SteamSunk (XBLIG): "A Top-Down War Boat Shmup"

Whenever I watch a trailer of an indie game I usually have a pretty good idea of what it's about. If my memory serves me well 'SteamSunk' had a 3D look to it in the trailer. I have been known to be wrong on occassion though ... Whatever the case was I found myself a bit surprised when I realized that the game was a top-down shmup that took place on a massive lake. It was definitely a very pleasant surprise though. Snape, the developer behind this rather unique steamboat style shooter made the game very user friendly. Not only can you access a detailed control layout via the inside of the ship, but you can also access all of the other menu options in the ships bay window as well. SteamSunk features 4 difficulty settings (Easy, Normal, Hard, Godlike) with significant differences (more/harder enemies/bosses). These difficulty settings make the game easily accessible for both those who are new to the shmup genre, as well as veteran players.


Like any other shmup out there there are some power-ups involved (gattling gun, flame thrower, rocket launcher, double score). The game also features 6 different enemy/flying machine types including two kinds of bombers (bomber, rapture), two kinds of helicopters (copter, warcopter), and two kinds of zepplins (zepplin, war zepplin/boss). All of the enemy ships in this game come in waves like a lot of other shmups. Your steamboat has a health bar (hearts in gears), a boost bar, and an ammo bar that keeps track of the various features you use in the game. The boost bar is depleted whenever you use the boost (Left Trigger). The ammo bar corresponds to the weapon power-ups you pick up, and depletes as you shoot the newly gained weapon. Once the ammo bar is full you can also use a super move (Y) that drops a load of bombs from the sky on a targeted area. There isn't much to remember in the game which definitely helps you focus on getting that highscore.

In the end I was torn between liking the game, and not liking it. Overall the concept, gameplay and visuals were pretty cool, but there was a major flaw to it. I found that whenever the screen was full of enemies the game lags really bad from all the action that is going on (gunfire, flying machines ...). I also found the local leaderboard to be a little flawed. I don't recall seeing any way to distinguish which difficulty setting you got your score in. This is a pretty important detail since the game offers four significantly different difficulty settings. I did like how the game kept track of all of your kills (flying machine types, bosses, missiles, mines ...), and all of your weapon power-up usages (gattling gun, flamethrower, rocket launcher ...). The rocking soundtrack was a plus as well. After considering that the game did lag really bad at certain points I can't honestly recommend it. If there was some way the developer could patch it then it would be worth a buy.

CONTROLS

Movement - Left Thumbstick
Aiming - Right Thumbstick
Shoot - Right Trigger
Boost - Left Trigger
Super Attack - Y
Back Up - A