Sunday Thoughts: Shooting Up
Downtime is a time for catching up on those pesky crystals.Published 03/01/2010 at 10:50 by nofi
Try PixelJunk Shooter For Free, Now [10]
PixelJunk Shooter’s Sales Impressive [21]
PixelJunk Shooter To Get Space In Home [14]
As I sit here nursing both a stomach bug from hell and a terrible Edge connection, I’m thankfully still able to move my aching body enough to pick up a joypad and a laptop, and have spent the last couple of hours distracting myself by replaying the lastest PixelJunk title, Shooter. Regular readers will already know I’m a big fan of the series, and our 8/10 review certainly cements Shooter as amongst the best the studio has offered so far, but it’s in the longtail that the fourth in the PixelJunk canon really starts to shine. Allow me to explain.
Whilst PixelJunk Shooter’s main story mode can be beaten relatively quickly, I’m assuming that you won’t have ‘really’ completed the game on your first run through. Sure, you’ll have flown through the three sections of the map, saved a few engineers and grabbed a few crystals – congratulations, but that’s not the whole game. Shooter, as it stands, is easily the easiest of the four Pixeljunk games: Racers was pure hardcore only; Monsters opened up a bit but still needed an ‘easy mode’ patch and Eden just ramped up the difficulty meter all the way to eleven.
But Shooter, if you want to rush it, is pretty straightforward. Where the game comes into its own is the clever way it asks you back to each mission via the superb map screens. Do it now – go and pick the first set of levels (‘SOS’) and have a look at the five areas within – ‘Into The Abyss’, ‘Infestation’, ‘Rivers of Fire’, ‘The Volcano’ and the wonderfully titled ‘Gaseous Exposure’. How many of them have you played? All of them, hopefully, but not necessarily – you only need so many crystals to play the latter level and move onto the next zone.
But even if you’ve played them all, how many of them have the little images of a crystals and an a rescuee next to the yellow circle indicating completion? The crystal appears when you’ve collected all that level’s hidden treasure and the engineer when you’ve rescued everyone, and the level’s not complete until you’ve got all three for each area. It’s because of this that I enjoyed Shooter so much recently – going back over old levels collecting the last few remaining ice and humans is a real treat, you already know the level but now things are different.
For starters, some levels require you to do things in a certain order, if you shoot rocks holding lava in place first you run the risk of burning a survivor, or setting something in motion that you can’t reverse and thus hiding away a crystal forever, or at least until you restart and play again, and it’s this learning process that shows you the intricate yet never really shoved upon you connection between the game’s elemental forces. Everything in each level has its reason and it takes a few goes for it to finally snap into place – nothing is wasted – a quality few games really possess.
So, take a couple of hours this afternoon to relax, grab yourself a nice mug of tea and sit back, turn up the volume of Alex Patterson’s sublime music track and see if you can bag those last couple of crystals hidden away – not just for the Trophies that accompany such an achievement, but to appreciate the finesse and finely honed structure of this brilliant game – it’s good for you, I’m feeling better already just thinking about getting back underground. Once you’ve done that, move on to Racers, and we’ll see how hardcore you really are…
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
ShovellyJoe | 03/01/2010 10:56
Member
1202 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I’ve managed to get everything on the first episode, though I must admit I almost gave up hope on one crystal until I found it in a secret area in the first room of a level.
I’ll probably give Shooter a play today to get through the second episode, once I’ve finished all the work I have to do…
Kevling | 03/01/2010 11:01
Member
2032 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
You’re making me want to buy this now! Think that’s my Sunday afternoon sorted…
davidjmclare | 03/01/2010 12:02
always on easy
1094 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
buy it! it kicks ass!
cc_star | 03/01/2010 11:06
Team TSA: Writer
7874 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Hmm Was that a re-review, with the score moving upward?
I love Shooter and I love the fact it supports Remote Play (the PS3’s biggest missed opportunity) so I can play it whilst the mrs is watching some crap on TV.
KittDJW | 04/01/2010 11:38
Member
284 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
And it works really well paying it with Remote Play.
kevatron400 | 03/01/2010 11:06
Don't call him Kevatron400.
