Clocking in at roughly 80 levels, this is a very long shooter even if the levels feel short. One thing that might catch people off guard is how long the game is. The levels are short even if you consider that it'll take more than one loop to max out your soul meter for the first time. It's something you'll be tasked with if you want more story content. You do need to kill a boss outright, which poses an extra challenge for those who want to squeeze the most out of the game. Then there are the boss fights, which focus less on killing the boss and more on doing enough damage so that a smattering of crystals pop out. Those also create some strategic situations, since the crystal can also block enemy fire, but it doesn't necessarily block the enemies themselves. Some of the levels focus on shooting a large crystal to produce souls instead. It can sometimes create situations where the start of that loop is hopelessly crowded with enemies that take on a ton of damage before blowing up, and the enemies can also hide out due to the negative colors used during that transition, but the annoyance doesn't last long. The levels are short, but reaching the end without filling up that soul percentage meter means that you'll simply warp back to the start of the level for another loop until the meter is filled. The focus on souls also means that the basic design is much different from other shooters. Do you go for the largest enemies in the hope that they produce a ton of souls to collect, or do you go after the multitude of smaller enemies to slowly (but surely) chip away at the percentage meter? It gives the game some strategy, which feels pretty neat in action. It changes the focus a bit, as you have to instantly decide which enemies you should focus on to beat the level in the fastest possible time. Here, levels only end when you capture enough souls to reach 100% of your meter. Normal shooters have you scrolling until the level ends, mostly capped off with miniboss or full boss fights. The biggest change the developers have made to the formula is in the level progression. Some are merely upgrades for existing powers, like boosts to your initial smart bomb special weapon some are new, like having a shotgun-like burst or an umbrella to shield you from more enemy shots and others are passive, like the ability to take on more hits before dying or having an increase in souls dropped by enemies. Souls are collected and used to buy different power-ups. Those become quite useful, as there are times when the title adheres to bullet hell standards either by having bosses throw out a decent amount of firepower at once or have more enemies on-screen than expected. You have a smart bomb at your disposal to blow up every enemy around you and eradicate enemy fire, while a dash button lets you get through obstacles relatively unharmed. The game features an option for auto-aim, but it never feels as intuitive as you aiming the shots for yourself. The game automatically scrolls while you use one stick to move and another to shoot. The one thing that isn't done so well is the fact that the unlocked journal entries rarely match up with the environment you're exploring, and they seem to unlock randomly, making the narrative harder to follow due to their scattershot nature.Īs alluded to earlier, NeverAwake is a twin-stick shooter that adheres to the genre basics. The larger narrative paints a grim picture that makes things less fanciful, and the inclusion of entries about school and her hatred of people can be questionable in the current environment. The thoughts of a little girl dealing with things she hates are an interesting way of telling the story, even though it has been done before. Narrative isn't something that gets much attention in shooters, so you can't help but applaud Neotro Inc., for putting in some effort in crafting a story.
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