A definite must have if you're looking for an Adventure/Shooter for the DS
I've been waiting for this game to be released ever since I heard that it was being developed by the creators of Dementium: The Ward. My expectations were high and I'm happy to announce that Renegade Kid was able to fix most of the things that I didn't like with their previous title.
The game starts with a video that will narrate that a hatch was discovered on the moon that you guys are about to investigate. As expected, something went wrong and your task (at least at first) is to check what's underneath the moon's surface and locate possible survivors. You'll slowly end up discovering what exactly is happening there by reading logs from computer-like panels that can be found scattered around the levels.
Gameplay can be best described as an Action-Shooter than just a plain First Person Shooter. But FPS fans shouldn't be worried because it's actually a good thing. As with any other FPS games you'll be given a bunch of weapons to play with. With this game however, you'll sometimes get higher weapons by putting pieces together to form a weapon. No, it's not like you can customize your own weapons like with other games but it's a change from the usual picking up of weapons from downed opponents.
Here, you'll also be able to take control of a droid that you can remotely control. It's a nice change from the usual FPS game wherein you only take control of a single character throughout the entire game. Taking control of a droid and disabling door locks and enemies adds a different experience that is often times not available with your usual shooting games.
At first you'll be duking it out with nothing but small drones, which is at least in my opinion a bit boring. And it takes quite a while before you'll be greeted with bigger enemies like spider-drones and wall-mounted gun turrets etc. As bad as this might sound, the varying experience makes up for the ... well, not so intimidating first batch of enemies. What else is there other than the droid you might ask? Well there's a moon buggy (called LOLA) that you can drive (on a 3rd person view) on one of the levels of this game. You can shoot drones and turrets while at the same time trying to evade land mines.
I've only come across around 4 level bosses and most of them are quite easy. Most of them requires more patience than skills to defeat. I've seen some people complaining that some boss characters gets repeatedly used on some levels, but I haven't experienced that one ... yet.
This game also memorizes the opponents that you were already able to defeat. So you no longer have to worry about your enemies re-spawning when you re-visit an area on the map. Dropped items like health packs for example stays on the floor even if you visit a different area. This in my opinion should be applied with most (if not all) DS games. Because I'm one of those guys who gets irritated when trying to kill an opponent that you already defeated a few seconds ago just because you entered a different section on the map.
The game doesn't allow you to save anywhere or anytime you want to. You'll be able to save via a save-point (represented by a device that is scattered around each levels) or every after episode or boss fights. So if you're going to play this game during a short commute, you might end up setting your DS on standby to save your progress because save points are a bit few and far in between. Setting the game on standby without pausing the game first will cause the game to immediately resume when you re-open your DS. So make sure that you hit the "start" button first to pause the game before you put your DS into standby when you're in a middle of a gun-fight.
The game is graphically impressive and it's hard to imagine how Renegade Kid was able to add such details given the DS' limitations. And although some textures gets used heavily around each episode, the additional effects makes up for it. Here you'll get smoke coming out of your gun barrel, lighting effects when shooting your weapon, and even shot marks on walls etc. The environment looks good, a lot better than most static looking maps on other games. That is because with Moon, you'll get moving machinery and robotic arms scattered on some levels. It makes the game feel more alive when compared to your usual walls and doors only filled levels.
The sound is a bit on the flat side in my opinion. Sound effects for example doesn't sound too threatening. While the background techno'ish music is not only flat, but also quite repetitive. However, the virtual surround/distance effects is quite effective.
Controls is what you'll expect with most shooters for the DS. You use the touchscreen to move the cursor. You shoot with the L button. And use the directional pad to move around. There is however no option to run, jump, and crouch. It removes some tactical opportunities while playing the game but the developers done a good job of making you feel that those things are unnecessary (for this game at least).
Other than the repetitive textures, flat sounding gun effects, and repetitive background music ... there's really nothing more that I could complain about this game other than the process of having to repeat some boring sequences (or batch of enemies) everytime you re-engage (died and reloaded the save-point) on a boss fight. And although yes it doesn't have multiplayer support, the single-player experience somewhat makes up for it.
Having said all those things, this is still definitely one of the best shooter available for the DS. But those issues and shortcomings prevented me from giving the game a Superb rating of 9.0. I'm still sure as hell already excited as to what Renegade Kid will come up to next.
.:My reviews are only as good as everyone else's. Take every single one of them with a grain of salt:.