A new take on the classic game of Breakout. Fun for awhile but lacks anything sustainable.
Gameplay: 3.5/5
+ You control a paddle with the mouse and aim to reflect a ball to smash all bricks in the level. Of course you've probably played a game like this before, but Shatter allows you to have a magnetic field to the paddle. The left mouse button attracts the ball back towards the paddle and the right mouse button repels the ball away from the paddle. Essentially you can play a level where you keep the ball from hitting the paddle at all by constantly using the "suck" and "blow" capabilities. These two features also affect other elements like free-floating bricks or shards. Shards are formed when you break a brick, and once you fill up the bar that controls shards you can unleash a Shard Storm, which basically fires a bunch of missiles for a few seconds, destroying most everything in your path. You can also create a force field around your paddle which safeguards you from free-floating bricks that may be heading towards you, but drains your shard storm meter. Finally, you are allowed to create more balls depending on how many lives you have left (if you feel like it will be beneficial. If not, stick with one and you can still do fine). There are different types of bricks that react differently to the environment (for example, some are free-floating once they become detached, some explode nearby bricks, some are shoot across the screen like a jet, some continaully produce bubbles). There are also a few powerups that drop and are always beneficial. The levels vary from being horizontal to vertical to circular throughout the story mode. The one thing I did like to see were bosses, which I suppose is unique for a Breakout clone. Instead of just blasting bricks apart you have to find the weakness of each boss and basically hit them a few times until they lose all their health. Nothing too amazing about the gameplay but it still can be fun.
Story/Presentation: (N/A)
+ There's no real story here. There is a subtle sense of a plot if you watch the brief intro, which is neat. But these types of games don't really need a story to be fun.
Graphics: 4/5
+ The graphics and animations are wonderful and not overdone. A great fit for this type of game: beautiful but not distracting.
Value: 2.5/5
+ I was disappointed with how short this game was (around 2 hours or so). Sure it's not really expensive and it's just a simple Breakout game so I shouldn't expect a lot, but I still think the story mode could have had more substance. There are some extra levels after you beat the game including a time trial, bonus round, two-player mode, and endless mode. I would imagine this is where the real value lies but I suppose you have to really enjoy this type of game to want to play it for more than a few hours at a time. Still, it's a nice small game that can be picked up or put down at any time.