Would you like a jet-pack? Sure, we all do! However, I'm not so sure I'd be willing to volunteer for the strict testing procedures that would have to be completed before release to market: what with the dodging of missiles, the zapping of lasers, and having to deal with the inevitably-snarky AI running the whole thing. Omega Box, the new action game from Ironzilla, is the tale of a test-subject either much braver or much less lucky than I, who must fly around the experimentation room avoiding everything said snarky AI can throw at him.
Using the [arrow] keys to move around the box, you must survive as long as you can by avoiding the firing weapons, and collecting enough Plasma Packs to keep you in their air to score point combos: blue packs being adding 100 point/1x to the multiplier and red ones adding 500 points/5x. Your actions will determine your amusing after-play ranking as well as unlocking medals to purchase upgrades. The carrot dangling in front of you is the classified area that unlocks at 2,000,000 points. In the interest of full disclosure, I haven't managed to unlock it yet... but boy howdy I'm going to keep trying.
Avoidance games can be quite hit or miss, but there are a few features that differentiates Omega Box from the pack. It starts fast-paced and never lets up. The fuel cell mechanic means that you strive towards some objects as much as you strive away from others, making for a near-perfect play balance. It has that frustrating addictive quality that makes you want to replay time and time again for a better rank and another secret to unlock.
It's not perfect: the explosive blasts you need to avoid are a bit unclear in both their range and how long they can harm you, which is a problem for a game based around one-hit-kills. I would have also preferred if the unlocked Evolutions removed enemies from play instead of making you immune to e.g. one kind of laser and not another. These minor issues aside, Omega Box is quite fun and should keep you playing for quite a while. If you typically avoid avoidance games, this just might be the one that'll change your mind.
It seems like there aren't enough medals to unlock all the evolutions.
So far, I've unlocked Diamond Nanorods and Refractory Coating. Both are really useful, since bombs and missiles are everywhere and it's hard to see a laser charging at the edge of the screen. I've also unlocked Mach Jet, which is not useful at all, since the movement speed is already pretty good.
From the descriptions, Ion Blast looks useless (the same thing as Diamond Nanorods, but you have to charge up), and Exo Tank also looks useless because you never sit still for so long that fuel becomes a problem. Attractor Field might be useful, depending on its range, but I haven't unlocked it yet.
Has anyone unlocked the classified area?
Anyone want to list some of the achievements? I've been playing and playing and can only get 5. I'd love to have some sort of goal to work towards.
What you unlock when you get 2m points, and get all achievements could be found on youtube. (Not made by me)
Okay, after playing it for a bit more, I've concluded that the only upgrade worth using is Refractory Layer, because the wall lasers don't give you enough warning! There's a tiny little glow on the edge of the screen, hardly visible when you're fixated on the center of the screen where everything else is. All the other enemies give you a nice big glow, or a big thing flying across the screen, or something, but wall lasers give you this dinky little glow.
Also, Droid Legion turns this game into bullet hell. Not fun.
I'm thinking there has to be a bug in the medals, because I get the "You've Earned A Medal" message after almost every game, but the number of medals I have often doesn't increase.
I find the Attractor Field to be very useful--you don't have to be precise when collecting stuff. More stuff == more points + higher combos == even more points.
More on medals: it appears that despite the "You Earned A Medal" message, you only really earn a medal when you hit an achievement.
If that's the case, then there aren't enough medals to unlock all the evolutions. 24 achievements = 24 medals, but the evolutions require 30 medals total.
This game seems particularly susceptible to the "stuck button" problem that I run into occasionally with flash games (it thinks one of my arrow keys is held down when it's not and I have to tap the button to unstick it), which is particularly fatal in twitch games.
If you want to see the classified area and the ???? area search my youtube channel "Teh1Spoon" or just search "omega box game" I have a video up of it :D
The game is OK, be better if you could see what you are supposed to be achieving so I know what I'm aiming for. Also, if I'm taking the time to collect achievements and then buy power ups I want to be able to use all the power ups I buy simultaneousnessly.
I'm surprised no one else has mentioned yet, but "Avoidance games can be quite hit or miss": Loved it! :-)
Is there a way to see what are the achievments before we get them? Cause I could keep playing, but just beating my previous score gets hard and boring at some point...
Oh yeah. Cool, sure.
Until your controls don't get stuck.
