Developer: BlueEagle Productions
Publisher: Paul Schneider
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Dimension Drifter – Preview
Dimension Drifter sounds a bit like yet another eighties movie that’s been dug up to become a new Netflix series. While the premise of this game, you being the only person between a demonic force and the rest of the world, is somewhat acceptable as material for such a series, it’s actually an Early Access release by BlueEagle Productions. We immediately sniffed a bit of influences from old school DOOM games, a touch of Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament and a few flashy new character models, which seemingly make a good mix. The game is still very barebones at the moment, but we still had some fun blasting our way through the many enemies that stood between us and the end goal.
We can immediately tell you the story of the current build isn’t all that much, and is actually very negligible, making you ignore it and just press on with the levels. There’s a bit of background on what is going on, why monsters are seemingly invading the world, but it all feels a bit nonsensical and just like there was a small need to implement a background to justify this game for having slim story value. Overall we hope this part of the game gets a bit of extra attention, but with that being said, we immediately got the bad part of the game out of the way, leaving us to focus on fun mechanics and future options.
Dimension Drifter has fun visuals, which are reminiscent of games of the late nineties, early 2000s, albeit with a new lick of paint. The lead character has that nineties vibe, with her perfect figure, her somewhat exposed chest and her cute but badass appearance. The weapon animations are nicely done, and while there are only a few enemy models available, it’s fun to see them blasted into smithereens, all accompanied by enough gore to fill several buckets with blood. While the aesthetics may not always be that ‘next gen’, the game looks good, everything moves extremely fluently and the game just lives and breathes the atmosphere it’s aiming for.
Music wise, the game has some adrenaline fueled tunes, but at the moment it seems the soundtrack is somewhat limited in diversity. Nonetheless, the music is good, the sound effects too, and they really get you in the mood to run and gun until you either clear a stage, or die trying.
As mentioned above, the game has an old school vibe, which works perfectly with its run and gun mechanics. The game is very much like older titles, fairly fast paced, somewhat unrealistically so, making it quite fun to play through, and it also means you’ll have to keep your eye on the prize, if you wish to survive. The controls are simple, but the melee button is sometimes a bit awkward to reach if you leave everything on the standard settings. Currently you’ll make do with a pistol and a shotgun, but they both have alternate fires, creating some diversity in the gun combat.
At the moment you’ll simply have to run through different room based arenas, where when you open a new door, new monsters spawn. This means that monsters can also spawn in areas you’ve already been to keep you on your toes. You’ll simply have to reach the end goal to complete the level, even if you haven’t explored everything, or haven’t uncovered all the different hidden chests. Overall the concept is simple but very enjoyable. We do hope some new environments will be implemented as all levels feel a bit similar at the current time of testing. Nonetheless, the formula works and is very enjoyable thanks to the fact paced action.
When clearing levels you can also get new bonuses, such as trinkets, armor, pistol and shotgun mods, etc. While many of the customization options are still locked or not implemented, it’s clear the game will have a few of them to spice things up. At the moment we found some gun mods, armor packs, trinkets and so on, which will strengthen your character, making it somewhat more resilient against the many enemies you’ll encounter.
Conclusion
While Dimension Drifter may simply be all about ‘run and gun’ mechanics, the game does feel promising thanks to its fluent gameplay, the promise of more and more customization options and the overall graphical prowess of the game. We amused ourselves with the fast paced shooter and we’re quite eager to see the product finished. If you love old school shooters, with a hint of gore and a busty leading character, then you might want to give this Early Access title a spin.
Dimension Drifter - Preview,
No Comments