Waves 2: Notorious Reviews

This is one of those games for twitch/adrenaline junkies - of which I am NOT one - that will ensnare regular scrubs with its addictive nature. It's fast and furious, and currently all about the season leaderboards. A short game only lasts a few minutes long, but if you're skilled, you can rack up the score and dominate people who play for longer periods of time. I love this app, but be warned: it's been in development for a few years. The Developer is active in the forums, and he/she responds to the community frequently. Parts of the game have changed SIGNIFICANTLY since it got the green light from Steam. The bottom-line is that this is already a lot of fun, but it's not finished, and could change again. "Progress" lies primarily in campaign mode - which is going to change, so you can't really invest a lot of time in it, because progress might get wiped. However, you can still progress by unlocking components for your ship: different offensive/defensive weapons, different options for shield/energy/regeneration, etc. Your ship has a loadout, which is the configuration of options you've chosen to install. You can have saved loadouts and change them from game to game, which encourages you to experiment. Even though the basic game still involves the same thing, the ship options have a surprisingly large impact on gameplay. Until the campaign is fully implemented, Arcade mode is where the fun is. While there are different kinds of games available, most of them involve building up your combo multiplier to boost your score. THAT involves not dying AS WELL AS continuing to do damage - which, when you're annihilating enemies, isn't as easy as it sounds. You have to always leave a few enemies or other damage-soakers lying around, because it only takes a few seconds for your multiplier to be set back to zero. So: twitch skills coupled with strategy to keep the killin at a steady pace. I've already got 17+ hours into an unfinished game, so that should give some indication as to how enjoyable it is. Even if it doesn't change much from its current state, it's well-worth the price.

This game scratches that twin-stick shooter itch in the best way. Kudos to the developer for keeping at it for so many years... this is a masterwork. Looking forward to see how it develops further. The game is not without its issues... not so much in the gameplay which is phenomenal... but in the complex systems and menus. Clearly the dev is aware of these and working toward tuning it all. Six hours in tip: Play Arcade modes (Survival, etc.) to level up and earn stars... stars can be spent to unlock weapon variations which can be mounted in the loadouts editor. There's a thing with build order two which I haven't sorted out but feels like it sets the priority in which weapons systems are upgraded during a run. Then there's the whole file downloading, uploading, unlocking thing which is another way to get stars... which I think is tied to the campaign mode... which is currently a work in progress. All that said... I'll be tweaking out to this bad boy for a while I think. Great when you just want to blow shit up. Oh... and yeah... gotta play with a PS controller or the like for the real experience. I wonder if they could add some rumble for those big booms.

This game received dedicated work from a developer that cared about it deeply. It's easy to forget that behind everything on the Internet is another person. The game has given me a lot of fun over several years, and while it never reached a "perfectly finished" state, what ever does? It's definitely playable and worth the time.

This game, even as early access is one of the best shooters I've ever played. (I'm not young been gaming for 30 years.) Without doubt anyone who liked Waves original will love this game. It's just better in every way. The same goes for Geometry wars fans, I love that series (Geometry wars 3 was best IMHO) but Waves 2 equals that. It really is that good. The game play itself is fast, frantic, addictive and looks better than most games of this genre. The menus are somewhat confusing at first, but this is offset by the great game play. Arcade is easy to jump into, but other than that the menus are not really intuitive. May seem like a small thing, and the game is still early access so once it's easy to understand all the options it will be much more beginner friendly. I could go on about the game play, but its so much fun it's better to try yourself. Another nice thing rare in this genre is that the game engine is great and has several graphics options. Maxed out it looks just great. Not sure on minimum spec for maxed out game though. I guess a GTX780 or better would be enough for all settings maxed? I hope this game gets the support it needs. It could be a classic when done and polished. For me personally it already is classic. Quite possibly the best shooter game there is.

He will be missed... I was wondering why i havnt seen one of my fav games to pass the time on... i played the original and now the second. it has so much potential... I hope his legacy doesnt end here. i hope someone continues his design and progress... i will still continue playing and we all will keep him in our memories!