1761 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
It is such a great game, I’ve nearly got all the crystals in the ice world now, but just one is still eluding me; frustrating but addictive!
superjag86 | 03/01/2010 11:17
Member
714 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I actually won’t even go to the next level without completing the previous one which is why it’s taking me a while to finish all the levels!
I was the same with LBP
Kovacs | 03/01/2010 16:40
Team TSA: Writer
1094 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2009
I did the same thing. Wouldn’t move on to the next level until I had completely got everything on the current one. It just meant that, when I did finish Shooter, I got a flurry of trophies after the end boss.
Was most satisfying.
TSBonyman | 03/01/2010 11:19
Member
1000 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2009
Agreed, i thought shooter was fiendishly well designed to demand replaying.
A bit too fiendish sometimes. I found myself blocked from the exit on one level, couldn’t even use the terrain to sacrifice one of my lives and the only option is to restart the whole level.
It was slightly annoying but also felt like the game was taunting me into solving the problem – as i said, fiendishly well designed
artefx | 03/01/2010 11:20
Member
910 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I had no idea Dr Alex produced the soundtrack for this. Saying that it was some decent ambient/chilled electronica but that seems to be a theme for PixelJunk games.
davidjmclare | 03/01/2010 12:03
always on easy
1094 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
who is dr alex? does he just do games?
pabloamigo | 03/01/2010 14:48
Member
119 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009
Far from it…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Paterson
Ever heard the Orb? That’s Dr Alex. (Though he’s not a real doctor, it’s an abbreviation of his first two names.)
“What were the skies like when you were young?”
haz360 | 03/01/2010 11:57
Member
424 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I bought this just this week and Wow I’m loving it so far. I’m trying to get as many of the collectables as possible before moving on, which greatly increases the desire to play and get every last gem or survivor. The music is excellent too. Another great addition to the Pixeljunk series!
Lorcan | 03/01/2010 12:08
Team TSA: Writer
1248 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Really, Really don’t have the money for this, but you’ve just really, really made me want it!
MUKARKAR | 03/01/2010 14:23
Member
1222 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009
me too, i am thinking of it now.
Phil_E | 03/01/2010 12:13
Member
683 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I played this game non stop after i bought it, played on nothing else. I am happy to say I did collect everything from each level and can’t wait for the nest episodes.
BIGAL-1992 | 03/01/2010 13:34
Member
1257 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
At least you can play something nofi. My PS3 Bricked on new years eve, and I’m still waiting on a replacement until the middle of the week. One lousy way to start the new year.
Aitrus | 03/01/2010 14:12
Member
1488 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I’m missing some tresure in the ice levels, got everything else. But you’re right nofi, going for tresure and survivors makes you play it a bit differently and it makes you appriciate the game even more.
Kovacs | 03/01/2010 16:43
Team TSA: Writer
1094 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2009
The ice levels are the worst for hiding trophies. Purely because a lot of them are buried in the ice and you have to either melt EVERYTHING or move ice floes out of the way. Even then you might not even SEE the crystal. You have to just keep firing your pick-up device at everything until you hear that wonderful chime.
There are 235 crystals in total by the way. Which includes the bonus crystals you get for completing the levels while saving all the scientists.
Aitrus | 04/01/2010 09:30
Member
1488 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I got all the survivors and crystals fairly easy, but in the ice levels I haven’t got all crystals from a single level. And yes, they are damned hard to see in the icy caves.
Deathbrin | 03/01/2010 14:43
Member
946 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
So is this better then Gravity Crash or not?
MUKARKAR | 03/01/2010 15:23
Member
1222 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009
looks like it to me.
Deathbrin | 03/01/2010 18:59
Member
946 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Doh. Money wasted then.
teflon | 03/01/2010 15:57
Member
1997 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
you’re right. I’ve got, probably, 95% of all the treasure, so there’s still plenty of searching for me to do before this game is completely finished.
skibadee | 03/01/2010 17:48
Member
3917 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
I think I will invest in this next week.