| benstylus 2005-03-16, 3:39 am |
| Just received Chaos Field in the mail today, and now that I've had a
chance to play it for a good bit of time, here are my initial impressions.
It's good.
So far it's been nonstop boss battles (I assume the entire game is that
way, but I haven't beaten it yet) which is a wise choice considering the
gameplay style.
Chaos field uses 3 buttons (A, B, and C on my joystick).
A is shoot. You can hold it down for rapid fire. If you're release the
button for about a half second, all the power up items on screen will
automatically be attracted to your ship. Your weapon doesn't power up
with the icons, but they fill a meter on the left side of the screen
that allows you to do special attacks.
B is your sword button - it will wipe away enemy shots as well as hurt
your enemy. Some shots (The big fluffy pink shots in particular) can't
be wiped, though. You can use it up to 3 times in rapid succession, then
there's about a half second pause before you can use it again.
C is the change button. When you start a level, you'll be in the Order
Field. Your shots are fairly weak and enemy shots are somewhat sparse.
Press the button and you'll switch over to the Chaos Field. This works
similarly to a superbomb in that when you switch either way, all shots
on the screen are removed. However, you can't keep switching back and
forth all the time - you have to wait a certain amount of time before
you can switch again. At any rate, in the Chaos Field, your shots are
more plentiful and more powerful, but so are your enemy's shots. Also,
the non-wipeable shots only appear in the Chaos Field.
Pressing A and B together unleashes a special attack that differs for
each of the three playable ships. Pressing B and C together will do a
lock on attack that will lock on and harm anything in its range,
including bullets. By using this technique, you can earn incredible
combos which are worth lots of points (My best combo so far is 468).
Each use of A+B or B+C consumes one bar of your power up meter.
This game is definitely a game intended for trying to best your previous
score, as it would be quite easy to simply plow through the Order Field
to reach the ending. If you're the type of gamer who only plays for the
ending, this is not the game for you.
The graphics are very clean and appropriate, but there isn't anything
particularly standoutish about them. The techno music is also pretty
appropriate for the game. The gameplay style pretty much lends itself
only to a single player experience, and as would be expected, no
multiplayer option is to be found.
There is one big problem with the game, however, and that is the
incredible slowdown that occurs regularly.
If I had to give it a numerical score at this point, it would be a 6 out
of 10, where 5 is an average game. And only because I've been spoiled by
truly fantastic shmups like Gradius V and Radiant Silvergun. Chaos Field
is better than average so far, but the slowdown is pretty bad.
Anyone else have the game? What do you think of it?
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