Outpost Delta Reviews

Steer Clear. To preface, Super Metroid is my favorite game of all time and I can sit down and play just about any Metroidvania you throw my way (and have a great time doing it), but I really, REALLY hated this game.| Where to begin? The music, well there's only 1 song and it's moreso ambience than a song. It's not catchy nor does it give me the goosey bumps. It loops after like 1.5 minutes. I had a way better time after navigating to the menu to just turn music off and play my own. The sound effects are fine, but there's not enough of them. For instance, enemies don't make any sound when they get hit, whether they took damage or not. You have no idea your weapon is damaging an enemy beyond them flashing white. It's something you take for granted when you play video games, but with it absent, it's just plain awkward. It reminds me of when Playstation games would glitch or the CD player was opened and half the sounds didn't play while the game was running. The graphics are serviceable, but there's little to no variation between the areas. It feels like the dev wanted to create a Metroid Fusion type game, but Metroid Fusion tried really hard to make the areas unique, which this game doesn't do. The level design is AWFUL. There's twisting corridors with random doors that don't work, and switches that turn doors or lasers on and off. This may have been cool for the first time navigating an area, but later when you need to backtrack, it becomes a chore. The door locks are just colored symbols, and you need to look at your map to match up your keys. It's kind of like oldschool Duke Nukem, except worse. Whereas older PC games that used this system like Chips Challenge used it like a puzzle and it was fun, this game leaves information behind pause walls and doesn't show map icons for pickups, so you have to just plain remember where you need to go once you get a key or where you saw a key. I'd rather punch myself in the face (hard) than attempt to navigate the Engineering section's power switches and binary locks in Computer Core again. I got 7/10 ship parts, couldn't get the last key in Engineering despite exploring it for hours and couldn't even see the last 2 ship parts anywhere. Despite being a completionist that takes pride in beating games and 100%'ing RPGs and Metroidvanias, I quit this game and regret spending 10-15 hours on it. Save yourself the hassle.

So far I really like this game. I am playing and reviewing at the same time. The graphics are excellent, if you enjoy pixel graphic games like I do this is a beauty. It has a small tutorial at the beginning which helps with the controls. SO far using the mouse and keyboard it is tight, responsive and enjoyable. The sounds and graphics are beautiful and it is easy to tell what every item is on screen. The Sound FX and music are on point and not in the least under developed. They go along with the game nicely. I would like to see a mini-map that could be turned on and off but with the large screen and gorgeous pixel art you can easily tell where you are. The screen can be partially viewed from the bottom and top so you can see into rooms you have not been into yet which is a far cry from Super Metroid which had the mini-map but no way to tell what was above or below you. I like this game so far and will of course put a more in depth review later. This does seem to work nicely with Windows 7 so if you're worried about the minimum requirements don't be. I have not had any glitches or CTDs at all yet and it plays beautifully. The controls are responsive and tight even without using a controller. So far I say this is definitely worth the value considering I paid nearly 54 dollars for Super Metroid on the SNES back in the day I won't quibble about price now. I recommend this title and hope you enjoy it as much as I am now.

Enjoyable classic style metroidvania vibes. Great sprite work and sound design, really enjoy the sound track. Science fiction story and setting work well. 

Game is okay, 5/10. mostly because of bugs. Controls are not very responsive, especially when you duck or move backwards. This impacts animation which gets glitched. Additionally you have no way of reading your goals or repeating computer messages. Simply no logs. If you were in a fight and didn't have time to read the message - you have no idea about plot. Shooting mechanics is painful especially with laser and main snort gun, no way of defending yourself, you either run away or die, no blocking or dodging whatsoever. "Twin stick" shooting adds more pain rather than comfort, you will probably cripple your analogue sticks trying to aim one millimeter below, just to hit the flying magnetic orb. Can't aim up, can't aim down. If you are too close to the wall - gun doesn't shoot. Sometimes enemy and door keys don't spawn unless you reload the area. Game is not polished, seems like early access condition. If the bugs mentioned above will get fixed and controls will be improved like adding classic 8 directions (up,down, left, right and diagonals) mode instead of full circle - I would rate 8 or 9 out of 10.