Xeodrifter | Demonstrative Review
2Xeodrifter is a 2D pseudo-metroidvania. Your ship is seriously damaged while you are flying through space. You are able to locate several strong energy signals which you believe will be parts to repair your ship. You start off with the choice to visit all four of these planets, but you can only progress on one of them. This game presents itself with an exploration focus of gameplay, but it turns out there is only one true path to finishing the game. Once you get a new ability, there is only one place to go to get the next ability. You find a bunch of "relics" or something and you go to this one spot where you can now go to the final boss. Not because the items do anything, but because you have the final ability which lets you enter this area. Defeating the final boss gets you a replacement warp drive so you can take your ship out of here. We aren't told who you are or why you are flying around in a spaceship in the first place. That's all there is to the story.
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What I Like:
+ Customizable weapon fire, progressed with found power-ups. The different options are only explained with small pictures in-game: (in order) bullet speed, bullet size, fire rate, spread pattern, wave pattern)
+ Secrets to be found in side paths, usually found with new abilities gained from the bosses. What you find will either increase your max health or upgrade your gun.
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What I Don't Like:
- Floaty and slippery controls, time holding the jump button to effect height has a minimal effect and jump height is too high at the lowest input level for my taste. Precision platforming is near impossible when you float off in one direction with a slight input.
- False non-linearity. The game gives you no direction, as if you are to find your own path through these environments, but actually there is only one path and you just have to run into all the dead-ends until you find it. Especially in the beginning when starting the game, going to the "wrong" planets first only to find an immediate dead end or obstacle I can't pass is annoying/frustrating. At least point me in the right direction at the start of the game.
- Only one boss type? The same boss is repeated on every planet, it is even the final boss. You destroy it each time, so it has to be different copies of the same boss.
- You can only save your game at your ship and the only checkpoints are before/after a boss. Because of this, most of my deaths were when I was backtracking the long way to my ship. And dying then makes me replay a long section until I can survive getting back to my ship before I can save my game. I think it would have been better if there were more places to save or go back to your ship.
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Conclusion:
I know there are a bunch of things I can point out that I don't like about this game, but I did have fun playing it. I can recommend it, but, just like Mutant Mudds, wait for it to go on sale. Keep in mind that there is a "beat the game in one hour" achievement, which is easy to get when you simply have directions, meaning this game is really short.