Soldner X2 Review

SoldnerX2 for the PlayStation 3… Is an extremely fun 2-d ship shooter. I haven’t seen such a good game in this genre for ages. And I’m talking about since Thunder Force 3 for the Sega Genesis. The only way to get this game is by downloading off the PlayStation Store for $12.99. It also has an add-on content for $4.99. The add-on includes 3 new stages, more challenges and more unlockables.

When you start the game the intro starts up. The virus war continues and other stuff you might not care about. Though the game isn’t meant for story. It would be nice to have at least a decent story, but it doesn’t matter since the gameplay is superb. After the intro the tittle screen shows up. It offers 5 modes. One being the normal arcade game. Second “Challenges. “A mode with well… challenges. Example: “Complete the first three stages at any difficulty level without losing any ships (lives.) It may sound pointless to some of you who just want to play the full arcade game, but you are actually awarded for beating these challenges. Like more credits (continues,) PSN trophies, new in game weapons and/or new ship models. There are really hard to beat. If you want that new weapon. Well your going have to be patient. Because it’s going to take some time, but in the end it will all be worth it. There is a High Score mode. It’s self-explanatory. It just pretty much shows off local high scores and online too. It also has a “replay” button in it. I think it’s a clip of gameplay, but I haven’t touched it yet. Next mode is “Awards.” It displays all of your achievements what level you are, how much credits you have, unlocked weapons and ships, stats, and stage accomplishments. Last you have option mode. It’s your typically option mode. Changing the difficulty level, controls, amount of lives you start with, etc. Also in the bottom right of the tittle screen it shows how many “credits” you have. They are earned by levelling up and by completing some challenges.

Ok I am starting the arcade mode…The first screen I see is a stage selection. Ok I choose stage 1. After a ship selection screen shows up. Each ship are different models with it’s own unique weapons. First ship is the “Thor” The weapons are Bounce Laser, and Scatter Gun. Bounce Laser is your average small ball laser, seen in any ship game. Scatter Gun is little pulses of circular laser spreading with short range. Second ship is “Nexus 2”. I love that name the Nexus 2. When human makes their first bar in space. It should be called the “Nexus.” Just sounds so awesome. Anyways…The ships weapons are Bullet Gun ,and Magma Cannon. Bullet Gun is the same as Scatter Gun, but it has long range but it is less powerful. Magma Cannon shoots a big red laser shooting horizontally. With the bullet gun you stay back in a corner shooting, but with the Magma Cannon you can’t do that. That may sound like a bad weapon, but it’s EXTREMELY powerful. There is a third ship, but that has to be unlocked, so I won’t spoil that for you.

I choose my ship ,and I see the gameplay begin. The first thing I noticed were the beautiful graphics. 2.5-d at its finest. The graphics are crisp and rich, and not to mention the background is very well detailed. It is just so nice and flashy. Now with the gameplay. The game is simple enough you move, shooting and kill enemies, dodge, and progress through the level. There are a verity of enemies, and there are all around the screen swarming. With this much weapons firing at you it will be a laser storm. Back to the enemies for a minute. There are about 4 different types of them. One being very small. They may be small, but they always come in large groups. And no other class come in large groups. Class 2 is normal size ships. They take tad longer to defeat, and that’s pretty much it. 3rd class is big enemies. That take a little time to defeat, but they are overloaded with power. They take lot of damage, so beware of them. Guardian/Mid-boss. There is 1 almost every level. They are like bosses from other 2-d ship games. Just learn their movements, and just blast at them. At the end of each stage there is a boss waiting to kill you. These battles last to 2-7 minutes. It may seem like the developers are just dragging the games length, but they are…In a good way. They are fun. They are huge. They are powerful! Hope I didn’t scare you about fighting a boss for a number of minutes it is fun. Take a look at the top middle of the screen. You will see the bosses’ health meter. The orange part of the health means “phase.” Which means when you wipe out all of the orange the bosses will change it’s phase. boss has at least 3 phases. And that’s what makes the bosses interesting!

