"This is my last battle," grumbles the smokey-voiced protagonist of Cyberpunk 3776, (more info on Desura, Steam Greenlight, and IndieDB.com) a side-scrolling shooter by Peter Hann smothered in the pulpy dystopian cheesiness of 80's sci-fi action flicks. As our hero recounts, the world as we know it is long gone, fallen to human greed and alien invaders. He's got nothing to live for and no one to save. All that's left is to take out as many aliens as he can before his ship goes down in flames. Use [WASD] to move and click to fire, but don't fire too long without a break or you'll overheat and have to wait for a cool down! Dodge the enemies and debris that fill the screen, blowing up both for a high score, and nab any purple tokens they drop to spend on upgrading your ship's abilities.
The Unity engine lays the smog and rain on thick as you dodge, shoot and upgrade your way towards glorious revenge. Expect lots of aerial debris, as well as conga lines of alien craft ready to blast you into oblivion. The controls are tight and efficient and the graphics are as beautiful as any 2D browser game, but the sound design is what's really noteworthy here. Each laser blast and explosion feels heavy and satisfying and the weather effects perfectly complement the wailing soundtrack that plays you to your grave. Be warned, while the art is gorgeous, Cyberpunk 3776 is a big fan of particle effects, and slower machines can expect some lag when the explosions come fast and heavy. It might not break much new ground for side-scrolling shooters, but the game's ever-shifting obstacles, gorgeous sound design, and shamelessly cynical tone makes it a fun distraction for anyone wanting to go out in a blaze of glory.
Fun game,but You Cannot Upgrade At All. 2/5.
World's smallest text and graphics for the instructions, and (with keyboard controls at least) movement was jerky, resulting in moving too far above/below destructable objects, making it difficult to remove them. Also, changing keybindings 'in the starter'?! and not in the options menu... Well, there's other games out there I'm off to try.
Nathaniel power ups are collected in game play. They are little purple squares. Admittedly hard to spot at first but they are there.
and HOW or WHEN are you able to apply the upgrade points???
nevermind. I simply never got enough points till now.
I think there are a number of things that could really improve this game. For example, making the ship less "slippery" or making objects larger making them easier to shoot. I found that the controls made it very hard for me to be as precise as I wanted to be with regards to avoiding things and shooting tiny space debris. Also, making the upgrade tokens easier to see would go a long way to making it much more satisfying to upgrade.
Hey there,
I'm the actual GameDev behind Cyberpunk 3776 and wanted to drop by to first of all say thank you all for playing the game and commenting. As an Developer I always appreciate getting Feedback so I can improve my work.
To answer some things mentioned - the Webdemo does not reflect exactly the Standalone Game and it's a short view at an Pre-Alpha Version of the Game. It is not primarily adjusted to be played in a small window in sense of Interface-, Enemy-, Debris- or Letter Sizes.
As for the Steering issues some people mentioned here - the Game is primarily polished to be played with an XBox360 Controller. The Mouse/Keyboard Steering is there but not that polished!
As for Key Bindings inside the Game - for bigger Teams it might be an easy thing to do - I am actually working on the Game alone.
I'm a "One-Man-Army" Dev if you want to call it that. I'm doing all the Writing, Code, Graphics, VFX, SFX, Marketing all by myself with the exception that I got some supporters who do Voice Overs, Music and Testing for me.
You can find a free Standalone Demo at Desura and IndieDB if you'd like to give it another try.
Happy Easter everyone
Peter
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