Bullet Times with more frequency.
After getting Game Over, each play session increases an "Experience" bar that levels up, but I don't find any significant changes, making it more like the Player Level gauge from Natsuki Chronicles rather than a traditional RPG Experience-Level Up system.



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Outnumbered and Unstabilized.

While the gameplay seems to be good, there's flaws, from minimal to critical. Being one of the upgrades the minimal as it decrases your ammo in favor of more damage. Losing ammo capacity for the sake of power is not just unnecessary, but also game compromising. That's very notorious when you are beyond Level 8, as the game throws more large sized enemies in massive numbers. Second, your guns overheat like in Xenoraptor and Contra: Rogue Corps, this turns you into a sitting duck granting the enemy a free shot until your guns cool off. While you can delay the overheat with the level-up upgrades, it is still frustrating and doesn't fit on an arena shmup like this one. Third, your HP can drop really fast courtesy of the Turridamage. While you can regerate your health with time, it just forces you to retreat and take evasive manuevers in order to survive and this only favors the AI to drop you even more enemies.
The last one is the critical (or should I say "FATAL") of all the game's problems: Being Turri-crapped is gonna be the least of your problems, 'cos the mother of all of them comes after reaching level 9, and that's a GIGANTIC DECREASE OF FPS (Frames Per Second), making the gameplay look like it constantly freezes due to the way too much enemies and "buildings" in the area. To me, that's a sign that nobody, NOBODY tested this game. I mean, I'm playing this game on an XBOX Series X and this happens? I don't want to image what would be on the XBOX One.

Do you like games that require high achievement requirements? Well, this is that game for you 'cos you're gonna need to accumulate a total of 1 billion points through multiple gameplays. But guess what? With the game freezing constantly you might not be able to get beyond 300.000 points. Also, I don't know how it is possible to get 2,000,000 points in a playthrough. Or the default Leaderboards are waaaay too high or whoever got those points is a cheaterhead.

UPDATE (October 5th, 2022): Apparently, there's a way to deal with the horrible FPS slowdown as the screen gets crammed with enemies: When you're on level 11 or above, pause the game and wait for a while (the best indicator is the circular patterns that rotate on the background, once they move smoothly that will be an indicator of being able to resume your game like normal. If nothing happens, try again (They REALLY need to fix the game).


Graphically, it doesn't shine like most shmups that rely on heavy detailing and vibrant colors. The reason of this is the minimalism theme utilized in this game.
As for the characters, we're having a cast of cubes and pyramids, also without textures to enhance detailings, retaining the simplicity of the minimalism theme around the game.
Your character is an Octahedron, so I know what ALL the anime fans are thinking right now...



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BLOOD TYPE: BLUE

Yeah, it's Ramiel, the 5th angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion (6th on the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy). Any NGE fan could use his/her imagination and think this game is about Ramiel fighting for its life in the Dirac Sea or something (and the overheat is because of Ramiel's Inner Torus Reactor that powers its beam).

The sound department is a mix of Synth-wave and Ambient that brings a energy filled atmosphere to the minimalist shoot-out. The retro influences are quite notorious as the game utilizes those "Brrr-brrbrr"s of the Commodore 64 and Tim Follin's NES themes. There's not voices or dialogues which is logical based on the characters of this game.



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A monumental failure for a promising title.

What we've got in the end is a broken shmup that suffers horrible decreases of FPS completely killing the arena shooter experience making it virtually unplayable. If Achievement/Trophy Hunt was the reason to pick this one up, then I feel really sorry 'cos you'll be playing this calamity for a damn long time.
Lesson learned: TEST YOUR SHIT BEFORE RELEASING IT.



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"Emilienated" indeed.
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