‘Compromised’ Review – Inside The Alien (Anti)Body
The artwork of H. R. Giger has inspired a lot of sci-fi due to its blend of alien bodies and sexual connotation. While Compromised might not take a direct influence, its world of lacy alien architecture, jagged machinery and grimy aesthetics certainly emits a similar peculiarity. The obvious choice of comparison is Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, but only so much as to say that the world of the game’s basis holds a large appeal due to its uniqueness, and that they are both shoot-em-ups; Compromised more so than the aforementioned example.
Rather than providing an open world to explore, Compromised is strictly level oriented, with clear paths to travel. If you’re not in a corridor-like segment you’ll be in one of the bigger arenas to which they branch. In these larger arenas you’ll be locked in and forced to eliminate every single enemy. It gets quite intense, but nearer the end of the game these battles drag on and become all too frequent. Not helping this feeling go away is the game’s simple mechanics; movement with the left analogue stick, shooting with the right, and bombs and missiles on the triggers. On top of that, you can collect cubes the enemies leave behind to use as one of four other powers when enough had been collected. A shockwave, missile spread, shield or gravity bomb are tied to each of the face buttons and best used when things get a bit hectic.
One thing that did come across as a good idea was the upgrade system, though it could have been a little more exciting that it actually is. Each red cube you collect transfers into one upgrade point, which can be spent on upping the damage of your weapons, increasing health or ship speed. If you die, you keep the upgrade points too, so you feel inclined to keep on playing as theoretically, things should get easier if you keep upgrading. Unfortunately by the game’s last levels the upgrades just feel a bit boring; it would have been preferable to buy better special attacks, different guns or maybe armor for your ship – something to vary up the gameplay other than statistical tweaks.
The controls are very responsive and though slightly dull after a while, the simple shooter mechanics do their job. There is one thing that felt as if it should function slightly differently though. In saying that, there is a realisation that the fact that the missiles can only be shot in the direction the ship is facing provides a challenge. However, it seemed more annoying than anything. It would have felt more natural for the missiles to fire in the direction the right analogue stick was being pointed, rather than the left analogue stick. It’s a minor complaint but the change could make the game significantly smoother to play and therefore more enjoyable.
Super Soul do the right thing regarding the game’s plot and background by not explaining it. This allows the player to fill in the gaps. The only information made known is that a virus has spread into the complex of which you, Aero, are sworn to protect. This bio-mechanical structure acts as a living thing by sending out antibodies to tackle the invader. Effectively, you’re ejected into the bowels of this place and, alongside others like you, must make your way through the many systems with all their dangers as well as the enemy threat to deal with. At points, you can imagine that the giant buzzsaws act like stomach acid, churning things up to fuel itself. Passages of wind guide you, weaker dark flesh allows in more enemy ships and the wave of gore which is the virus gives chase at sight of your defensive efforts.
The variation in the level design ensures the game’s first few levels are significantly diverse and make the game easy to slide into. As a player, you’ll ask “what’s coming next?” and are challenged with room exploration, risky maneuvering and even some mild puzzle elements in the boss battles. Speaking of which, the bosses are great fun, though once you’ve worked out what to do they’re fairly easy to defeat. Even the ‘bullet hell’ boss looks much worse than it actually is, but the spectacle – like the rest of the game – provides an enjoyment within itself. Most importantly, you get a sense that the enemies really do want you dead.
As has been hinted to, Compromised is initially a very engaging game for its simplicity, responsiveness and variation. Saying it outstays its welcome would be false as the game isn’t entirely all too long. What happens is that the level design gets a little lazy and the welcoming simplicity doesn’t change up enough. This gives the developer only one choice to up the difficulty and that is to shove you in dark rooms for lengthy periods of time fighting wave after wave of enemy. Luckily the checkpoint system means that you’ll get through it, but as the game’s dark tones and mysterious environments become monotonous, so too does the gameplay.
Let not this review end negatively, because in truth, Compromised remains as one of the most impressive titles available on the Xbox Live Indie Game Marketplace. The atmosphere created is exactly how it should be and considering the amount of twin-stick shooters in that particular market, it sticks out head and shoulders above many others. Subtlety and simplicity can be praised once again, as well as putting effort into a game’s world design, and narrative techniques which allow the player to absorb themselves into the fiction. It’s worth noting that Compromised also has two sets of free DLC on the way: Survival and Hoard. For those who do tire with the arena fighting, this may not be the most exciting thing in the world but at least those three bucks will go a little further.
You can purchase Compromised over on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 240MSP. The official website showcases more of the game’s screenshots and provides more information.
Review summary Pros:
Grimy aesthetic, simple, responsive, engaging from the start
Cons:
Fails to remain exciting by the latter stages
Rating: 75%