As a massive Geometry Wars fan I love this game I have kept coming back over the years to watch it's progression. Not sure why it only says 0.9 hours on Steam but I have definitely played more than a few hours. I have been hoping for a release one day but when I read the sad news today that the author has died of cancer and his partner has released his games for free as his final gift I found it quite sad. This gem will forever be in early access but since it is now free there is no reason not to give it a go.

I love the original Waves and have so far not been disappointed by the promises of this sequel. Can't wait to see how it shapes up over the course of Early Access. Pros: - Faster pace than the original - very frantic and enjoyable in combination with the new shield/energy mechanic - New GRID mode is great - The updated graphics are very shiny! Cons: - I may need new right thumbstick for my 360 controller by the time this game makes it to full release!

tl;dr: I love this game. Buy it. Review: Just nominated Waves2 for the "Just 5 more minutes" Steam Award. This games has cost me more hours of badly-needed sleep than any other game, in addictive little 5 minute increments. tight controls smoothly escalating difficulty awesome visuals great soundtrack intelligent array of weapons/power-ups well thought-out enemy spawning I'm as close to 100 years old as I am to 20. My gaming time is limited and precious to me. Waves2 delivers. Always a joy. Never thought anything could equal the arcade version of Tempest. I was wrong. My favorite twin-stick (hell, one of my favorite games). Ever.

Reviewing Alpha 3.5. This review is most useful if you've played the first Waves, a game I am a huge fan of. Waves (the first one) was a simple twin stick shooter. There were only a few enemy types, a gun, a bomb, slowmo and a few game mechanics. This made it simple fun and you could play for a few minutes or for a couple of hours. Waves squared (this one) is better in almost every way. The same game modes are there, however the game is much faster paced and aggressive now. No more waiting 2 - 3 minutes before it got exciting, now you wait 1 minute and you're swamped. To counter this however you can take a certain amount of damage, rather than the 1 touch kill of the first game. Overall I would say this game is slightly harder because it is so quick. The arenas are no longer round, they're oddly shaped with obstacles that both benefit and hinder you. No longer can you simply run in circles and shoot backwards. The big change is an upgrade system where you can change your primary weapon (the gun), secondary weapon (default: the bomb) and utility (default: the slow motion). This means you can adapt the setup to your specific way of playing, whether it be shooting enemies from across the grid or up close, using slow mo to think or instead an extra shield to take a burst of damage. The game mechanics are about the same but with additions, e.g. collecting data to unlock upgrades, and the tutorial doesn't (yet?) explain everything. Hopefully it will because there are quite a few things going on. Then there's the grid. This is basically challenges. I'm not a big fan but certainly it will appeal to some. All in all this is a good solid easy to pick up game that you can play for 3 minutes at a time or 30. And at it's budget price, it's worth a look if you like the look of the videos. Downsides: 1. There is one music track - turn the music off in the options for now. 2. Tutorial is basic which will lead to confusion, especailly for those who didn't play the first Waves. 3. The upgrades take quite a lot of work to unlock, and there are loads of them. You're gonna need to put in a lot of hours to unlock everything. 4. The main menu is really hard to navigate using the gamepad, you need the mouse.

Great game. Very different from the original with many great changes. Hope a lot more gets fixed during the early access phase. Pros: + Huge replay-ability + Beautiful Visuals + Nodes offer great challenge + Lots of smart additions to the original + Challenging arenas Cons: - Same terrible song over and over (worse than all songs from the original) - Audible triggers and queues are tough to distinguish - Loadout section makes no sense at all - Cubes seem nearly impossible to kill now Wish List: - Explanation of the loadout screen - Make killing cubes a bit easier (seems like sure death when one shows up) - More track selection, or allow for custom tracks to be added via music folder like GTA5 - Multiplayer support - Better sense of accomplishment progressing through the grid Overall, this is one of my favorite twin stick shooters now, but I just hope a few of the cons get fixed up in the upcoming patches. Keep up the great work devs!