Strike Suit Zero

[Obiwanshinobi]

I actually did an interview with the guys a while back...

You can read it here at http://prankster101.com/articles/interv ... suit-zero/

Interesting read. No doubt it's a very eye-catching game and I think all developers should work hard on this kind of appeal (if there was more competition within the shmups realm, contemporary shmups would certainly tried harder to look "sexy"). Face it - after Einhänder and Radiant Silvergun, there was no real dog's-bollocks-by-design shmup (though Dragon Blaze had its moments).
This here genre is pretty malnourished too, and yet the game looks at least better than Freelancer. That's the spirit.
I also liked the story of branching off to make it bigger.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

If there's one thing that makes this game shmup-like, it's all the reviews panning it for being "too easy" in some paragraphs and "too frustrating" in others.

So it's just the usual case of reviewers having crappy tastes in games and expecting a sim not an arcade game? I admit that the Eurogamer made me dismiss it out of hand and mentally put it on my "I'll check this out later when it's patched" list due to seeing a 3/10 score. As generally there has to be something seriously broken for a site to give out a 3/10 if they're not troll baiting for hits.

The way you describe the gameplay it seems to have a little of Project Syhilpheed's arcade like timeattack and score chasing in it. I liked that game so I'm already interested.

IIRC In pre release statements the devs have been comparing this to Colony Wars and Starlancer, would you say there's any truth to that?

[Mischief Maker]

If there's one thing that makes this game shmup-like, it's all the reviews panning it for being "too easy" in some paragraphs and "too frustrating" in others.

So it's just the usual case of reviewers having crappy tastes in games and expecting a sim not an arcade game? I admit that the Eurogamer made me dismiss it out of hand and mentally put it on my "I'll check this out later when it's patched" list due to seeing a 3/10 score. As generally there has to be something seriously broken for a site to give out a 3/10 if they're not troll baiting for hits.

It's the developer's fault for being indies and not making an art game. Betcha if the game was unchanged, but in every preview interview the devs mentioned that the game was a metaphor for coming to terms with colon cancer, the lowest score it would garner would be 9/10.

The way you describe the gameplay it seems to have a little of Project Syhilpheed's arcade like timeattack and score chasing in it. I liked that game so I'm already interested.

IIRC In pre release statements the devs have been comparing this to Colony Wars and Starlancer, would you say there's any truth to that?

I have played none of these games. My main route through Space Sims has been the X-Wing games, Wing Commander prophecy, then the Freespace series which blew the competition out of the water with Freespace 2. This is more arcadey than those games and it keeps very detailed track of your kills, awarding points for individual turrets taken out and partial points for ships you damaged but a wingman got the killing shot for.

I'm still pretty early into the game, but it seems to have a rhythm of blowing up fighters in ship mode to build up rage, then going robot and denuding a capital ship of its turrets. Robot form is slow and relatively short-ranged, but it can dash and circle strafe which is proof against everything but fighters and flak turrets so far.

The game makes perfectly clear in mission 2 that one of your main jobs is shooting down torpedoes aimed at your flagship. Reviewers complaining that they're losing missions because of some AI defect in your flagship's ability to defend itself against torpedoes are simply making up excuses for why they get paid to play videogames but nevertheless suck at this one.

[Observer]

I'm loving the tears of the mainstream reviewers.

Seriously, isn't some of the bullshit thrown at this game similar to what we are used to endure on shmup "reviews"?

Anyway, I finished it with the bad ending yesterday (you can get a better ending too) but pretty much what Mischief Maker said: the game is good fun, looks great, runs well on my shit comp and the Strike Suit is great for the missile barrages. Taking on a cruiser on your own is priceless.

It's sitting in the top 20 of Steam's top sellers so fuck the haters, I can only hope it sells well enough so we can see a sequel.

What I also noticed is that a lot of people fail to use the Strike Suit to quickly auto-focus on big threats. You don't lose flux while in mech mode. Firing munitions is what depletes flux. Thus, transforming to do a quick turn and lock-on to shit missiles on the pursuers or to mow down turrets from afar became a great tactic. I find the main guns to be great to take out pockets of fighters that got too close to the Strike Suit or some annoying turrets but their range is small, limiting their utility.

Either way, yes, great game. Has some problems here and there but not for the ridiculous 3/10 of Eurogamer. Hell, the writer said he was writing while in rage mode, come on.

[Zaarock]

great revive.

Got this and Strike Suit Infinity a couple days ago, actually played infinity first.. was very pleasantly surprised with the main game though, the campaign felt very solid and the combat was great once I really got the hang of it. At first I thought the mech control and aim assist in fighter mode made the game feel dumbed down but the later stages can be very hectic and there is still a lot of room for skillful aiming etc., like the harder hitting weapons take a bit more precision to use. I plowed through normal difficulty pretty quickly, I'm glad they didn't try to put filler missions to make the campaign longer. I guess the game has gotten quite a few patches since release too?

Was disappointed with the credits system in infinity but maybe I'll find it better now.. it seems like you can grind credits to make a stage easier. Is it possible to beat all the missions without support? (got up to a mission with three frigates showing up at the same time)

It doesn't feel like a proper score attack or pick up and play game if you have a burden to gain credits on previous missions or future ones will be almost impossible.. or even worse, be encouraged to grind before trying a new mission :/

[Remembrance]

Both games on sale on Steam this weekend...

Any longterm thoughts on these games? After the initial impressions, how's the lasting appeal?

[Gespenst]

http://strikesuitzero.com/blog/announci ... ctors-cut/

Soon™