Review: PixelJunk Shooter
Incorporating the fundamentals of games like Geometry Wars and Blast Factor but with the inclusion of playing with the elements as well as exploration and puzzle solving thrown in for good measure, PixelJunk Shooter offers a healthy dose of fairly addictive gameplay which is complimented by a funky soundtrack and “mess-around” physics.
The fourth in the PixelJunk series, Shooter offers a slightly similar experience to Eden but it has its own personality and gameplay style that in my opinion is better than Eden. Perhaps I’m just a trigger-happy kind of gamer, I don’t know.
Set on a fictional planet, the humans are mining for resources that the planet offers. However, the scientists in charge of the project get trapped under the ground of the planet and your job is to excavate and rescue them whilst avoiding falling into the traps that the inhabitants of the planet fell into themselves. However, all is not what it seems and there seems to be something lurking deeper still that’s been stirred by the human’s invasion and resourcing.
While the plot sounds like something you’d find in the recycle bin of rejected Avatar plots the narrative becomes pretty much trivial as the gameplay becomes everything and you find yourself playing around with the game’s mechanics, completely oblivious to how and why you are where you are.
The graphical quality is high considering the simplicity of the design. The liquids in the game and the way they move are the most appealing.
The game’s vague plot seems to have been hashed together after the game’s concept was designed to give the motives clarity. You feel that the story is almost irrelevant but that comes slightly with the territory of a short arcade adventure.
However as previously stated the gameplay while it lasts is the star of the show. In control of a little ship you can at first fire a machine gun or homing rockets but later spring forth unrelenting waves of water (and later on lava) onto obstacles to alleviate them and progress forward. Getting sidetracked by those pesky scientists is necessary as collecting (or killing) them all opens the gate to the next area.
Some will help you clarify the reasons why they are trapped in such bizarre circumstances and you find yourself confused as to why you’re forced to travel through dangerous scenarios to rescue scientists when you could be having so much more fun killing enemies who inhabit the areas and messing around the physics of the elements instead.
The enemies are fairly rudimentary and similar in their attacks but they differ in their size and danger levels, the more stronger and frustrating enemies appearing later on as you get used to the controls.
The control mapping is very simple to grasp but the lack of tutorials is a little bit of a nuisance as it was only half way through when I discovered a move that would have come in useful earlier on. You use L1 & L2 to fire a grapple for rescuing and removing certain obstacles from your path, and R1 & R2 to fire your weapon of choice, whether it be the aforementioned machine gun or waves of water/lava.
You gain the use of element control by collecting special ship suits which allow you to progress through the diverse environments. For example, wearing an inverted suit allows you to travel through lava but get destroyed by water. You have to be careful when travelling through the landscapes because even the slightest contact of lava (or water, dependent on suit) can destroy you immediately. Your ship has a system where if you heat up (or cool down) by firing too many rockets or making contact with water, lava or oil your ship is in danger of explosion.
You get to wield the very thing that you fear the most. The game becomes a bit of a playground when you can play with both lava and water.
This can be a nuisance as if you are traversing and you are seconds from reaching the end of a section but you suddenly get hit by a dangerous liquid you can die instantly, meaning you have to repeat the whole stage again. This becomes prominent later on as several more problems and enemies are introduced who clog up the narrow passageways and make it much more complex to progress.
The switch between playing with fire and putting it out is refreshing to experience and when oil and ice are added to the fray in later levels it becomes effectively a fun game of experimentation and trial & error, as you throw together different elements to create the right solution. But the close-quarters level design becomes troublesome as you have to pass harder obstacles in tougher environments before reaching completion.
To complete the game itself, you have to finish three “episodes”, each with different underground terrains and five sub-levels to complete culminating in a boss fight to progress to the next episode. With only three episodes to play through the game ends before it has a chance to truly flourish. The game does set itself up for a sequel but at the cost of a three to four hour experience which should have been more.
Plus when the game draws to a close, considering the rest of the game is fun to play PixelJunk Shooter becomes fairly monotonous and the slightly inaccurate aiming controls and the boxed-in feel of movement is exemplified when the difficulty level of the game seems to jump in the last few levels.
The bosses have a more open area for you to move around and plan your attack and this adds some variety to the gameplay but when certain elements can destroy you within a few seconds of impact the last boss in particular becomes incredibly frustrating to fight based on the boss’ design and attacks.
The boss levels are more open but the space is quickly taken up by the rather versatile bosses and their long-range arsenals.
The game does include a two-player mode allowing you and a friend to play through the game but I’d much rather have a freeplay mode allowing me to mess around with the weaponry and elements because that’s where the game shines the most. How selfish of me yes but you’d see what I mean when you find yourself getting distracted by the shiny water and lava.
Overall Impressions:
While at first it’s an interesting, exciting puzzle-shooter hybrid experience, it slowly transforms into a weary battle between you and the game’s awkward level design and fairly inaccurate aiming system and despite everything it does well you’re left with a bitter aftertaste when the credits roll.
However, don’t let that put you off entirely because while the fun lasts it’s very much worth a venture.
Rating: 
I loved the fluid mechanics and the puzzles presented by the interactions of different elements. Also the soundtrack is incredible, on the awesomeness same level as the Shatter soundtrack.
Fair review, the game’s good but isn’t exactly going to set the world alight. It’ll be good to play-through during a slow-release season.
It was a nice little distraction from bigger games but with Bayonetta, The Saboteur and hopefully Darksiders & Vancouver 2010 too PixelJunk Shooter can’t really compete in size and depth to them.