A Quiver of Crows

A Quiver of Crows

@C.:

_Les mouches bourdonnaient sur ce ventre putride,

D’où sortaient de noirs bataillons

De larves, qui coulaient comme un épais liquide

Le long de ces vivants haillons.

Tout cela descendait, montait comme une vague,

Ou s’élançait en pétillant ;

On eût dit que le corps, enflé d’un souffle vague,

Vivait en se multipliant._

A Quiver of Crows game. You, as a flying being, ‘a crow’, shooting with some lasers into some relentless ever-respawning undeads of various sorts.

Real player with 6.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best Twin Stick Shooter Difficult Games.


This game needs some reviews, so I want to do a 2-hour first impression. The art in this game is astoundingly well developed. It wordlessly creates a lot of ambience as you fly your way through abandoned playgrounds and discarded remnants of civilization as a new dawn approaches a terrible day…

You play a freaking bird with laser weapons. If you’re still reading this, you want this game. It’s hard. Quite hard, but it can be enjoyed in bursts of 10 minutes or a whole rage inducing hour. The controls are extremely tight, and the weapons and enemies are all interesting. My favorite are the basic enemies, which I call the “Dental Association” as they chomp me to bits.

Real player with 6.6 hrs in game

A Quiver of Crows on Steam

Retromancer

Retromancer

This game is awesome! The speed and progression are excellent. The difficulty is just right. The graphics are flashy and the game has that unknown thing, that soul and mystique that make playing through it so good. Robotron lovers need to get this game now.

Real player with 4.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Twin Stick Shooter Bullet Hell Games.


TL;DR: A good time-waster if you can get it on sale.

What I like is that it has a progression system to the powerups. Yes it feels a little tacked-on, but I don’t mind chasing the upgrades.

The game is competent, and the levels are enjoyable with good variety. However I find the graphics all look the same so you can’t distinguish your avatar from the projectiles, from the enemies, the enemy projectiles, etc. It is all a big phony retro blur.

I played it for about 1.5 hours before I grew weary. Probably wouldn’t have lasted that long but I’m a sucker for twin-stick shooters.

Real player with 3.3 hrs in game

Retromancer on Steam

The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines

The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines

7 ART

8 FEEL

6 DEVS

9 MUSIC

7 WRITING

4 STORYLINE

7 CHARACTERS

7 OVERALL RATING

The gameplay itself is very addictive and enjoyable, with a fair amount of challenge (at least playing without assisted mode). As I did not try assisted mode, I cannot speak on the level of fun in that mode.

The game clearly draws a lot of inspiration from disparate fantasy properties. It also draws inspiration for gameplay from Dark Souls type games, emphasizing attack patterns and usage of various weapon abilities to surpass each challenge. The game is very fair, once you use your brain to figure out what is the optimal way to tackle an area. Good reflexes and skill with a controller certainly help as well.

Real player with 11.9 hrs in game


Read More: Best Twin Stick Shooter Pixel Graphics Games.


WHAT IS IT?

It’s a bullet hell game. Thematic element is fantasy and a bit of sci-fi.

PROS:

1. Fast paced action.

2. Good soundtrack.

CONS:

1. Terrible story/plot.

2. Frustrating levels (ie. not fun).

3. Controls don’t feel fluid compared to using a mouse and keyboard.

4. Diverse item pool but largely useless as you’ll be using just 3 or 4 of them most of the game out of the 30 or so.

CONCLUSION:

I’m usually not a fan of bullet hell games (ie. games that just shoot a bunch of stuff at you filling your screen with orbs/missiles/fireballs/etc.). I gave this one a bit of a try as it came with a Humble Bundle and it just made me hate the genre even more. Don’t get me wrong, I grinded through the game and finished it on the hardest difficulty so I’ve experienced most of what this game has to offer. And it doesn’t really offer much… a plot that doesn’t pull you in, unnecessary item selection for the sake of having items, a large “variety” of enemies that mostly have the same strategies to defeat, and just some overall frustrating levels due to certain enemy types. The game does include an endgame mode which seems more fun than the story mode. The endgame mode throws you in a large arena where you’ll fight waves upon waves of enemies while starting off with only your basic items. As you defeat more waves, you gain more money to purchase better items. This mode doesn’t need to hide behind a weak plot in the main game, I would have liked it to be the main game itself and just scrap the story mode.

Real player with 9.7 hrs in game

The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines on Steam

Behold!

Behold!

Honestly this is a very simple game. But simplicity does not equal boring.

The game is basiclly a fun little twin stick shooter with chaotic and metal feeling to it’s gameplay.

It’s not complicated and it’s not hard to understand.

It’s just simple fun.

The game is incredibly cheap, so thats all i could ask for 3

Real player with 2.7 hrs in game

The Basics:

Nice pixel art, rocking music, funny sounds, satisfying death animations :)

Xbox 360 controller works nicely.

The game should run on any toaster of your choice.

The Gameplay:

You are a monster which breaks loose between two armies, your task is to survive by wiping out said armies.

Waves of diverse enemies will be thrown against you ranging from several kinds of melee guys to archers to mages and (mini)bosses like giants, minotaurs etc.

You will shoot 4 kinds of rays (picked randomly, 1-2 at a time) with different effects to kill stuff. Furthermore you can jump granting you invincibility while in mid-air and crushing enemies beneath you when you come down (has a cooldown). Finally you will eat enemies whom you touch replenishing your health by 10 each time (again beware the cooldown).

