![]() ![]() Quite how well you’ll get on with the screen shake I cannot guess – it didn’t work for me, and I’ve turned it down below 50%. The machinegun wielding crows will stick with me for a long time. And while the graphics are certainly crude, they’re fantastically alive, and incredibly memorable. Hideous mulching squelches, wretched wet smacks, dull thuds of death and gore. The sound effects have been lauded since the game first appeared two years ago, and remain extraordinarily good. Except, shit, can there really be five of those fire-spewing black mole-sausage-worm things in a row? Crap, you need to use someexplosives. You realise that a giant pile of explosives is tempting to use to blitz a level, but when that terrifying giant dog-thing boss fight might spring up in the next, or the next, you’re going to want something heavy on hand. But get skillful enough and there’s no reason not to race in between bullets, zapping or blasting or blamming or pulverising enemies as you dance.Īmmo conservation becomes strategic in the maelstrom. Ducking behind obstacles and taking pot-shots is an entirely legitimate way to play too – this has to be the first bullet hellish game where hiding is an option. Or perhaps you’re replete with explosives, and enjoying picking you way down corridors, lobbing ahead, when suddenly you’re in a huge open space with fifty million enemies all firing at you at once and nothing but the equipment to blow yourself up. That’s super-risky, but you have to stay alive. If the weapon chests are only offering you wrenches, and you’re extremely low on ammo, you might have to opt for melee for a while. Or maybe you got luck and it offered you Rhino Skin with its extra four points of health, and now you’re a little safer.īut it’s also about adapting to circumstance as much as anything else. Perhaps you can now run through walls, or be dangerous to touch, or in the case of Crystal, manage a rudimentary teleport. But it’s also about learning the nuances of the various upgrades dished out between levels, once more adapting to whichever advantages you’ve chosen. It’s about learning the foibles of each character, adapting your tactics to take on board their particular skills (Crystal can turn into a reflective shield, the robot dude can eat guns and turn them into health or bullets, Plant moves quickly and can chuck a snare at enemies). This isn’t because of tweaks gained in previous turns – it’s because I’m actually better at the game. Which makes it really surprising, and demonstrative of how well Nuclear Throne nails it, just how much better at the game I’ve gotten with repeated plays. New character classes are the only permanent change, and they all come with weaknesses to balance their unique strengths. Clear a level and you’re teleported to the next, until eventually your very minimal health runs out and you start the entire game again.įor the longest time there’s nothing carried over from one play to the next, bar the skills you’ve personally gained as a human. ![]() Chests contain new weapons, two of which can be carried at once, or ammo or health, while deaded bads will drop similar. You start with picking a character class, more unlocked as you reach deeper into its procedurally generated, thematically changing levels, and then attempt to shoot at all the very many things in each level until they’re all dead. Or, alternatively, this is a really tough game! And a compellingly entertaining one. And had a lot of fun finding out how bad. ![]() So I come to the game completely fresh, and by crikey, I was terrible at it. Here’s a thing – I’d never played it before. With two years of evolution in response to players, the top-down twin-stick (or mouse/keyboard) action shooter rogue-lite is now stamped with a big red “RELEASED”. On Steam’s Early Access for two years, Nuclear Throne is likely a game with which most of its audience is already familiar. After a few rounds, I feel like I need a nap. Bullet heaven or bullet hell? Here's wot I think: After two years on Early Access, Nuclear Throne is now declared FINISHED, and released on Steam and Humble.
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