Or you mistakenly push the "new game" button and there is no savegame delete confirmation before losing hours of play.
Or you work hard to get one more medal, then you discover that you can have ONLY ONE upgrade active at a time.
Or the wall laser gives no warning.
Or the game loses the window focus and your page goes zooming away.
Or... should I continue?
Bah.
Achievements:
1. Death by Wall Laser
2. Death by Smart Bomb
3. Death by Homing Missile
4. Survive Omega Head's attack
5. Survive Mine Droid's attack
6. Survive Laser Core's attack
7. Survive Laser Lock's attack
8. Survive Atomic Bomber's attack
9. Survive Droid Legion's attack
10. Survive Twin Laser's attack
11. Survive Mega Drill's attack
12. Death by Plasma Carrier
13. Survive Anti-Portal's attack
14. Score 10,000 points
15. Score 100,000 points
16. Score 500,000 points
17. Score 1,000,000 points
18. Score 2,000,000 points
19. Get a combo of 50
20. Get a combo of 100
21. Get a combo of 200
22. Survivor: Die 22 times
23. Quickness: Dodge 100 Smart Bombs
24. Collector: Absorb 500 Plasma Cells
The all achievement evolution is:
Tachyon Generator- which is like the ion blast but causes you to become invulnerable for a period of time. The best evolution is still probably the refractory laser simply due to the difficulty of the lasers esp. later on.
Most of my comments are just repeats of the above: you can't unlock all the evolutions, refractory laser is simply the best upgrade, not seeing the achievements made it hard to guess what is needed esp.
the death by plasma carrier one, which is not only stupid but also only appears once per round
. It's a fairly fun dodge'em game, if a fairly short one. At least I don't think there's anything left once you've gotten 2mil+.
Ok, did it to 10mil+ score (it's a lot easier than you think with the super orb that you get from the lock on the main menu). There's a few "ranks" (goes all the way to 11) above 2mil but nothing else.
I can't stand games that force you to use the arrow keys - how in the world is one supposed to play with the page scrolling up and down every time one presses the up or down key??
[Use a different browser. I believe that's a known bug with IE. Firefox and Chrome do not exhibit that problem. -Jay]
I think the best upgrade is Diamond Nanorods beacuase even though it's hard to tell when a laser will fire you just check when you want to pass. Also it's impossible to dodge missles towards the end when 5 are firing at once.
I can get on average over 2 million, so i thought id post some general tips and stuff.
And yes, some of this may seem like common sense, but i thought id post them anyway.
- Above all, (besides staying alive), your combo is your top priority. after your combo is above 150 / 200, your points pile on like there's no tomorrow. Letting the combo drop basically ruins your game, unless it happens really early on.
- On that note, red plasmas are your friend. go for them whenever possible, they increase your combo by 5 rather than 1, and thus are invaluable.
- Here's something that messed me up a lot. DONT FREAK OUT. When things start getting intense, being calm is your friend :)
- Don't bother with any upgrades besides Refractory Layer. A bunch of people have already talked about this, its by far the most useful.
- Be careful near the edges, particularly the sides and top. This is where most enemies appear from, often with little or no warning. The last thing you'd want would be to be getting a huge score and be taken out by surprise by a tiny little missile.
- Keep in mind: the enemies that appear appear based on score. In other words, they appear because your score gets high enough. So after you raid out the plasma carriers, be prepared for a Droid Legion or a few other big threats.
- This is pretty much common sense, but know all the different enemies and what they do. Anticipation is key. For the sake of doing it, (and because I don't have anything else to do) I'll list the enemies and what they do.
- Smart bomb: These are the first little missiles that fly around. Pretty slow and easy to avoid. If you're in front of them, they'll curve slightly in your direction.
- Wall Laser: Second enemy you see. These are annoying until you get the Refractory Laser upgrade, and then you don't need to worry about them. They hardly give any warning that they're about to fire and its on the edge of the screen, so bleh just get the upgrade.
- Laser Lock: Big red crosshair that follows you around the screen. Its not that fast, so its not that hard to avoid, and god knows it gives enough warning that its about to fire. (giant red crosshairs, countdown in the corner of the sight, big delay and beeping sound before it actually fires). The main thing you need to worry about with this is how long the affected area is still dangerous after it actually fires. It takes about a second to a second and a half (which is longer than it sounds) for the affected area to be safe, so don't rush in there to get a red plasma right after it fires.