Real player with 2.1 hrs in game

Behold! on Steam

NeverAwake

NeverAwake

A girl who never wakes up. She has been fighting monsters in her dreams…

“NeverAwake” is a nightmarish twin-stick shooter with a unique worldview and original game rules.

The girl fights against vegetables, dogs, school friends, and other things she hates. What does the girl see at the end of the battle? And will she be able to wake up?

About NeverAwake

“NeverAwake” has a unique worldview with its high quality hand-drawn graphics and beautiful animations.

The enemies are not demons…but vegetables and dentists that the girl hates. Things and creatures that everyone has had a bad experience with at one time or another become monsters and attack the protagonist “Rem”.

With over 80 levels, dozens of bosses, and a unique gameplay system that allows players to retry many levels, NeverAwake is suitable for both beginner shooters and experts.

Combine a multitude of weapons and accessories to fight off the monsters in your nightmares.

The ending of this title will change depending on the player’s dedication. Please play and see what the girl sees at the end of the battle.

Features

  • Kick the veggies, dentists, and other monsters out of the way and blow away the painful memories of your childhood!

  • A unique world view set in the “inside of a girl’s nightmare”

  • Beautiful hand-drawn graphics and animations

  • Unique game rules and high retryability

  • Fast-paced gameplay and powerful boss battles

  • More than 80 levels and dozens of tricky bosses

  • Numerous weapons and accessories, and builds that combine them

  • Great storytelling and multiple endings

NeverAwake on Steam

Shadow Walls

Shadow Walls

A good indie game. It is not really a horror game but an action game. There is an atmosphere of suspense through sound, but the theme is action. The difficulty is well balanced, which is very rare in the indie scene. Today, I arrived in the last phase, I believe there was a short time to finish, but it is not easy. There is a good progression of the difficulty that increases gradually and peaks in the last phase, of course. My only criticism is the flashlight, which in fact is useless, just decoration. The developer has a style that can be recognized in other works and knows how to do a good level design, this is very good. And finally, the game has an originality, something also difficult to achieve today with so many titles. Congratulations.

Real player with 4.3 hrs in game

Very nice game to play and with a lot of challenge. It is undoubtedly a great deal for the price. If you are looking for a fun and challenging experience, this game is for you.

Real player with 1.3 hrs in game

Shadow Walls on Steam

Mr. Fast

Mr. Fast

This is art. The kind of art where bullets fly all around and blood spatters paint the concrete floor. Awesome soundtrack too, Already hoping for a sequel, This is a true hidden gem. 10/10

Real player with 5.3 hrs in game

This game is poorly optimized. The aiming system is jank. The sound clips in and out. The soundtrack is ok at best. Some levels have a habit of spawning enemies on top of you. The physics are a joke. The levels are varied and have some nuance to them but are largely just shoot the dudes until the round ends. Despite all this, Mr. Fast is still an enjoyable experience if your expectations are low going in. I have no idea where I am or where I’m going, all I know is I must kill. Slowpokes need not apply.

Real player with 3.4 hrs in game

Mr. Fast on Steam

Soulbound Steel

Soulbound Steel

I really liked the idea of the game. some things need to be adjusted.

Real player with 3.0 hrs in game

Pretty good so far.

Core gameplay is a bit tricky at first, but if you time your parries properly and doesn’t just spam them, you’ll be good to go.

Your special ability is even trickier but then I learned to use it in sync with my rmb. It creates this huge AOE skill.

I wonder if I can change my scores without starting a new game, though. Going to back to a castle won’t reset it.

UI could be better, music and graphics are great.

Real player with 1.2 hrs in game

Soulbound Steel on Steam

Ritual: Crown of Horns

Ritual: Crown of Horns

Summary: While Ritual may be in need of some quality of life improvements in certain areas, its fast-paced action-packed and strategic gameplay mixed with a metal soundtrack and varied weapons and abilities, create a difficult yet fun and engaging take on the Wild West. 8/10

A full detailed video review can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ZnunLsu5U

Plot:

The writing is not a case of being a masterpiece but they certainly do the job, creating engagement and intrigue throughout. The characters bounce off each other reasonably well, with them often questioning each other or even outright annoying or teasing one another. It is unfortunate however that one doesn’t get nearly as much dialogue like that of the others, but regardless character design works. There is no mistaking the plot plays second to the gameplay in Ritual, never the less for those who are looking for a decent story in amongst all the carnage, there is an interesting one to be found here.

Real player with 15.5 hrs in game

When it comes to top-down shooters, nothing beats tangling it up with hordes of monsters and all you have a six-shooter and pure luck. These are the kind of games that are exciting, fast-paced, and 100% rage-inducing. Ritual: Crown of Horns, from small indie studio Draw Distance, checks all the boxes.

Stylistically, this is a nice looking game. The art style heightens the grim landscape that we find our protagonist, Daniel Goodchild in. The music, a bold mix of heavy raw guitar and western-inspired melodies, only adds to the chaos that we’re about to dive into. Unfortunately, those two important elements are sometimes not enough to ease the frustrating aiming system and the unnecessarily hard stages you must clear.

Real player with 8.7 hrs in game

Ritual: Crown of Horns on Steam

Sun Warriors

Sun Warriors

SUN WARRIORS is a frantic, hardcore, cooperative, twin stick shooter. The Moon Goddess, Aysel, is invading our world with a horde of creatures from the dark. As a son of the Sun God Naol, use the power of light to blast all enemies and stop the corruption that is invading our land.

  • Free game!

  • Frantic twin stick shooter action.

  • Play alone or with friends.

  • Local & online Co-Op.

Sun Warriors is a student showcase project from ESAT Valencia.

Sun Warriors on Steam