Developer: Goody Gameworks
Publisher: Headup
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Gigapocalypse – Review
Huge gigantic monsters are often the lead in impressive stories, but luckily, these things are only a product of our imagination. Nonetheless, what if you wanted to play as a huge monster and wreak havoc on humanity? In the past, we have seen games such as War of the Monsters and Rampage that gave us this opportunity, but sadly this genre has slowly faded to the background over the years. Well, it seems the concept is back with a vengeance. In Gigapocalypse you chose one of nine monsters and start your campaign filled with death and destruction.
Story
It all begins when you choose one of the nine monsters that are divided into three categories: The First Primevals, A Void in the Space, and Old Gods. Each monster has its own lore that you can read before selecting it, and each monster also has its own ending. The game begins when your monster breaks free from its holding cell and steps into a time portal. This allows the monster to wreak havoc upon humanity in various settings throughout the ages.
There isn’t much more to say about story flow or anything. The game allows itself to be picked up and played for shorter sessions, or enjoyed for longer ones. You won’t miss out on anything if you don’t pay that much attention to the overall story.
Graphics
Gigapocalypse has been made with the old days closely in mind. The graphics are very pixilated and made with the right amount of blurriness to ensure an authentical feel, unlike some other games that also use pixilated assets but have the sharpness turned way up having it feel way too modern. Each monster is completely different and has a deep visual resemblance with its category. It looks like a lot of time has been invested into crafting the many different creatures, locations, and attacks, as this game is filled with many nice assets. In total there are six time periods that you must conquer. Each of these settings is nicely made, and only uses elements from its respectable era.
Sound
A game such as this deserves a raw and brutal soundtrack, and that is exactly what the developers added to the game. Death and destruction are encouraged by the really heavy rock music blasting in the background, destroying buildings and eating humans never felt so good. Not only is the music great, but the sound effects are also of equally high quality. Your senses will be greatly rewarded with the sounds of buildings collapsing, people screaming, police sirens, monsters roaring, and many more other ‘triggers’.
Gameplay
Gigapocalypse is an autoscrolling game where you must grow and evolve your monster for world domination. It combines elements from RPG, Tamagotchi, Roguelites, and others, into one elaborate title. If this sounds a bit much, don’t worry, playing the game itself is much easier than you’d expect. It all starts with the selection of the nine available monsters. Each monster their progress is saved separately, so you can easily share the game with others or simply switch between monsters that suit your playstyle better, without losing your overall progress. Each monster has a difficulty indicator, showing the player how easy or hard it is to play with this monster. The easier ones tend to be more powerful and easy to build, while harder ones go more in-depth on skills and specific upgrades.
The core behind Gigapocalypse is super simple: you play a level and try to get to the boss to beat them, but the road to victory isn’t always easy. The army and police will try to stop you, so you’ll have to destroy buildings and use your skills to survive. During each run, you will gain experience and mutation points. With experience, you can unlock and upgrade new skills, while the mutation points allow you to make your monster more powerful, resilient, or invest in pets. These pets will help you collect items, attack buildings, or do damage against opponents. Each level has a halfway checkpoint for when you die mid-run. It is advised, however, to always start from the beginning, as wreaking havoc grants you temporally powerups that can come in handy, especially later in the stage.
Each boss fight is pretty unique. Most of these battles have special mechanics that you need to understand or figure out, making sure you win the battle. It feels like the game has been balanced nicely, and if you fail the boss on the first try, you might be able to take him down easier the next run. The odds will tilt in your favor more and more, the more you level up. The game doesn’t feel like it has a grinding nature, yet it is pretty much impossible to storm through the levels with a low-level monster.
Controlling the game is really simple; your monster moves on its own as do your pets. You only need two buttons for attacking and these can even be substituted by enabling auto attack in the options menu. This gives you much more time to concentrate on your skills, as they need careful resource management, so you don’t run out of whatever resource your monster needs in its pool to cast its skills (some monsters work with rage, others with mana, etc).
Conclusion
Gigapocalypse is an awesome game that is perfect for some brainless fun on a Sunday afternoon while watching TV. This quirky title is perfect to be played in-between bigger titles, but also stands tall on its own. Grinding for resources never feels like a task, but actually serves a nicely balanced way of progression through the levels. With your selection of nine different monsters with each their own progress, you will have enough content to keep you busy for a while. Destroy humanity in six different time periods, and discover what your monster best desires after the campaign. The quality of the graphics and sound are really high, and for the game’s asking price, it’s a no-brainer to just take the plunge with this one.
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