I beat Gun Commando today. Overall, I found it kind of tedious--but then, if you combine a gun upgrade system dependent on not missing shots with my usual way of playing FPS games, creeping around almost as if in a stealth game, that spells "tedious." The comic book-style cutscenes were a nice touch, though. Anyway, here are some assorted thoughts on the game.
- The final boss is curiously easy. Firing at max speed, I've been able to take it out in ~12 seconds, before it can even unload any henchmen (but this depends on its 3 teleportations going somewhere I can find quickly). Counting definite impacts, I think it took 15 shots from my Level 22 gun to kill it. Of course, if you're playing for points, you might let it unload so you can farm, except . . . the game doesn't save after completion, meaning the high score on the start screen is from up to just before the final boss.
- My gun ended up at Level 22. A promo screenshot for the game features a Level 23 gun, but I wonder if it's actually possible to get there. I rarely missed, averaging maybe 5 in the longer levels, yet my final gun was far from the next upgrade. Note: if you miss no shots, your gun is Level 16 at the halfway point; upgrade progress gets very slow at the end, hence Level 23 being so far off.
- Usually, upgraded guns = more points per enemy. Not for bosses, though. Boss #1 was only 50K; #2 was 100K; neglected to check for #3; the last was also a mere 100K.
- Level completion screens show a bonus (if any) and, under it, your score. Strangely, the bonus is not included in that number. It's only added after that screen.
Other PSM games I beat in recent weeks:
- Hermit Crab in Space - A very interesting "shooter" built around a fight-scavenge cycle. It can get addictive arranging your acquired parts to build up your floppy little ship. Sucks when you accidentally build such that you shoot yourself, though. :P
- Super Skull Smash GO! - A well done puzzle platformer, but it leans toward the platforming side too much for my tastes. I did collect all the coins, so I guess it isn't that hard, but there are some parts with pretty tricky timing.
- Oh, Deer! Alpha - Visuals and sound are very nice. An unfinished game (hence "Alpha"), it's only one course, but it still took me maybe 10 tries to reach the goal. Buggy, unfortunately; the second section occasionally would fail to load, and the car would end up in a sort of limbo. FYI, there are 666 deer in all.
- Quiet, Please! - A fun little adventure game, but very quick if you know what to do. I'll have to put the PSV-native The Quiet Collection on my "buy someday" list.
- Haunt the House: Terrortown - I really like this game's sense of style, but it's almost disturbing how much fun it makes the act of scaring someone so badly that they jump out of a window.
- 2015/08/31 GMT