Am I missing something with this game? Looks... basic?
Sell it to me guys
Really hard to sell the game in 2014 because people will just see another twin stick shooter like 500 similar ones, not to mention it doesnt even have a proper "campaign" and just 50-60 arena levels.
I'd lie if I didnt admit that a big part of it is nostalgia, but even considering the nostalgia effect, everyone who knew and played the game back then loved it and upon replaying the classic version, it still holds up quite nicely. There are 3 things the game did very well which I still think are, in that combination at least, unmatched in the genre still. But they come down to nuances and cant quite be explained with just a video or even the first few levels.
1. The monster spawns get gradually more interesting in these levels, with some levels that even have some puzzle elements to it. I remember a level in which you needed a certain weapon to quickly shoot nests before they spawned enough monsters to protect the nests and you would be forced to fight your way through a horde of dangerous monsters.
2. It was actually challenging and gave you a SHIT TON of enemies. This is how a big enemy crowd in a popular Crimsonland clones looks like:
And this is Crimsonland:
Its just so damn... satisfying and tense to play this game. Sometimes you get bomb item spawns in a huge mass of enemies, in which I was more often than not trying to shoot a way to the bomb and then have everything explode around me. Or I died trying
3. The perks and weapon system. Within a round, you get experience points for killing enemies, which in turn give you fun abilities, some more useful than others, but the progression created from these skill choices worked really, really well. Same thing goes for choosing a certain weapon and then upgrading it with fire/poison bullets or what have you.
It just came together so well and even though it might be nostalgia, I still havent played a single game in the genre that was better in being a fun top down arena shooter. Some games did some extra stuff like campaigns and such, but the core gameplay is still unmatched despite being surprisingly simple. Still, if running around and trying to save your life by shooting zombies sounds completely unappealing to you, the actual game might not convert you
