People compared this to Diablo 1, it is not.
In many aspect it is Diablo 1.5, but there are no skills to start with the differences.
The good part is: the controls are kinda smooth. Sure, I don't like the adjustable camera feature, and the game is kinda low budget, but it doesn't cause user-fatigue by trying to use it.
And there is a run-button! Sure, your stamina stinks rock bottom, but when you think about it, this is how Diablo 2 should have implemented stamina. Kinda. There's some problem with the stat-distribution you see, but more on that later.
There is an intro-video, what calls a Black Hole a Black Mist, but whatever. If you want to see it, watch it on youtube, or set the game to XP Pack 3.
No, you cnan ot re-watch the movie whenever you feel like, you must quit and re-start the game. But given this is some polish-or-what product, this isn't that much of a surprise, and the thing kinda gets in the way sooner or later. Just you better know, the ending-cinematic has the same requirement too.
Otherwise you go out, and shoot bugs. Very much like Starship Troopers in its concept.
The atmosphere is good with its foggy trees in the first area, then it changes to some forest-with-river in the 2nd, and metal corridors in the 3rd. In theory there are 15 areas, biodomes if you like. Filled with the same enemies (always adding to the variety), but whatever.
The concept was to have 1 resource in the game which functions as currency and ammo the same time, and while this is not just in rumour and reviews, but also in the manual - it is a complete lie. The ammo is some kind of item that gets dropped regularly. I don't see it in any of the shops, and kinda accumlates up, not seeing how it'd run out just by shooting enemies.
Oh, what else to shoot? There are alien eggs, at least the program calls it that, but more like insect nymphs. They function as crates, and can be punched open just by your fist.
Btw, don't stand around too much not wielding any kind of weapon. With a weapon, the character will do some flipping of it when "bored". Without weapon, the character gorunts. Ye, annoying noise is done.
Now in theory there are 4 kinds of charactertypes in the game?
One uses high-tech gizmos - forget it, there are no high-tech gizmo that cause damage. That leaves us with 3 charactertypes.
One uses melee weapon, one ... crafted ranged weapons (bows, slingshots and other stuff), and there are the energy weapons.
Now we've reached the problematic part of the game's design.
Ranged "traditional" weapons simply don't do enough damage. At least not in the range you can easily acess. There are later stuff that shoots razors? Saws? Whatever. I bet it is super-slow.
Why I think those are slow? One: phantastic damage. Two: melee axes. Yes, it turns out the different type of melee weapons have a hidden attribute: speed. Axes are
slow. The others seem fine, and given the pathetic range of any ranged weapons, melee actualy doesn't seem that bad. Until you see some higher end melee stuff in the shop, which requires an unfathomable amount of statpoints to use. And you won't jump through levels, AND you can't grind up in previous areas by enemies respawning when oyu quit the game. Here the enemy
never respawns.
Then there are the energy weapons. The major advantage of these is, they do not erode. They have no durability-stat. Also, while the manual says their energy-consumption is a stat - it is not, this is another lie/scrapped concept. They are pretty reliable otherwise - the worrying thing is, the higher tier weapons of these kinds don't really have much to offer on their damage by the looks of it. And they demand a kinda hardcore investment in the science/technology (whatever it is called in english) stat.
This investment in the science-stat is also in demand to use the high-tech gizmos, that give secondary ... abilities. There is your basic "teleport to the city and back" stuff. That can be used by anyone. It also only costs half the price of a health-pack to recharge (at least the 1-charge variant).
The Automathic Doc is just another dose of health-pack, but instead taking backpack-space, it is taking high-tech-gizmo-slot. Oh, and the more the charges of a gizmo, the higher the stat-requirement.
There is the "hologram" which works as Diablo's Decoy, or Battle Hologram that is like Valkyrie.
there is invisibility, Diablo's Fear (Flash), Diablo's Teleport (the sorc-ability), a mind-control thingy (like that paladin-thing), an identify-scroll, a freeze-enemy, and a bullet-time effect.
Stat-requirements of gizmos:
teleport: 20
autodoc: 35
flash (makes enemy run away, effect is turned off by the enemy being shot? Pointless then.): 35
hologram: 38 (2 charges!)
