Meltdown: Review
Meltdown‘s basic function is that of the twin stick shooter, you progress through levels shooting everything in sight, all while earning coins and XP. It may sound rather familiar, but in a way, it isn’t. The work of a few key design choices serves to elevate it above the fray.
Video Review
Cover System
Meltdown introduces a slow moving character and a cover system. These elements feel very alien for this type of game, but its the aliens that we remember.
The cover system helps to slow down the game, and keeps it from reaching the level of “bullet hell” insanity many twin stick shooter fall victim to. But it comes with a downside. There is no button to take cover which means its fast and easy to get down, but walking next to any piece of cover results in your character crouching down and slowing down. Not ideal when trying to backpedal or kite enemies in the midst of battle.
Gun Fun
The shooting feels great. Each gun is distinctly different, and requires a new strategy to use them to their fullest potential. You are able to choose a loadout of two guns and a melee weapon before eachlevel, and what you choose will often dictate how you will need to approach said level. Within each gun there is a upgrade tree, which you will need to invest in if you hope to be successful. They range from the basic damage increases you’ve come to expect, but also more notable ones such as bullet penetration or impact effects.
These later type upgrades can have a huge impact on how you use the gun, and your strategy in general. Meltdown even allows you to reset upgrades without penalty, rewarding and encouraging weapon experimentation. Meltdown doesn’t lock you into the choices you make, so several hours later when you realize that the upgrade choice you made on your revolver isn’t so hot, you can go back to the drawing board and try a new arrangement .
Without this type of weapon evolution, Meltdown would feel a bit hollow, but the density that these upgrades provide make for a solid experience.
Rouge-lite?
It wouldn’t be to far off base to call Meltdown a rouge-lite. There is random level generation, a lot of grinding, and death means starting the level over, unless you have an extra life (which can be bought). This could have spelled micro-transaction disaster, but after the initial unlock, Meltdown‘s design doesn’t push you into constantly spending money.
Levels are not too long, so starting over isn’t giant hassle. In addition, the game gives you chances to gain extra lives through random drops and achievements. A courteous move that kept me from ever feeling discouraged.
Procedurally Lackluster
The procedural level generation is a nice touch, but doesn’t live up to its full potential. The levels are simply map tiles strung together in random orders. The randomness serves only to create a new path to follow with cover in different spots.There is no sense of exploration since you’ve seen it all before, and no benefit to venturing off the beaten path because the levels are empty aside from enemies. Discover-able loot within the levels would have created a sense of exploration and given me a reason to look around, rather than simply focusing on getting to the end.
Stranger Party
The most surprising feature of Meltdown is its online co-op. You can set your game to online so anyone can join the fight and help you overcome those hard to beat levels. This is a great way to keep from getting frustrated.- After failing a mission several times over, I set my game to online and watched in awe as a high level player joined my game, and with his massive rocket launcher, helped me overcome the level.
While fun as a solo experience, Meltdown really shines when a group of strangers (or friends) join together for 5 minutes of pure fun.
