Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/34920/
Source: Youtube Channel INVENT4E
Developer: Invent4 Entertainment
Publisher: Strategy First
Platforms: PC
Release Date: Jul 19, 2010
Genre: Shoot-Em-Up
Pro:
+ Lots of action going on all the time
+ Incredible graphics for backdrops, enemies, effects, and user-interface
+ Not particularly memorable, but some pretty good orchestrated tracks
+ Upgradeable weapons, defenses and boosters
Cons:
- All sorts of problems when mapping keys to a controller
- The hit box for the player's ship is the whole ship, and bullets are pretty long/big
- You can't save the game in-between and nothing is saved other than hi-scores
- Even at the highest weapon upgrades, they're weak against even regular enemies
- The game's mechanics is flawed and poorly designed for a Shoot-em-up
- A lot of the boss battles are similar to each other with a few exceptions
Recommended: No, there are so many other better shoot-em-ups to play on Steam/PC
Razor 2: Hidden Skies presents itself really well in videos and screenshots due to its incredible graphics. The backdrops are 3D as many other objects in the game are, but still plays like a 2D vertical shooter. The effects from weapons, enemy explosions and such are flashy and color showing a more modern aesthetic to an old-school style of shoot-em-ups. The first problem I had with the game was trying to reconfigure the keys onto a controller and having all sorts of problems. I eventually had to download a keyboard to joystick program in order to get it somewhat working (the keys were still mapped wrong for some odd reason). As I got further into the game, enemies became significantly more resilient to my weapons, and so I focused on large damage to get through some of the heavy waves that appears; however, the weapons at full upgrade still struggles to take down the simplest of enemies. Adding onto the indestructibility of enemies is the amount of bullets they shoot out. It's normal for a shoot-em-up to have its difficulty rise by adding more bullets on the screen, but then I realized that the hit-box for the player's ship is the whole ship. It is literally impossible to dodge enemy bullets half-way through the game. This lead up to the notion that it was designed to have the player buy and upgrade stronger shields for the ship which would mean they would have to sacrifice weapon strength which was already struggling to take down enemies at full upgrade. Bullets are abundant and rather long in length, much like the ship. The player can choose to continue once after they have lost all their lives. But if they lose all their lives a 2nd time, it's game over and the player has to start over from the very beginning. The game looked great, but plays very poorly.
Aesthetics
Art-style: 2.5D Sci-fi
+ Incredible, moving, 3D backdrops that really immerses the player
+ Lots of colorful effects and explosions from enemies and gunfire
+ Clean and well designed user-interface
+ Okay orchestrated music
- The 3D graphics make it difficult to discern the orientation of projectiles
- Enemy bullets are the same color as player weapons (bullets hides behind them)
- The music isn't particularly memorable, nor does it really change the mood
Aesthetics: 6/10
Buttons
Controller: Keyboard, gamepad or joystick
+ Simple move, shoot, and alternate shoot button layout
+ Automatically auto-fires, no need to constantly mash the shoot button
+ Easy weapon and alternate switch
- Lots of problem mapping controllers and joysticks, mainly the directionals
- Moving with the keyboard is difficult when dodging bullets
Buttons: 6/10
Concept & Content
Core Concept: Shoot through enemies, buy upgrades, repeat
+ The 3D graphics and Orchestrated music has a nice modern feeling
+ There's a lot of action going on, keeping the player on their toes
+ Having 3 different weapons to accommodate situations adds dynamics
+ There's 3 difficulty levels to choose from
- Why is the hit-box so large in a shoot-em-up?
- Upgrades are a gimmick
- Weapons are weak, even at the highest upgrade
- Advertised as a casual game, but I can hardly imagine a casual gamer enjoying it
- All the boss battles are pretty similar with a few exceptions
Concept and Content: 4/10
Duration
- Played through it once and can't stand it anymore, not playing again, not worth it
Duration: 4/10
Fun
+ I have to admit that I really liked the stylized graphics
+ It was pretty exciting to see my weapons look stronger, but they were still weak
- I was already annoyed trying to get the controller to work with the game
- My weapons were so weak even at full upgrade
- It's irritating that it's necessary to upgrade shield because you HAVE to get hit
- The final straw was having to start all over after dying
Fun: 3/10
Overall
Honestly, Razor 2: Hidden Skies has a lot of potential to be a great Shoot-em-up. Sadly, it's poor design choices and problems with controller detect has turned it into a regrettable experience. I read many posts by other players that the game had tons of bugs and problems when it first released, so it was worse than it is now. If they fixed the controller support, made a smaller hit-box that's visible to see, made weapons stronger and more useful, have the player start over a level rather than the whole game when they've lost all their lives (at the very least on Easy), allow saving and new game+ for persistence, and recreate some more dynamic and interesting boss battles, I'd gladly double the score I'm about to give. But as it stands now, it's only a game of potential that isn't worth the time. Overall: 4.6/10
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