More on the energy weapons: this relates to the resistances, which you have 3, and can only be upped through items. You'd desperately need these, but you won't get them. Theíy also heavily influence what items you are wearing, preventing you from getting the ever so slim upgrades - or just bash head on.
On the sidenote, this game just might be one of
those games which expects you to just stand around infinitely to get healed - because you won't have to resources otherwise to do so, that's for sure.
So, the problem of resistance sis - the enemy have them too! And the damage type of course. But there is no way to cycle through your weapons, adjusting the circumstances - even if you could figure out what has what resistances/damage type! Which you don't! This sucks hardcore.
EDIT:
- so, MAYBE your currency is your ammo, but if it is, it still works this way:
a) your maximum ammo depends on your Science stat
b) blue pods will refill your ammo (pods are rare though). Red pods recharge your HP by the way.
c) if your ammo reaches 0 IN THE CURRENT CLIP, you can buy a new clip for 100 currency.
I'm also curious of this 15 biosphere thing. I've cound some waypoint-teleporters actualy, and they can bring me to the A, B and C biospheres at the moment. But I've been through many more other areas, that do not have qaypoint-teleporters. And this game seems LOOONG already. Getting to the O-biosphere might take ... a while.
Note on energy weapons: definitely stick to your three kinds of weapons. It SEEMS the types are more efficient in areas, but we'll see that. If you don't hurt a flickering (I bet those are energy shields) enemy noticably, definitely change weapon (I hope you saved regularly). This doesn't always help though, some enemies are simply bulett-sponges, for the moment I'm thinking on those giant thingies towering over you like some Empire Walkers from Return of the Jedi.
EDIT 2: You definitely need to specialize. At the end of Biodome E there is the Queen's Nest, obviously holding the (a?) queen monester. As expected, it is a damage-sponge. So if you are using energy weapons, there is a plasma cannon which requires 119 science skill (at this point you could have 130-140 point in science if you spent ALL your points into it), which packs a punch.
There is some things to note here: plasma weapons for this level are useless aside this moment. The other two type is mandatory. This plasma-cannon, which look like a rotating gatling gun from Predator packs a punch - but feeds on your ammo. Whatever, it worth using here, as it does the most damage per shot, and you want this fight to end today, if possible.
I don't even have much idea how a melee character would work here - would definitely need a hugh damage weapon and very thick armor, because the Queen hits very hard.
EDIT 3: The placing in the backpack is good, but there are other annoyances, like loot falling from the enemy can easily fall "of the bridge".
And you better collect all the stuff, because The Good Stuff costs 15,000 $ or more.
On the sidenote, a questor just gave me an item that has so many charges (12), it requires 210 science. Now that's something I won't use. Especialy that it is energy shield, and that's the stupidest thing ever. One: you have to specialize, so you won't have statpoints to spare. Two: it is practicaly Energy Shield from Diablo (except this is glitchless). Three: it consumes energy like not other, so not even energy weapon specialists will use this item.
The best High Tech Items are: 1) teleport to base 2) auto doc 3) identify item. the remaining two lots are whatever, in theory you could use something like battle hologram, but that eats energy too, but at that point whatever. Btw, you can use hotkeys to switch between these items. Too bad the keyboard layout is all over the place.
On the sidenote, seen a 179 science req. energy weapon. Cool
A new feature: there appeared some energy gates. You can pass them harmless, but energy shots definitely not pass it. Fortunately neither does enemy shots, nor the enemies themselves. Melee can't be abused, the monsters don't come THAT close. But I wonder if bow and such projectiles can pass this...
Oh, found a nem implant at the shop. It costs 15K. It swapped two of my stats. Why would anyone want this is beyond me, but it exits.
Another note on a new enemy. I'm at the Blood Swamp. It is a white-armor ranged thingy. Hits VERY hard. And the AI tends to go mad with its shooting. I hate those, because you better try toe-to-toe and hope interrupting its animation will prevent it firing. That method is entirely lotery.
Implants help though, and as implants drop so rare, your only reliable source for anything useful is shop-running. For this it's not enough to leave the base itself, you need to leave the area. This means using the teleport of the base. I invested into a +45 life (costs 7,5K), and a 14% allresist implant (costs 15K+, there are 3 resistances, so triple that number).
Weird thing is, armors very rarely come with any extra ability, especialy low-req stuff, so that's annoying. Isn't a problem - yet.