Gunstorm Review

Written by: David Laprad Published: May 12, 2005 Game critics often use a form of shorthand to describe a title, and rely on the reader to fill in the blanks. For instance, if I'm reviewing an old school 3D shooter, I might call it a Doom clone, saving myself from typing unnecessary words and you from reading them. I'm going to demonstrate this method as I review Gunstorm, a new arcade space shooter from the surprisingly productive Mark Sheeky of Cornutopia. Gunstorm is an Asteroids clone on steroids. (See? I just saved you a lot of reading.) Besides obliterating space rocks, you battle through wave after wave of enemy ships until you face Xodar of Gorn in the climactic battle. Control is best handled with the mouse; the left button fires your weapon and the right button applies thrust. The middle button, should you have one, activates a Spider Bomb, which disperses a cluster of guided explosives. It's not the kind of appliance you'd read about in Good Housekeeping, but it does a fine job of cleaning up when things get messy. Dozens of enemies, each with a unique attack, bring the battle to you. From ships that dart to and fro to slower vessels that release mines as they glide across the screen, a gratifying slew of enemies are on hand. My favorites are the asteroids that serve as bases for alien ships; blowing them into small chunks releases their payload and marks the beginning of an intense firefight. Several other factors will keep you on your toes, such as the tiny craft that sometimes pop out of vaporized enemies. Since colliding with anything turns your ship into an expanding ball of superheated gas, head-on confrontations are unwise. When it comes to weapons and powerups, Gunstorm keeps things simple: you're given a plasma burst for turning asteroids and aliens into space dust, and that's about it. Luckily, you can temporarily upgrade this garden variety pea shooter to a laser by grabbing one of the red pickups the dearly departed occasionally leave behind. Other pickups include Spider Bombs, protective bullets that orbit your ship and a burst of guided missiles. Gunstorm offers three game types. In the standard mode, wave after wave of enemy ships appear faster and in greater numbers as you progress. Every five levels, you'll face a mothership or a guardian. Next up is an Asteroids game in which you must wipe out level after level of whirling space rocks by shooting them into smaller and smaller fragments. The Onslaught mode pits you against an unending stream of enemy ships. In each game type, an extra life is awarded every 10,000 points. The gameplay in Gunstorm is pitch perfect. Poorly calculated thrust and overly sensitive ship rotation have ruined more than one Asteroids clone, but that's not the case here; the ship mechanics are spot on, allowing you to apply a little thrust, smoothly spin 180 degrees and drift away from an alien as you hurl gobs of plasma at its hull, or to zip across the display to grab a pickup. The menu could use fine-tuning. For example, you can reconfigure the controls via the gameplay options screen , but to do so, you have to cycle through the controls by clicking small circles that appear on either side of the current selection. If the circles contained arrows indicating your ability to cycle through the controls, the reconfiguration screen would be more intuitive. That's a small quibble, though. The best feature in Gunstorm is its adjustable difficulty. By changing the speed of the enemy's movements and attacks in increments of 25 percent, you can accelerate or slow down the gameplay to suit your taste. You can even toggle the attacks of the invaders, essentially turning Gunstorm into a futuristic duck hunt. Whether you're a grizzled arcade veteran or just want to drift lazily through space taking potshots at alien scum, Gunstorm has your number. When you're not watching your score increase, you'll be looking at crisply rendered ship models, bright weapon effects and a velvety deep space backdrop. Despite its 2D heritage, Gunstorm uses 3D acceleration, allowing you to change the resolution to whatever your system can handle. Although your eyes will remain firmly in their sockets throughout, they'll appreciate how the screen lights up when the action intensifies. I especially enjoy watching the blue contrails of the Spider Bomb curving across the screen. Sheeky uses audio in an interesting way. For three levels, all you'll hear are the sounds of battle; on the fourth mission, a moderately tempered melody slips in, building suspense; the moment a mothership or guardian appears, a hard driving battle song kicks in. When the next level loads, silence reigns again. It's a great way of musically complementing the pace of the gameplay. The sound effects in Gunstorm won't knock your socks off, but they fit the old school arcade feel of the action. As with any game, you'll put together a wish list. I'd like to be able to upgrade my weapon (beyond the short-lived red laser) as the gameplay builds in momentum. Also, Gunstorm records the highest score, but there's no high score list. I'd also like to see some variety in the backdrops as the game progresses, just to provide a bit of visual fresh air. Finally, a two-player mode, much like that found in Cornutopia's Outliner, would be a welcome addition. Although relatively bug free, Gunstorm does induce a bit of uneasiness as it leisurely loads the main menu. Research suggests this is due to the time it takes for OGG music to decompress on older computers, but I have a 3 GHz system, and it still takes about ten seconds to load the game from the desktop. Again, a minor grievance. Gunstorm has been my arcade space shooter of choice lately. It's addictive and satisfying, despite - or perhaps because of - its simplicity. Give the demo a whirl and see what you think.