AngerForce Reloaded (PS4)

I have been playing "AngerForce Reloaded" by Zodiac Interactive for review purposes. I like it. It manages to add in a few tweaks to the standard bullet hell gameplay formula including an energy meter, and tied-in dual skills that can be used to maximize scoring potential. For some reason it reminds me of Borderlands in some ways, it's graphical design. Definitely with the visual cell-shading, and the named bosses you encounter. The fact that it has a campaign for each of the four main characters spanning 7 stages in total divided between Noob, Normal, and Hardcore difficulties really adds that incentive to play through it thoroughly. The perk system in Arcade, and Campaign mode adds a bit of enhancement to possible gameplay perfection for those who commit to the grind. In the campaign you'll use earned points to upgrade characters across the board. Things pertaining to health, energy, bombs, power-up suction, and other things can be upgraded to improve upon point earning potential as well as prolonged survival. These points can not only be spent at the final stage of the set difficulty or upon death, but can also be used to revive characters as well as buy intermediate power-up refills should you need them.

In total there are four main characters in the game that you can play as, and as the title suggests they all have some sort of anger issues, each pertaining to a sought out fight against a mysterious masked figure and a war against robots and humans. The characters include the adopted, and orphaned Samhill, Echo who happens to be the daughter of the man behind the creation of the robots, Asimo who is a robot himself, and a forest spirit named Shin who obviously has a beef with all the destruction and mayhem brought on by the ongoing conflict.

Each character's campaign starts off heavy handed with a cinematic hand drawn, voice acted, and animated intro detailing their side of the story. Different perspectives from different protagonists or antagonists, if you will. Along with their different stories comes different health, and power levels as well as two energy using skills unique to each character. Samhill for example uses an energy sword, and a multi-shot fireball. The energy meter itself can be refilled by power-ups or holding down "CIRCLE" in a sort of charge state that leaves you open to bullet hell spray and flyby attacks. Making skill use best utilized in instances against mid-tier and boss-tier enemies when the sky traffic isn't so cluttered. In the way of additional mechanics there is also a turbo speed option tied to "R2" to speed up your chosen character as well as a slowdown option useful for dodging the bullet hell tied to the "L2" trigger. Both of which have their use as you progress. Those things, and the limited use screen clearing and enemy damaging bombs which can be refilled by end level point spending, and in stage power-ups come in handy at the right times. The bombs themselves being a useful get out of a pinch tool for those more screen filled moments.

Each stage you face in the game will ultimately end with a multi-phase boss battle that when defeated will drop a metric ton of point power-ups, and award you with an end grade ranging from the lesser "D" to the more prestigious "S" rank. All of which is determined by several factors including life remaining, bombs left, percentage of enemies downed, and combo count. In Arcade mode in particular you'll end each stage by additionally choosing from one of three modifiers that give you extra assists, and mechanics boosts such as an energy meter that refills every time you are damaged. A way to improve your odds as your health, energy meter, and bombs carry over as is from the previous stage.

In total there are three main modes of play that you can select from the game's main menu listing including Campaign, Arcade, and Local Co-op. All based around the same 7 stages, 4 playable characters, and an interesting array of mechanized bosses. All done up in a upwards vertical scrolling style. All of which is complimented by a selection of side content including practice mode, a collection library that contains story/character items gathered by special hidden power-up scrolls, and an optional hands-on tutorial explaining away all of the mechanics in real time. Overall it's a nicely presented Indie shmup with it's own unique take on the traditional bullet hell genre. It is polished well enough, looks pleasing visually, has a nice soundtrack to boot, and plays as you'd expect such an arcade style shmup to play. All considered "AngerForce Reloaded" gets the Inferno's fiery brand of approval! Don't miss it if you are a highscore shmup fan!