Developer: Santa Clara Games
Publisher: Badland Games
Platforms: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
8DAYS – Review
8DAYS is a dual stick shooter where you play as a mercenary, your job is to bring peace by making war and then the propaganda will cover it all up and make you look like the good guys. “Solve” conflicts, shoot everything you see or go stealth mode and try to run past everything in this fast paced action game.
Story
In 8DAYS, the world has been dominated by dark forces since the dawn of time. In order to control the masses and bias the public opinion, the G.O.D. and 8DAYS Magazine were started. The G.O.D. is peacekeeping force which sends mercenaries in troubled areas in order to resolve conflicts in any way necessary, and the 8DAYS Magazine does its best to cover everything up that was gruesome. You can play as one of two mercenaries in 8DAYS, each with their own background. Mike Doe was born in Australia and has worked undercover during the Second Gulf War. Lola Cruz was born in Chiapas and she has learned to infiltrate the shadows with hidden powers.
The game will have you play a couple of different chapters, each with their own little story. The first chapter for example is where the eastern countries don’t want to ship any more sushi to the western world, so you have to go in and resolve the conflict by “diplomacy”.
8DAYS’ story is pretty small and not significant for the most part, but it provides some context to the missions you’re playing, who your characters are and what is going on in the world. The story is also a little bit humorous at times, especially the 8DAYS Magazine after you complete a mission and they try to cover up your horrible deeds.
Graphics
The graphics in 8DAYS look pretty old school, everything is rather “pixely” and makes it feel like you’re playing and old looking game. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing however since the the game seems to be inspired by old arcade games with modernized controls.
Sound
8DAYS’ sound is pretty solid overall. The music changes depending if you’re in combat or not and it’s actually quite nice music, definitely when in combat. It’s very intense music that gets you going, because you’ll need to do a lot of fast maneuvering if you want to survive at certain times. The boss music is also fairly solid, it fits quite nicely with the game and with the bosses. Sound effect wise there’s nothing special to talk about, they’re not amazing but they’re not bad either.
Gameplay
8DAYS is a fast paced dual stick shooter which is very unforgiving. The game can be played with both keyboard & mouse and controller, you can also mix the both when playing local co-op. The controls are fairly well done, the only remark is that changing weapons should also be bound to the scroll wheel for a mouse and keyboard setup, right now it’s on space which is pretty counter-intuitive for a lot of gamers.
As said in the Story section, 8DAYS features a couple of different playable chapters, each one getting unlocked after you complete the previous one. Every level consists of a couple of screens and the game gets saved every time you enter a new screen. This is pretty unforgiving as you only have three HP before you die, and if you die you get reset to the last screen you started. This means that if you enter a new screen with one health you have to complete it with one health. If you can’t finish that screen with your current health, you have to reset the mission and start all over again. This mechanic is probably what makes the game difficult and frustrating at the same time.
Most of the gameplay is pretty straightforward. You usually start a mission with one weapon and have to pick up weapons from enemies you kill. You can only hold two weapons at the same time though so you have to make decisions constantly if you want to swap out one of your guns or not. There’s a pretty nice variety of weapons in the game and they’re all very different to shoot, which makes it have a nice variety. There are also melee weapons you can use, which usually one shot enemies so it’s great if you take a stealthy approach to the levels.
8DAYS also features bosses and mini bosses. At the end of every level you have a boss, and during the level you can encounter mini bosses. These bosses usually require some figuring out until you know what their weak point is and until you figure out their attack pattern. Once you kill the end boss, the next level will start. Just keep doing that and you should finish the game after quite some time!
Conclusion
8DAYS is a pretty fun game from beginning to end, although it has a lot of frustration attached to it. The game is challenging, action-packed, fast paced and requires your full attention. There are also secrets to be found and multiple approaches that can be taken in every level, so there’s some replay value to be found as well. The only downside is that it’s extremely unforgiving for novice players.
8DAYS - Review,
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