Reviews for DN8:Pulse

[Chronocidal]

I liked the 3d backgrounds, and I thought the multi-lingual warning text was a neat touch (even though I don't understand the other languages...). The game looks great on my computer (i7, dedicated GPU). Slowing the game when the cursor moved out of the play area was a nice touch. So were the enemy paths, although getting a nice obvious bonus when you shoot down an entire wave would be nice. I don't know if it's your idea or you got it somewhere else, but setting the difficulty by allowing different upgrade paths is a really cool alternative to the usual selection of "easy, normal and hard" at the beginning of the game (but see below).

On the small negative side, better contrast between your bullets, enemy bullets, and the enemy path lines would be nice (maybe difficult to pull off though). Also make it more obvious that one upgrade path is "easy" and the other "hard" (I missed the small text at first, and it's not immediately obvious that once you start down one path you can't go down the other). And having no more upgrades for the remaining few levels is sort of a downer. Finally, not being able to move up and down in the first level is disorientating. It's over fast enough, but I worry that some people might be so irritated that they would quit before they find out it's temporary.

Great job!

Squize responds:

Thanks mate.

The easy / hard path thing was something someone mentioned with the first DN8. One was always going to be aggressive and the other defensive, and the feedback was the bottom path was a lot easier, so it was a no brainer to label them up, but I didn't want to beat anyone over the head with it.

The first level is really just a basic training one, I wanted the player to get used to the HUD and shooting before giving them complete freedom of movement. If it switches some people off then that's just the way it is I'm afraid.

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the review.

[DeMatt]

Really enjoyed the game.

First time I tried to play on the 2nd level the ships wouldnt die. I could hit them and it registered that and showed the points above the baddie. But they wouldnt die and after the level it didnt continue to the upgrades screen.

After I refreshed it was all good. Didnt know if you heard of this happening. Thanks.

[Ihatebots]

Wicked game. But the looping soundtrack gets kind of annoying. I love how the enemies' path are projected. Otherwise, this game would be crazy difficult!

[unknown152000]

I really liked it... simple but really rocks.. i spend almost an hour to finish this game..

Squize responds:

Excellent, that's great to hear, thanks.

[MehNameless]

Very fun and visually pleasing game! The gameplay was just shy of being repetitive, which in my opinion is the best half-way point between frustration and boredom. The endless barrage of sweet sweet eye candy isn't a minus either, and the game was just challenging enough to be addicting.

A couple things, however, took away from the game a bit.

For one thing, throughout my entire first playthrough, I was clicking between the perk and "talent tree" menus, wondering, "where the hell is this challenges page and why do I keep getting random ones??". It was only after I beat the game that I saw the page on the MAIN menu. So, if you could please, add the challenges menu into the in-between-battles screen.

Also, the "talent tree" is... not unbalanced, per say, but perhaps... unduly strict. It was after I chose the Double Shot for the first branch that realized there was absolutely no going back, even for talents just one back, which made my life incredibly miserable because without shields I always get pummeled into space dust no more than 2 or 3 minutes into each fight, so I had to start over. That said, maybe you could institute a more lenient system of choosing talents? Maybe a system of buying them instead of strictly PICK THIS OR THE OTHER, NO TAKEBACKS. Or at least add a warning saying that <-----

Overall, a really well-done shoot-em-up space top-shooter, nothing INCREDIBLY innovating but fun nevertheless. Good work.

Squize responds:

Great review, thanks.

That's a good point about the challenges screen, something we'll factor into future games.