Platform: PC

Developer: Kraken Empire

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A (90%)
 

Now, here’s a crazy paradox for you: Kromaia is an arcade-style shooter that’s currently PC-only, yet it bridges that gap between old and new tech and ideas past the point of reinvigorating a genre that might seem a better fit for consoles or yes, arcades. Yeah, yeah – you PC die-hards will be rolling your eyeballs and shaking your fists in my general direction right about now. But I counter that stuff by saying this is exactly the sort of game that needs to be on more platforms and not just exclusive to PC, no matter how large the potential player base is. It’s that good, that fun and that challenging and nope, you 3D-hating shmup fans aren’t getting off easy by skipping this because it’s not got a sprite in sight. The game is new-school looking, old school hard as nails and while “short” (Note: Arcade 101, Class 1: it’s not the length, but how much you go back to the game that counts), packs quite a memorable punch…

While there’s a back story to all the free-range space shooting you’ll do, it’s not the reason to hop into this game at all. If you want a shooter with an epic narrative, go find and play Xyanide on the original Xbox (but stay far away from the completely different and bland PC and portable versions, though). Each of the four lengthy levels tasks you with piloting a specific and well-armed ship in the seeming simplicity of locating a few keys to unlock a jump game in order to proceed to the next area. Of course, there will be opposition in the form of some extremely adaptive enemies that will make that key-hunting and acquiring not the easiest process. In a nutshell, the AI here is whip-smart and if you’re going in as a master player with years of skills, expect those skills to be sorely tested.

Each of the four ships has different weaponry suited for the levels they’re used on, so those shmup players used to using ONE ship type through an entire game will need to get used to close combat with the Blue ship, Some nice laser power with the Red ship, missiles and a nicely quirky secondary shot long Green ship and a seemingly all-purpose Yellow ship that’s good for that not so languid level it’s used on. There’s also a very handy grappling hook that can save your bacon or get you into trouble if you panic a lot when playing. Now, four levels may not seem like a lot to play around with, but you’re not locked onto a rail of any type at all and in fact, that six degrees of freedom you have goes a very long way in giving this game some endless replay value (see Arcade 101 note above).

Controls are excellent and fluid, showing the long development cycle for this game working away behind the scenes in about a great a manner as possible. You do need to keep an eye peeled for obstacles such as debris, structures and other things that can’t be blasted into space dust by your ships, so trying to speed through every stage isn’t recommended. Kraken Empire wants you to take your time, yet hurry up through parts of the game where danger is intensified by some really fierce opponents and objects that can either destroy your ship outright or slam your progress to a stop if you get too careless. The freedom explore anywhere in a map means there’s no one route to all those keys. On the other hand, you’re taking risks the longer you stay on a map, especially if you’re racking up a decent score and that AI kicks in and starts sending smarter enemies after your ship.

In true old-school fashion, lose all your ships and you’re bounced back to the beginning of the game to try all over. Some of the more impatient and cranky gamers out there will hate this to death, but it forces you to pay attention and play smarter. You’ll absolutely get your money’s worth with this game because even if you do manage to blow through it in a day, you’ll be back for more just to see if you can top your score or explore more of the visually stunning maps KE has cooked up. The game looks and sounds absolutely amazing, although there’s a gauzy haze to the visuals that adds a slightly to somewhat blurry look to things. Visually, Tron, Rez, Tempest and other games get nodded to, but with a silkier coating and much more impressive visual effects.

As I have a relatively small monitor on the home PC and only a 14.1″ laptop while out and about (yeah, yeah – I know I need to upgrade!), I decided after trying a preview build and having my eyeballs punch me in the head later on to get a friend with a big honkin’ 27″ monitor to buy the game (he’s more of a 2D shmup fan, but loved the art style here) and we took turns playing each stage with me taking notes while watching him and him making fun of my more twitchy style of playing (Hey, it gets the job done, grrr!). Having the perspective of a more seasoned shooter vet with better reflexes (and probably eyesight) made me love this game even more because it’s got appeal far outside the niche genre it’s part of.

In the complaints section, I’ll have to say while the “language” KE thought up to deliver menus is interesting, some way to speed up the “translation” would have been nice. Some sort of filter removal option to sharpen up the graphics? yes,please – the game looks too gorgeous to be hidden under that gauze effect. Perhaps a “super-retro” mode that changes the art to colored vector graphics or assorted types of flat-shaded to other polygons? Absolutely. Finally, scalable text is kind of a must for an old fogey like me, as some menus and other text can be tricky to read. Of course, none of that stuff really affects my score much if at all because the game is so stellar that the pros heavily outweigh the cons. Oh yeah, there’s no co-op or multiplayer modes yet if you’re big about that sort of thing being mandatory. For me this was and is no big deal AND the game’s design is definitely more fitting for solo play.

I’ve no idea what Kraken Empire plans for the future, but I’d LOVE to see console ports of this game pop up at some point. As I noted at the beginning of this review, Kromaia is too good and innovative of a game to stay locked to a single platform forever. I see too many well-made games get lost in the shuffle and forgotten all the time and it would be a shame to see this one make a splash now and vanish into the ether before the year was out thanks to so many other games dropping onto Steam at such a rapid pace. That said, this one’s a “Shut up and buy it!” game of the highest order, especially if you’re a fan of any sort of arcade shmup and are looking for a great, great-looking and highly challenging game with a ton of replay value.

-GW

(PC review code provided by Rising Star Games)