ExZeus™: The Complete Collection Reviews

[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote] Listen... I am completely fine with bringing back niche games that not a lot of people have heard of. I appreciate Ziggurat for taking the time to hunt down the ExZeus games and re-releasing them. But I have to ask... did anyone on the dev team for this collection actually care? Or was this made under a heavy budget/time constraint? I'm asking that because I cannot find any other reason for some parts of the games being ripped away and important quality of life features being missing! This is not how you bring back games that are quite literally unknown among the masses! You're supposed to make them presentable and appealing, not whatever that has been done here! Let's get into details because there's much to talk about and little room to write them in. [h2]A series of unfortunate red flags[/h2] Mere moments after I started this collection from Steam, I was greeted by the default Unity configuration tool, except with a very glaring difference: The key rebind tab, which is almost always there in all other Unity games, was missing. It didn't take long for me to find out not only there's literally no way to rebind your controls in this collection (neither through the configurator nor in the game), but the games will only show Xbox button layouts to notify you of controls. Use a keyboard or a controller other than that? Want to change keys to something more comfortable? Figure things out yourself. I pushed forward and launched the collection. I went past the company logos and then got greeted with one of the blandest title and game select screens in the history of gaming. You just have some portraits of main characters appearing on the screen in dead silence, and there's no option visible anywhere to close the game either. Sure, you can hit the "Esc" key on the keyboard, but this collection came out in 2021. Then I saw one of the worst menu navigations in a game ever, after accessing the settings menu to check on the available options. The B key, which is standardized as the key to press and go back to the previous menu, has the function of decreasing sound volume. The A key, which is standardized as the key to press and confirm something, has the function of increasing sound volume. And the left directional key, which is standardized as the key to change menu values with, is actually the key you need to use to go back to the previous menu! [h2]Mobile ports are fine only if you put work in them[/h2] I was flabbergasted. I could not believe anyone would actually decide to publish a PC game like this in 2021. Sure, Raiden Legacy was also bad, but that game came out a decade ago! So what was Ziggurat's excuse here for putting such a thing on Steam? After doing some research and visiting PCGamingWiki, everything became clear. The developers have been using the 2010 mobile release of ExZeus 1 as a basis for this collection, which completely explains the lack of support for key rebinding, the awful menu navigation, and the way the user interface has been designed. As for the second game, it was initially conceived as a mobile game and released in 2012. So, it's not illogical to think it was also based on the foundations of the first game's mobile version, given it uses the exact same menu structure. So, I decided to do what I have always done: Doing excessive work for a review that only a few people might actually read. So I went ahead and also played the original Wii release of ExZeus 1 (named Counter Force), the PS2 re-release of that game, and also the 2017 version of ExZeus 2 on Steam (which is now branded as the legacy version) for a bit. All in an attempt to see how loyal the devs have been in preserving the features of the original games. [h2]You know what? I rather have the emulated re-releases if some content is going to get cut in native ports.[/h2] Let's start with ExZeus 1. This game has a bunch of missing content compared to the PS2 and Wii versions. The gameplay modifiers (enemy attack speed, collision accuracy, background damage toggle, screen's shake/swing amount), the top-down camera angle, the enemy radar and the weather effects of those versions [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531363143]are completely missing[/url]. There is also a yellow reticle in the Wii version that highlights the incoming enemies, which was removed in the PS2 version and would have been very useful to have back. When it comes to ExZeus 2, our hands are a bit tied. The original 2014 release of the game has been patched and replaced with the newer, 2017 version. And since the older version is effectively wiped from the web, I cannot say for myself what differences it has compared to the 2017 version and the one we have in the collection. Though if we compare the two available ones, there is a very visible difference in how they have handled the keybinds. Not only the 2017 version of ExZeus 2 allows full key rebinding for controllers (through Unity configurator), it also shows you keyboard prompts in its tutorial and while playing the game or going through the menus. So, as you can see, I think it's safe to conclude that the original releases were way better than the versions we have in this collection. This is especially the case with ExZeus 1, as the Wii version is much more fun to play due to it allowing you to aim freely at any location on the screen without the player character obstructing the view; Something that is absent from the collection as it has no mouse support. [h2]I don't wanna play these games anymore...[/h2] We now know that this collection is not an ideal way to experience these games with. But how are they anyway? Are the games actually fun and worth playing? Well... ExZeus 1 can be a fun time if you manage to get ahold of the Wii version and play it with a mouse or a Wiimote (or something similar). It really gives out that arcade rail shooter feeling. But if you play it through the collection we have here, it will bring you nothing but misery. The camera system will give you headaches, the player character always obstructs your view and the enemies blend in with the environment especially in absence of the aforementioned yellow reticle that notified you of their arrival. ExZeus 2 is somehow even worse. It gives you a bigger field of view, but regresses in almost every way. The pickups now get scattered in a wider area and are not very recognizable while playing, so you might just go past them without knowing. The game constantly switches between different gameplay modes that make absolutely no sense (why is a battle mech riding a bike?) and are not fleshed out at all; With the worst offender being the third-person combat mode. The levels have weird pacings with some of them being way too long (as much as over 10 minutes) and making you repeat the aforementioned gameplay modes multiple times, while others end in about 3-4 minutes. And don't get me started on the sound effect chosen for the drifting as it's one of the worst and screechiest sounds I have ever heard in my life. Unfortunately, the addition of achievements is not helping the cause either as all of them are bound to the frankly purposeless level up system, which require lots of grinding to obtain instead of, you know, getting unlocked for accomplishing meaningful feats during the games. [h2]TL;DR[/h2] Just find and play Counter Force for Wii. This collection offers an inferior version of ExZeus 1 due to cut content and a sequel that regresses in every way, both without any quality of life updates.