Teleglitch

[spelk]

Top down pixel graphics shooter roguelike has been released! Demo available. Has a cool line of sight fog of war thing going on, along with some dramatic shakey-cam effects on the weapons.

http://www.teleglitch.com/

[Huw the Poo]

Cor, that does look good.  I wonder if I still have the reflexes to play something like this, but that was an impressive video.  You're right about the weapon effects Spelk, they're fantastic aren't they?

[spelk]

I've given it a brief play session, so here's my initial impressions..

It's a real time action shooter, with some melee - you're stuck in a facility, where all sorts of things are going wrong, and you have to pick your way through the areas to get to the teleporter to the next level, and the next one, and so on, until you escape.

Survival is the name of the game, you start out with a pistol and some 9mm rounds and a couple of empty tin cans and thats about it! Your limited equipment is always playing on your mind. The good news is the game supports a sort of crafting mode, whereby you pick up loot, and can combine certain raw materials into better tools for survival. So nails and tin cans and the like can be combined into nailbombs, or canguns. You can concoct stimulants from medikits etc..

The storyline is sort of standard sci fi/zombie apocalyptic stuff, although the writing is a little amateur but enthusiastic. Thankfully the story isn't laboured, it's just an accompanying bit of flavour.

You have to explore the connected room levels, finding kit, and surviving the mutants/monsters roaming around. The map is randomly generated, and pieced together at the beginning of the level, having died several times, each level is similar in content, but definitely with a different layout. Only the starting chamber and a couple of connections on feel like you've seen it all before. You find workstations with information, equipment or level wide map reveals (like position of the supply crates, or position of the exit teleporter). These can help you focus your exploration towards a certain area of the unknown map. Pressing tab nicely zooms out to see the bigger picture of where you've been.

The rooms are designed well, with some having boxes, crates, pipes, and machinery convincingly littered around the place. Some boxes move as you run past them, and there are often different background sounds ticking over to make the environments seem more detailed. There are some nasty cracked and broken down areas, and also some sort of undulating temporal distortion dead-ends that you should avoid - because they instantly kill you! You definitely feel as if you're plodding your way through a scientific/space facility, faced with gruesome monsters. Theres even a monster-pedia when you encounter new monsters, that you can look up.

The line of sight stuff is done very well, giving a slight impression of the 3d walls you're moving around from your top down view. The gun effects are satisfying, and aiming is aided by a line - movement is WSAD, but shooting is mouse based (holding right mouse down, whilst firing with left mouse). Left mouse alone performs the melee attack.

It's fast paced, action packed running and gunning basically. You can utilise better weapons like shotgun for greater scatter, and also timed bomb drops, to hit a cluster of enemy as you run past and out of the blast. Smoke and particle effects do look good, even if the resolution and definition of what youre seeing is very pixellated.

I've only managed to get to level 2 in my game, where the mutants begin to come thicker and faster, but I never felt totally overwhelmed by the game. You select kit using the mouse wheel, so you can drop and bomb, wheel back to your shotty and keep firing, press 'r' to reload and space to pick stuff up.

The game reminds me a little of a roguelike crossed with Sigma Team's Alien Shooter series, except the graphics are a lot more retro.

I've enjoyed what I've played.. and look forward to some of the more stunning weapons and bosses later on... if I can survive long enough :)

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks for the impressions Spelk.  I think I'll add this one to The List, although christ knows when I'll get around to picking it up. :)