- Homing Missile: Missile things that drop vertically from the top of the screen until you go in front of them, in which case they fire horizontally at you. These are pretty easy to avoid too. The vertical drop is pretty slow and they fire predictably, so keep your eye on them and they wont be an issue.
- Omega Head: This is the first big enemy that you'll encounter. It comes in from either side of the screen, but generally on the left. After chilling there for a second or two, it spits out five fireball things from its mouth. One goes completely horizontal, and the others go at equal angles from horizontal, so learn where the safe spots are and hang out there until the fireballs have passed. Or just hide below or on top of the head. Again, this attack has a lot of warning signs to let you know its about to fire, so it shouldn't surprise you.
- Laser Core: Speaking of things easy to see coming. A giant ship flies slowly onto the screen, has a big long charge up animation and only then fired a giant horizontal laser for a few seconds. Real easy to avoid, the only annoying thing about it is that after the laser is done firing, the ship continues to move pretty slowly until its off screen, which can kinda be in the way since its so huge. (although it does speed up a bit)
- Mine Droid: A little droid flies in to the bottom left ish part of the screen and drops some mines in a zigzag across the screen. after its done laying them, the all blow up in the order that they were dropped. as long as you don't run into them before they explode, it shouldn't give you a problem.
- Atomic Bomber: A good sized plane flies across the top of the screen from right to left and drops a bomb which explodes as soon as it's off the bottom of the screen. Contact with the plane or the bomb will kill you. The explosion takes up basically the bottom third of the screen and the radius expands almost instantly. On the good side, the explosion doesn't hurt you after it stops expanding, so you can be inside the explosion animation while its fading out, as long as you aren't inside it when it initially explodes.
- Mega Drill: A big drill bit extends down from the top of the screen, pauses for a second, and then the drill falls down the screen pretty fast. Since they pause at the top of the screen it's pretty easy to get out of the way. Keep in mind though, that they do fall pretty fast (faster than you can fly), so be careful diving under them.
- Droid Legion: Now things are getting interesting. A bunch of bullet shaped droids which take up the entirety of the height of the screen, in every other row, fly from the right to left across the screen. They are followed by an identical column of droids, in the alternate rows. There are five columns of droids in all. So basically, you need to keep moving to avoid them, and make sure that you get enough plasmas to keep your combo going. Not going to lie, this is pretty tricky at first, but after doing it a few times you get the hang of it.
- Twin Laser: A little rotating box with two little cannon type things on opposite sides floats to the middle of the screen and turns on two lasers that reach to opposite sides of the screen. So this means that you need to stay on the same (rotating) half of the the screen until it turns off. This is really only problematic if there happen to be no plasmas on that part of the screen. Just keep an eye on the box before the lasers turn on so you know what direction the lasers will be pointed in, so you don't get hit by one when it turns on.
- Anti-Portal: A portal appears, and after a few moments, out comes a little replica of you fly out and hovers there for another few moments, and then explodes in a pretty big explosions. Interestingly enough, the explosion only hurts you if you're near the center of it. (so yes, you can be in the explosion when it explodes, as long as you're kinda near an edge). Anyway, don't touch you're clone or the portal and you'll be okay.
- Plasma Carrier: Not exactly an enemy, but it will kill you if you touch the carrier part (it's actually an achievement.) It carries 24 blue plasmas, which can seriously boost your score, especially if your combo is high. Go for these at (almost) all costs, they are hugely important to getting a good score.
- Gravity Field: Also not exactly an enemy, in the sense that it can't actually hurt you. What it can do is make it harder to avoid getting hurt by other things. It's basically a spinning gray thing that pulls you to the center of it if you're near it, making it hard to move. They start appearing later on and there's not much warning to them, but is you notice them quick and stay away from them then they shouldn't be too much trouble.
i have unlocked the classified area and it tells you some cool stuff like it had told you that all subjects besides you have had a 2% chance of living and how thay were going to have war on earth in year 2240 and how they tried to invade earth for resources and have failed and are trying to salvage the suits they used to make someone that will be immune to even their own weapons and they talked about their weapons and how there is a portal that someone like 117 has gone in and it has caused him to eplode i suppose it was 116 but there is no way of telling. and there is a super heated plasma ball for getting all achievements and the last suit has a bar like the ion but makes you invincible for a period of time i dont know exactly how long but it is good.
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