BitMaster is a new twin stick shooter by Sometimes You. It only costs $5 but unfortunately plays like an action game built on a tight budget.
From a maze-like environment, the goal is to kill all the plainly designed geometric shapes until the boss appears. The concept is simple enough but gameplay falters at every turn. The floaty controls are too inaccurate for a game that demands precision. Enemies are bullet sponges and the player can never shoot fast enough; getting overwhelmed and circle strafing is the only tactic to use.
There is the occasional power-up but they are only slightly better than the standard, default pea shooter. After each death, the game tallies your kills and the playable character can level up but I never noticed any change in gameplay; it also takes forever to unlock anything new. The right bumper shoots and cannot be remapped to the trigger which makes extended session uncomfortable. Speaking of extended gameplay sessions, each wave lasts way too long and is grindy attrition. The maze environments do not perform any favors either as it is super easy to get caught in a corner with no chance to escape; one mistake can easily cost you the game. Enemies don’t flash or blink when they take damage so you have no indicator if they are receiving damage either.
In addition to these gameplay flaws, the rest of the presentation doesn’t perform much better. For some reason the game will activate this really bad blue/red 80s 3D effect that will either make you vomit, turn off the game, or have a seizure. Why does this game offer an ugly mode like this?! It is so bizarre. Even when the presentation doesn’t want to make you collapse in a seizure, the floor and the rest of the environment are constantly moving which becomes distracting and visually difficult to see. Due to the awkward angle of the camera, the player cannot see anything when moving toward the screen (down) and will always get shot from off screen. Moving up isn’t an issue though. The sound effects are also laughably bad and probably would have been better if they were omitted altogether.
I am a fan of Sometimes You titles but BitMaster simply isn’t fun. If you manage to tough it out and make it to a boss, they boss will ruthlessly hunt you down with zero chance to survive and the story makes no sense and there are no leaderboards. This game costs $5 for a reason. Go play almost any other Sometimes You title instead.
SCORE: 4/10
Not As Good As: Geometry Wars
Don’t Forget About: Explosionade DX
Wait For It: a new Halo twin stick shooter
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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