Developer: bitHuffel
Publisher: Adult Swim Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Zenzizenzic – Review
A few months ago we had the chance to test the early access of Zenzizenzic, a twin stick shooter that put old-school shoot ’em ups in a new jacket. Battle your way through two gamemodes alone or together with a friend as you try to land the highest score on the leaderboards!
Story
There’s not much to say story wise, Zenzizenzic doesn’t feature a story whatsoever but it doesn’t really feel like it needs one. This is one of those games that you play for action and to test your skills, having a story in Zenzizenzic would also feel pretty weird. It’s hard to even come up with one since the game is so minimalistic and all about the action.
Graphics
The graphics in Zenzizenzic look great overall. It’s minimalistic, it’s easy to distinguish enemies and their bullets from yourself and on top of that, they’re easy on the eyes (which can be important for a bullet hell game). Some people might not like the minimalist design, but it’s a nice change from the usual games. Almost every enemy in the game is made out of squares, which might not seem that spectacular, but once you start layering them and giving them different colors you can get something pretty unique. The term “Zenzizenzic” also has a mathematical meaning, which is the fourth power of a number. Four… Squares… Anyone?
Performance wise, the game runs smoothly almost all the time. A low budget PC should be able to easily run this, but there was however one area that gave huge problems. In Macro mode, the second boss is enclosed in a big room and sometimes he’ll do a special attack that covers the whole room with laser beams. Whenever this happened when I was still inside his room, the game would drop frames drastically to as low as 3 FPS.
Sound
This is where the game really starts to stand out. The soundtrack is simply amazing and almost single-handedly makes this game awesome. It features 9 high energy soundtracks which are simply a blast to listen to. Zenzizenzic also features moderate sound effects, but this didn’t really seem bothering. It likes minimalism and banging music, which is great.
Gameplay
Zenzizenzic is a pretty easy game to play but it gets really hard over time. As said before, it’s a twin stick shoot ’em up that will test your patience and skill. You play as a little square and control it with the mouse and WASD. Other actions include speeding up, slowing down, activating special weapons, using items and some more. The game also has full controller support, which is to be recommended because it gives a much smoother gaming experience.
The game has two completely different game modes with everything available in different difficulty levels. One is the Classic mode and the other one is Macro. In Classic mode, your goal is simply to make it to the end of the level while collecting as much score as you can. Of course, you do this by shooting enemies, picking up powerups and most importantly, not dying! Classic mode features five levels and the further you get, the harder it will be. Every level also has its distinctive enemies and graphical style, which is a nice addition.
Macro mode is an extremely unique mode which isn’t seen a lot in shoot ’em ups. It’s basically a little open world dungeon crawler/sandbox type of gamemode. In here, your goal is to get as far into the levels as possible but there is no limitation to where you can go. You progress through the levels by killing enemies and filling up a bar at the bottom of the screen, once it’s full the boss will spawn which needs to be eliminated. The levels also have randomly generated mazes, secrets, items, powerups and shops. You can also permanently upgrade everything you can imagine: shot speed, shot damage but also things like resource cost reduction.
In terms of attack, you have your basic shot which can be upgraded to level two and three by picking up powerups, both in the Macro and Classic gamemodes. You also have two special weapons at your disposal. You’ll start off with a laser beam and rocket barage, but as you get more score, you can unlock things like a black hole and teleportation. When talking about defense, you have a shield and three lives. The shields work similar in Classic and Macro and can also be obtained by killing enemies, but in Macro you can have two layers of shields while you can only have one in Classic. The shields aren’t only there for defensive purposes though. When it’s getting too busy, you can make it explode into an ‘Area of Effect’ attack which damages enemies and clears bullets.
Killing enemies increases your score multiplier, which will reset when you die. Picking up score also fills up your power bar which allows you to perform the special weapons you pick. In Macro mode, you can also use your score to buy items at the shop, so you’ll have to choose between upgrades or getting higher on the scoreboards!
Conclusion
Zenzizenzic already felt like a finished game in Early Access and now it feels even more so. Macro mode has undergone a lot of changes throughout the development phase and is now a really fun and challenging gamemode. The game features exciting, action-packed levels and has a high difficulty but still leaves something for the new players. It also has an extremely awesome soundtrack which adds a lot to the overall game experience.
Zenzizenzic - Review,
No Comments