Blacksea Odyssey (PS4)

Perma death, replay value, and indie charm. Sometimes features like these can go a long way in making a game great. In the case of Stage Clear Studios' "Blacksea Odyssey" though the gamble on such boasted features kind of falls short on greatness when that's the only thing it really has going for it. In "Blacksea Odyssey" the developer spins a brief tale about an intergalactic fishing tournament that happens ever so often. A competition among a select few space captains looking to make a name for themselves. Much like Captain Ahab from "Moby Dick" these space faring captains are after that big catch, or rather catches. The catch to catching these catches is that you have only two base tools to hook the various space beasts. This includes a spear, and a harpoon. That, and your spaceship from which said tools are ejected from. Relying on one chance to catch, or kill them all your captain of choice must not only hunt key targets and tear them apart via a harpoon for loot, but must also defend from attacking lesser creatures that are trying to stop you from catching that prize monster. As you hunt you'll gather dropped gold bits, special assist items, and new base weapons to aid you in your ongoing goal. It goes without saying that should you die in the maw of these Eldritch-esque horrors it's "Game Over!", and you'll have to start over in your attempt to become the number one space captain in the tournament.

At it's core "Blacksea Odyssey" is a shmup hybrid with a floaty space-like gravity. Something akin to the NES's "Solar Jetman". It has you selecting locations with listed targets via a main menu hub, and inside said environmentally themed locations has you traversing a labyrinth of barriers while dealing with greater and lesser creature threats. Your main tools come in the form of a spear that acts as your infinite supply of bullets, and a roped harpoon that can be charged and launched at creature parts to pull them off when they are weakened. You even have a boost with a three tier boost meter tied to L3 for traveling or getting the hell out of Dodge faster. Along with these basic tools you'll also find that you will gain and can buy assist items/weapons that will help you stay alive as well as deal alternative kinds of damage to approaching and defending creatures. All of which is tied to R1 and L1 respectively. Pressing the touchpad allows you to access the items menu, and allocate said items to a limited number of slots.

Your goal in each timed hunt is ultimately to tear apart the biggest of the creatures. The trophy creature, as it were. All creatures of importance are marked on a pinging sonar map at the lower right hand side of the screen with the big targets marked by red shapes, and the other targets marked by octagonal ping indicators. While you don't have to hunt anything other than the biggest creature to win it pays off to hunt them all. Hunting the lesser creatures rewards you with gold that can be used at the main menu shop as well as with keys that can be used to unlock treasure chests within the stages that contain more useful items. When you do finally face off against the prized catch you will have to tear off it's various appendages to get to it's weak point which must also be pulled from it's body for the kill. After you finally defeat the boss creature you will get a tallied score based on what you hunted. Including all of the various types of creatures you were able to best. This end tally is what helps you rise in the four captain leaderboard rankings for each given hunt.

Keep in mind this game is a single player experience. It isn't directly against bots, and it isn't directly against another player. Your progress, and success is the only thing that helps you to win the competition. Should you die (lose all health) you will lose all progress. Thus ending your role in the tournament with a final collective score. Even though this faux competition has it's competitive value it still feels as shallow as a koi pond in space. It's gameplay is limited, and short lived. Highlighted only by an impressive soundtrack and decent indie graphics. It's only replay value comes from grinding to unlock other playable captains, and in unlocking all the spears/harpoons that the game has to offer. That and completing a bestiary that gives you details on all of the creatures you've successfully hunted. It's definitely not the best I've seen from the Digerati label.

The Verdict ...

Even for the budget asking price, and with the replay value taken into account I cannot recommend this game. It's not particularly fun, and it seems to lean a bit too much on it's replay value. I felt the hunts were very short lived as I mentioned earlier, and that they were only made challenging by the floaty space movement that comes with spaceship navigation. The aiming felt awkward as well. It's a game that tried to innovate, but that fell short of being impressive due to the nature of the gameplay. To cut it short I'm going to have to say this indie is not worth your money. You have to have more than just a reason to replay a game for said game to be considered worthwhile. You need the game to be fun as well, and I don't think this game was all that fun.

PATCH NOTES:

Today as the embargo is lifted, and prior to the 17th release date, the PR has informed me that there has been a patch to the bounty menu, the inventory descriptions, and the UI. It's basically a visual reworking of some of the user interface features to make them more user friendly. Nothing that changes my final verdict of the game though as my complaints lie purely with gameplay.