Plain Sight

[Steven W]

If anyone wants to review this then please let me know. First come first served.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/49900

[Disturbedguy]

Yeah I'll give it a bash, why not.

[Steven W]

You've got a PM

[Disturbedguy]

Plain Sight

Well, what can I say? When I saw the offer to review this game, I looked at the screenshots then instantly decided in my own mind that it wasn't worth reviewing as it wasn't my style of game and thought I would hate it. Oh how wrong was I!
So, the first thing that caught my attention was the music, as soon as I started the game, the catchy little tune playing got me smiling and bobbing along to the music, all the way through the creation of an account which is quick and painless.
So first of all, a little practice before it lets you play. The basic idea of the game is, you are a robot; you smash other robots to bits and gain energy for doing so, while also gaining energy from collecting stars that appear around the map. So did the training and got told everything I need to know.

Controls: -

W, S, A ,D - The usual forward, backwards, left and right.

E - When you have some energy built up, press this and you self destruct, time it right and you can take out a fair few enemies.

Space - Jump (Use this, and use it well).

Shift - Once you have jumped, if you want to return to the solid ground quickly, press this and you will hit solid ground in no time.

Left mouse button - Attack. Single click is a quick dash and attack towards and enemy you are locked onto, lock onto someone, click and hold and you charge up, once you are glowing white and within striking distance, release the left mouse button to attack your prey. This can also be used to move across the ground rapidly.

Mouse - To look around.

So feeling fully prepared off I went to find a server, was very pleased at how quick the servers appeared in the browser and just how many there were, picked a nice server with a few players in, joined and of I went on my adventures just me and my robot. After the first 30 seconds or so, I had died, twice which lead me to quickly realise that staying on the ground is definitely not the best option.

The key to survival on this game is jump, get in the air, and stay there as long as you can while trying to target enemies.
As mentioned above, you gain energy by collecting stars and destroying other robots. Collecting the stars is the easiest way to gain energy as it means you don't have to come up against other robots that are bigger and badder than you, although this isn't to say that you can't beat them big bad suckers when you are nothing but a speck compared to them, show some metal (excuse the pun) and go for it, you can and will (eventually) win. If you manage to collect stars in a chain you get multipliers which and other goodies, so far I have got the following: -

Stealth - Does what it say, makes it so the enemy can't lock onto you or see you, which gives you the chance to sneak up behind your unsuspecting prey and offer a sharp sword to the back.
Shield - Protects you from enemy attacks, although you’re not entirely invincible with this one as the enemy can wear it down.

Flame Sword - FUN! Not only does it look cool but it offers a damage increase and slightly quicker movement.

As you kill, collect stars and generally stay alive, you can earn points to purchase upgrades. To purchase these, when you die you have an option on the right hand side of the screen to purchase upgrades from, although these are lost when the level changes.

This game is thoroughly enjoyable, I started the game at around 19:00 after spending around 5 minutes registering and practicing I was off into the game, which is multiplayer only, the next thing I knew, it was 20:15 give or take a few minutes, boy does time fly when you are having fun. The game is very fast paced, getting quicker paced the more people that join the server, which also makes it that bit more hectic, especially on the smaller maps, but never losing the fun element of the game.

Pros:

• Very enjoyable
• Simple control system that’s easily mastered
• Very colour, making it that that bit more fun.

Cons:

• Trace lines left behind characters can get annoying on a 10 player server
• Very frustrating when you think you got the kill only to find yourself smash to bits
• Addictive.

The game on Steam is about £8 and I feel the game is definitely worth it for the hours of enjoyment you will get out of the game and is definitely one of those games you can just pick up and play when you feel the urge to chill out.
If I would have played the game more, I wouldn't have had a chance to review it or possibly wrote far to much and probably would have bored you all to tears by now.

Rating 80%

Not perfect but isn't that far off!

[Shooty*]

Um... can I have a pop at reviewing it as well? Just saw this and Beat Hazard on Steam and am contemplating them.

Beat Hazard in particular as Audio Surf remains awesome, and in principle, beat hazard should rock...

[Steven W]

Um... can I have a pop at reviewing it as well? Just saw this and Beat Hazard on Steam and am contemplating them.

Beat Hazard in particular as Audio Surf remains awesome, and in principle, beat hazard should rock...

Sure, I'll add it to the other review.

[Shooty*]

Ah, just saw multi player aspect.

Will have to wait until building work done, decent network speed restored, and computer in new room.