Rapid weather change and few hovering issues resolved really put me into lazy mode this week. I’ve felt like playing some game (which I don’t do often for few years already) and on a whim downloaded GunGirl 2 recently covered in post at Freeware Genius.
I didn’t really expect to encounter modern free action platformer game this good.
Gameplay
At first look it seems like a retro-style game about jumping a lot and shooting a lot. Premise of the game is world, overrun by zombies overnight and you on the quest to fix/kill everything.
But after some time it hits you that game is very far from primitive. It takes old formula, but fills it with years of game evolution.
There are:
- quests (main and sub);
- non-linear world (a lot of areas, with later you have to get items/abilities to reach);
- RPG elements (unique special items and abilities that can be enhanced);
- weaponry (with dynamic changes in firepower and secondary upgrades);
- tons of jokes and references about other games, movies and whatever.
Strong features
What I like most is that game is arcade but RPG elements give its gameplay depth. And not boring shoot-to-gain-xp elements, but clever, interesting and polished ones.
Games makes it worthwhile to explore and discover stuff, both for quests and plain increase of character’s mobility and firepower. It also makes it necessary to learn to control your character and adapt it to different locations. Straight blasting zombies only gets you through first third of a game easily.
Downsides
Most of the enemies are concentrated in smallish areas with infinite respawn. Enemies are also spawned to match game progress so there is always just enough challenge to get through them. Bad part is sometimes you have to run around a lot, looking for stuff, and hacking through same spots times and times again get boring. Later in the game I just buffed up defense skills to the max and run through zombies when on quest errands.
Speaking about errands game desperately needs some kind of compass/hints for quests. On many occasions instructions for where you have to go are too basic and you are stuck running through every place in game you can think of. Since some areas can be closed at that moment you could easily be looking for place you can’t even reach yet.
Overall
Excellent, free and natively portable game. If this was released in golden age of platformers it would probably be crowned as one of best games in genre ever. Nowadays it is just wickedly good action game.
Download http://www.gungirl2.com/?page_id=31
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This game was surprisingly fun and addictive. The cartoony graphics has you expecting something a bit more mindlessly cheesy/corny. The play of the game was far from that.
@Spokane Designer
Yep… We tend to expect something “simple looks = low entry barrier”, but this game is really well done. And graphics are actually good fit for gameplay and mood.
I really like independent game like this.
Rarst if you like old school platformer you can try Frogatto a new multi platform and open source independent game. You can google it or look it in my blog.
@Chocobito
Can’t say I am hardcore fan, but platformers were fun. It’s a pity genre pretty much died out. Thanks for suggestion, will check it out next time I have urge to waste few hours. :)