So now I gave a brief idea how the game is. Now I can go more in depth. But before that I just want to mention one more thing. See the health bar in the top left of the screen? The ships there represent how much lives you currently have. You can earn more lives by finding them in a few levels. Below the health bar. You’ll see a “Power Bar.” That shows how strong your equipped weapon is . To fill to the max collect “P” power-ups. You find them by killing enemies. It only works on the weapon your currently using. It will not affect other weapons. Third bar lists all the weapons you have. Press L1 and R1 to switch between them. Be sure not to die or else you will lose the weapon(s) you collected. The last bar at the bottom left of the screen is your specials. Shockwave blasts all enemies around you with a great amount of damage, but it’s small-medium range. To find this shockwave. Kill enemy ships until you see a power-up with lot of circles on it. Collect it and fire…but you should really save it for crowed moments. Also you have “OVERLIMIT.” The most powerful weapon in the game. It’s dooms day for everyone. You collect it the same as the other power-ups. Collect the power-up which is a blue circle with a backwards C, but you need to find 3 of them. Ok I change my mind that was more in depths.

So know you know almost everything…But there is more to explain. There is also another blue power-up. That one gives you an extra fighter ship to help you. Note: The most you can have at once is 2. And the white power-up with the “X (number here)” Multiplies your score for a short period of time. When you are down to 1-8% of health the music will change. Indicating you will die soon. No worries you can collect a health power-up, which is green with a heart on it. If there is no health pack just wait some seconds and your health will slowly rise to 15%. If you get hit you will have to wait another some seconds for the temporally affect to occur again. If you want see when the ends. Please refer to the bottom left of the screen. See the circler bar with the blue meter, that’s how long it will last, so when the blue is gone, so is the affect. On the top right of the screen is your score. Also your ranking. To get your F to an A, don’t get hit. Also the ranking is also affected by the score board at the end of each level. Oh right there are rings in this game. Straight out of Sonic! Anyways they have no purpose it only gets you trophy when you collected a great amount. But why I see it’s useless, because it doesn’t give you any in game benefits. Talking about killing enemies for rings. You can earn kill points. Every time when you defeat an enemy ship you will get one. Refer to “rewards” to see how much you need to level. Ok so I passed stage 5, but I can’t go to stage 6…Oh yeah I forgot to mention you need to collect 4/5 “secret keys.” To advance through stages 5-6, and yes that means ALL the stages. Well once beaten a level you can access it in stage select.

The music…Is very original. Not in a bad way. In an amazing way actually. It sounds like retro and modern videogame mixed together. And most gamers thought mixing retro with modern would not work out. Well their wrong there… There is one negative part about this game. That is this annoying B**** in the speaker. She ALWAYS states the obvious. Fortunely you don’t hear most of the time. Her voice is just annoying…And there is an option to shut her up, but…I hate saying but. The option turns her voice off, also along with the BGM!

Well my verdict is simple. Buy this game. Along with the DLC. You can’t go wrong buying all of Solder X2 content for under $20. Not only is the gameplay good. The appeal of the game is good also. It last for 50 hours. But that’s just me. You true 2-d ship shooter fans will love this forever. Everything feels fresh, since every time the enemies have new tactics. Not to mention it includes two players. Even though you share the same everything…even the life bar and lives. Other than that you wasted your time reading this review. All you had to do was read the words “awesome,” “good,” etc. And IMEDIALLY buy this game. Well at least do yourself a favour by having fun with is game.
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Graphics
2/2
The graphics in this game is obviously amazing. But there is 1 thing in the graphics those others games don’t have today. Can you guess that? Well it’s simple. A lot of colors!

Music/Sound
1.8/2
The music is really nice. The awesome mix with retro and modern. The sci-fi music is great, but the annoying lady isn’t…

Gameplay
3.5/3.5
It’s like other 2-d ship games. Just shoot down enemy ships and progress through the level. Not only that, but this game feels unique when you compare to other games.

Appeal/Fun
2.5/2.5
Done all 10 levels? Well you have 4 difficulties to beat this on. Not to mention challenge mode is time consuming. Finished everything? Play with a friend. Don’t have anyone to play with at the moment? Well play the arcade mode again. Because each play through feels fresh ,since the enemies always do new tactics.

Overall
9.8/10
Amazing!