Planetary Shield – Review
Sometimes spinning on old familiar territory is a brilliant way to take inspiration or well known ideas, features and dynamics and bring them into a stunning and compelling new light. In the case of Planetary shield I am not sure they built properly off of that formula.
The title is a fun alternative to the original asteroids though and is available both on the android platform and in the Indy section of the Xbox live marketplace.
Story:
Being a small title that is only 99 cents on the Xbox marketplace, it did amaze me that it actually does have a story. In short an meteorite shower finds it’s way to the planet and one by one began to descend onto earth, destroying almost every major city in the process. To counter and in response, two weaponized satellites are launched into space that collect energy (it is not explained how or why or what), but this energy blankets the planet and allows them to channel a laser together so that an energy ball can be focused in the middle of said laser and then launched out as a large projectile. That ‘laser ball’ is the weapon that you use for the entire game and is what if anything that actually protects the earth from the oncoming meteorite onslaught.
Sound:
I personally did not notice more than one sound track , the track was in no way bad and had a dark groove electronic feel to it (something close to but not quite the same as the title Darwinia if you’ve played that). Other then that most of the sound in the game is consisted of the noise generated by flinging the laser ball at an meteorite and the detonation of said meteorite.
Graphics:
The graphics of the game are simple but convey their point as they remind me of older asteroids titles. Personally I think they could’ve cell-shaded or did something gimmicky to add to the graphical appeal but the explosions from the meteorites are not bad. Neither is the glowy pulse of the planet below or the surging of the laser ball, all of those are graphical high points for this title.
Gameplay:
In consideration to the smallness of the title and the fact it is a lot of work for 99 cents, there’s quite a bit to it. Unfortunately I have also played free titles that have even more though. The game is in the same category as things such as ‘Lovers in Dangerous spacetime’, ‘Beat Hazard’, and other asteroids based titles. However I do not think the title does enough feature wise to compete with those other ones or to breathe new life into the classic “asteroids” genre. You have your satellite and your laser ball and you destroy meteorites and that’s basically the high point. The game has a level system where you progress through levels but after being at level one for roughly 20 minutes I decided to stop focusing on that and focus on the games other noteworthy features.
The flinging of a projectile to keep things away or to even decimate them is nothing new, but for a few minutes felt pretty fun with this game; it was fun rather up until the time I noticed the sharp cut off in the projectiles trajectory path and that the fact their little dotted guide that shows you said path does not show that or how hard the ball curves off course. The previously stated issue wouldn’t be much of a problem if there were power ups to deal or amplify the laser ball it’s self, there are sort of collectibles that float by (a rocket looking bubble, which I believe then triggers a rocket to come out of planet, which purposely steers for meteorites and comes back down again if you clear it’s flight path), but they have little to no purpose and from what it seemed (never did save the rocket) only padded your score, but very well could have something to do with the level system or story. The ‘feature’ that actually bothered me the most is when you quit out the level you’re doing to go back to the game’s main menu, it has that class “game over” process and shows the planet your protecting blow up. To me that’s not a way to keep players going.
Conclusion:
The title has a decent start but is mired with issues from its own system (not engaging gameplay, no diversity to meteorites or even other enemies, bad flight path, no power ups, no proper level system), but for such a small title it does give a sort of enjoyment, even if that enjoyment is not as awesome as it should be given the absolute potential this title does have and personally I would like to see it developed up to the sort of recognition that beat hazard or other asteroids styled indie games have already reached and grasped, because if the systems or features in this game were improved (or if given online co-op) the game as a whole would evolve.
Planetary Shield - Review,
No Comments