Mastermind41 最近的评测

I followed Steel Rats a bit before release because it jumped out at me for it's interesting mix of genres. I thought a sidescrolling action game with motorcycles would be an interesting premise - like Trials with guns. While this hope wasn't completely dashed, the game's issues were obvious in the first few levels. The controls are difficult - even with a controller (I can't imagine playing this with a keyboard). It seems every button (on my 360 pad) represents some attack or ability, and holding the buttons down even alters some of them - creating even more options. While the variety of these attacks & abilities is appreciated, there are simply too many. This creates balance issues, as only a couple of the standard attacks are necessary to defeat even boss enemies. I then found myself spamming these basic attacks because using the others would require you to be clumsily slapping buttons all over your controller when surrounded by enemies. I was also disappointed with the general lack of utility for the character-specific abilities, only being forced to use them to progress a couple of times (granted I didn't complete the game).

Steel Rats also suffers with a fairly strict level of linearity. There are a couple of hidden items on each level, but there's generally nothing to explore. Kick your tires and ride through small waves of generic robot enemies until you reach the end. You ride anyway, until you get to one of the plodding "puzzle" sections that usually involve nothing more than flicking a switch. Jumping from a chaotic mess of attacks in a room full of enemies to silence fixing a broken elevator becomes a jarring change of pace. What makes this all unforgivable though is the overall lack of challenge. A game can succeed with linearity if it challenges the player. I'm thinking back to the older Castlevania games that required persistence to overcome it's addicting difficulty. Unfortunately there's just nothing addicting here - just a mindless mashing of buttons that takes a nosedive towards tedious after the first couple of hours.

In the end, I simply can't recommend this game - definitely not at the full asking price of $19.95. My lasting impression is that Steel Rats feels like a freshman outing from the devs, even if it's not. It doesn't necessarily feel unpolished or broken, just not fun. It's unbalanced, with messy controls and is too straightforward to be engaging. I do wish the devs the best though and honestly hope they can make a superior sequel or salvage the interesting aspects and forge a new IP. In the end though, Steel Rats is a chore.

Recommended for fans of shmups or claymation - which drew me to this game in the fisrt place. Admittedly, I am a rookie at shmups and I find this game rather difficult. It seems there are pretty big spikes in difficulty after only a couple of levels. Regardless, the gameplay is good and the animation is awesome. Music isn't bad either.