Crazy Typing Game

Some friends linked me to a typing shooter game by PhobosLab this morning, and seeing a few comments about it being a good test of typing ability, it sparked off my competitive streak..

It’s a very simple game.. small ships appear at the top of the screen with an associated word, and head towards your ship at the bottom.  As you progress further through the waves, larger ships appear, which fire additional ships at intervals.  Later on, even larger ships appear, which fire a spray of letters if you don’t get rid of them quickly.

I got to level 42 before being defeated.. 🙂

Global Agenda

Shooter MMO Global Agenda was recommended to me at the start of the weekend.. and while I wouldn’t ordinarily pick up a game with little idea about it, developers Hi-Rez Studios had pledged to give all the proceeds of sales during the weekend to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake efforts.  So, I signed up and paid.. knowing that even if I didn’t like the game, at least some good was coming of it.

I had the choice of Robotics, Medic, Recon and Assault, and for my first character I went with Robotics, as I’d get to play with turrets, forcefields and drones..

The game starts off showing my character in a stasis field, in a facility under attack from soldiers who start to free me.  During the scuffle the chamber is smashed and I am freed, but all the soldiers are gone when I get control of my character.

This is where the tutorial kicks in, with directions for basic running and jumping to start with, then a cool jetpack which allows short flights, and my first weapon..

While I have the Mace equipped, I also have the use of a shield, which seems to last as long as my energy reserves, indicated by the blue bar near the middle of the screen.

I reach the top of the building as directed, and I’m told I have to dive off the edge.. a nice cutscene follows where I jump off as instructed, bare feet on view, and eventually crash through the window of a storage room.  Here I get a nice ranged gun, and in the next rooms I get to try it out on easy enemies such as Watchers and Sector workers who try to hide.. and Alarm Responders, who are a little bit tougher.  I also get a ‘Rest’ device, which lets me heal myself.. so far so good 🙂

I’m heading for the roof again.. right at the top I’m introduced to a one-way forcefield, which will let me out to face the first boss, a flying Guardian who fires some kind of homing rocket and wipes me out.  I get a fairly quick respawn back on the safe side of the forcefield, and head out to finish the Guardian off.  Here, I was surprised to find he hadn’t been reset, so it only took another few hits to kill him.

My reward was a cutscene of my escape via train ride.. on top of the train, of course!  My stop is an armoury.. more weapons?  I level up at this point, and am given an off-hand, which for me is a deployable force-field.. which comes in handy because there are plenty more security androids to fight through.  Each roof leads to another, with markers indicating where I can jump off, and use the jetpack to fly to the next place.  Limited energy means I can’t just fly around without thinking about it, which I guess stops it becoming overpowered, but I’m happy being able to jump around for the time being.

Next on the list is a suit, which comes with a robotic arm sticking up over my shoulder.. this turns out to be a repair arm, but isn’t explained at this point.  A few more rooftop fights later, and I find my way into another building, where I’m jumped by this rather cool looking Elite Assassin..

I was expecting a tough fight, but I defeated him rather quickly.. it is still tutorial time though.

Another level up, and I have a Personal Turret, which I deployed here purely for the screenshot 😉

My next mission involves escaping through the sewers, and I suspect that’s where the tutorial will end and I’ll get into the main game..

Love for the Little Games

The first ‘little’ game of the week was a freebie I spotted on Twitter: Super Crate Box, an indie game from Vlambeer.

This reminded me of the games I used to play on the Spectrum when I was tiny, with simple gameplay, arcade style graphics and music.  I had to kill the music after a little while though, as there was no option to lower the volume and I found it rather headache-inducing..

Dodge enemies, pick up crates, get guns, shoot enemies!

Each crate has a different weapon; dual pistols, shotgun, bazooka, and other weapons which can be unlocked over time like the revolver.. I liked the bazooka best of the weapons I tried, with the explosion able to take out more enemies.

The second game of the week is also a free one; Steel Storm Episode 1 by Kot-in-Action.   Well.. episode 1 is free, and also open-source (woop!) with Episode 2 being available to pre-order.  Not a bad way of doing things!

So.. a top-down shooter with power-ups, loads of enemies, and best of all multiple game modes including co-op!

The game is suprisingly challenging, due to massive waves of enemies, including some which spawn around you as you progress, and bosses which hit quite hard.

There is plenty to blow up.. there are structures you need to destroy to bring down forcefields for progression, but there are also other bits of tubing, crates, etc, which can be blown up.  Some of these reveal repair pick-ups, but there are not enough to go kamikaze.. you really need to make use of cover and avoid getting hit.. but I lack patience!

When you die you lose all the weapons you’ve found up till that point; good for your co-op partner who can grab them, but bad for you when you’re then back to your starting weapon.  We only spent one evening playing this, and I think it deserves more time.. I love it 🙂