Battle Planet: Judgement Day Review

User Rating: 6.5
Battle Planet: Judgement Day Review

German indie game developer threaks has recently released their brand-new title: Battle Planet – Judgement day. This little gem is a rogue-lite shooter and claims to fill the player with adrenaline and non-stop action. With previous titles earning them several awards since 2009, have they found the perfect formula to continue their streak? Here is our review of Battle Planets: Judgement Day on the PC via Steam.

Battle Planet: Judgement Day Review 1

This title starts off just like you would expect, a bit of flair and a simple tutorial level that gets players ready to fight rather quickly. The concept of this rogue-lite shooter is straight to the point, stay alive, shoot your way out, perform repetitive tasks and of course beat the level boss. While this may sound almost pointless and weak its rather the opposite. Taking complex mechanics out of the picture and pitting the player against an onslaught of mobs to keep you busy enough. While provided exactly what makes this game great, the ability to pick up and play without much overthinking and is a great game to play on the couch with a few friends.

Graphics

This title was visually appealing, bright and vibrant colors coupled with decent visual effects. The Sprites do have a dated look to them but I honestly believe that was the point and let’s face it, with a came that keeps you on your toes like this, you are more worried about staying alive then super analyzing the fine details. One of its many fine touches is the retro-modern look. Often, I received the sense I was playing a game from back in the day, by the way, I am pretty sure it was a Tuesday.

The menus are what they need to be short, simple and effective. Perfect for using a control however I noticed a few shortcomings. It would seem that either the game cannot always recognize the controller or it was not programmed in completely. The game would say press button [button] as if it cannot read the config file to print out the correct labels.

Audio

If any game has was shooting for the retro arcade sounds this one knocked it out of the park. Everything from the menu sounds and clicks screams arcade game. I have already pointed this out but this is something I love about this title. The auditory feeling sends me back to those golden days of using what little quarters you had to plays as many games as you could. While having a retro sound the audio is crisp and clear, exactly what you would expect from a game in 2019/20.

Gameplay

With little to no learning curve Battle Planet: Judgement Day is fast and friendly to pick up. However, with that being said I had some issues getting my wired Xbox one controller to function. While in-game I had to load the steam controller config and re-apply the default config before the game would recognize the controller. After that, it seems to work everything without failure. Using the mouse and keyboard though not difficult offers a slightly increased learning curve while compared to using a controller with joysticks.  Other then at times the game would feel a bit repetitive, the challenges helped avoid it becoming dull.

This game offers a variant in options for upgrading your rogue, and some of these options are available at random based on previous choices. Other options are static and can be purchased using in-game credits earned during your battles. These however never change and stay once purchased allow you to increase your skills and abilities, thus allowing you to improve and wreak havoc on your enemies.

A code was provided by the developer for the purpose of review.

Summary
Overall Battle Planet: Judgement Day offers an action-packed ride that you and your friends can enjoy for many hours to come. I personally enjoyed running around co-op style with my friends and seeing how far we can get before switching and making fun of the others. With only a few tweaks the developers could really polish it into a pure Gem. With a price point of $14.99 on steam, I think it’s a great buy.
Good
  • Little to no learning curve
  • Easy controls
  • Controller support
Bad
  • Controller required setup
  • Possible glitches with coding
6.5
Fair

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