Review: Xotic
By Miodrag Kovačević | September 19, 2011 | Reviews | No comments | Share
I don’t think I’ve ever been intimidated by a trailer as much as when I saw Xotic’s. It looked like a mixture of Quake and Bust-A-Move, demanding precision aiming and trick shots to rack up the highest possible score. I’ve never managed to satisfy the requirements for the insane reaction time and accuracy required for high-level Quake 3 play. Before playing it, Xotic looked like you needed the same skill to prosper. Surprisingly, making a leap of faith rewarded me with quite a unique experience.
As Exotic as It Can Get
While watching the exposition of Xotic’s story, I pictured Daft Punk on stage, pressing a synthesizer key for each robotic sentence uttered. The plot is as foggy as it gets. Once upon a time, there was an entity known as the Orb. The Orb was sad that it had no body, its sadness driving the entity insane. Then it started taking over the bodies of other beings, leaving life on planets destroyed or corrupted in its wake. Que our hero, another entity which was created by forces unknown and given an insect-shaped weapon, the Macroterra, to stop the Orb.
However, the awkwardness doesn’t end with the plot. The levels, the design of the main character, the UI, it all has a strange twisted ‘90s PC gaming vibe to it. It’s extremely refreshing in its vintage look because it differs even from modern titles which intentionally try to avoid the emphasis on grey and brown.
The weapons and power-ups are much less exotic in function, but still try to offer an appropriate visual flavor. You’ll easily be able to discern what the game’s equivalent of shotgun, sniper and grenade launcher is.
If Bub and Bob Had a Gun
The literal objective of most levels in Xotic is to destroy all enemies and exit the level. However, what you really want to do is get shinies and cause chain reactions to get as many points as possible. Each level is scattered with red orbs, which are either connected or isolated. When you destroy an orb, you get points. If the red slime balls are connected, each one you destroy causes the next one in the chain to explode as well. The more orbs you destroy, the less time you have before you need to eliminate another one and maintain the chain reaction. Obviously, longer combos mean more points.
In addition, there are Orb essences scattered throughout the level, which can be picked up either normally, or while you are mid-air, the latter meaning even more points. It’s hardly the only modifier in the game; you also get bonuses for things like “Fly Kill,” eliminating an enemy while in the air.
The way the game scores you is very arcade-like. There are always more combos, always more modifiers you can get, a faster time you could have achieved… It encourages the same gameplay found in games of old, with the exception of the high score table being world-wide rather than bound to a single cabinet.
The level design is also good for short bursts, with very few levels taking longer than ten minutes on the first run. The orb placement is also such that you could achieve a perfect chain reaction in every stage if you’re good enough.
Design Over Function
While the gameplay design is top notch and achieves its goal with excellent grades, Xotic seems to suffer from some technical problems, or rather, lack of options. Video options are nonexistent, so the game uses whatever your desktop resolution is. The mouse sensitivity settings don’t seem to have a relevant impact, so I had to use my MX518’s built-in DPI buttons to get a desired sensitivity. While not something I’d usually complain about, precision is something of a must for this kind of game.
Another issue I had while playing was projectile collision with enemies. More often than not, shooting a baddie while he is partially in cover would have my bullet just go straight through him. I was usually forced to wait for enemies to come out in the open before I could bother fighting them. One moment even had them stand behind a gigantic stone block, hidden from my sight, but allowing their projectiles to go through the cover and hit me with godlike precision.
This all made them feel more like a hassle than a challenge, as well as making me look forward to the time trial levels which were devoid of such hazards.
Yay or Nay?
Lurking a bit on the Steam forums has revealed that future patches promise fixes for most issues I mentioned above. If the three-man developer team goes through with their promise, you can easily add another number to the score below. Despite these issues, Xotic is still a very enjoyable experience and if you’re a fan of arcade gameplay and first person shooters, it is definitely worth getting. I’ll also note that the European and US Steam prices are actually the same instead of $1 being converted to €1, which is a rarity on the distribution platform.
Score: 7.5/10 | Read our Scoring Policy |
