Gumbolt Game Review by Brent Edwards
Game Rating = 1/5 balls
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Gunbolt, a game by fledgling Indie developer Stratobit, gives an impression of being a super-low-budget title right from the opening. An arpeggio of midi guitar sounds, a low resolution 3D sprite slides onscreen, and an obviously cobbled-together opening cut scene plays at an agonizingly slow pace. Unfortunately, the impression never wore off.
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The game seems conceived as a combination of puzzler, platformer, and shoot ‘em up. Unfortunately, none of the elements particularly stand out, and every one of them feels clunky and underdeveloped. According to the manual included in the demo, mouse control is recommended, “as the game is catered for that.” Your character moves toward the mouse, and shoots toward it as well. In practice however, you’re much more likely to use simple keyboard controls. The mouse aim does not offer a full range of movement, only infrequent sticking points, just as if you were aiming with the movement keys. Beyond that, not being able to control your aim and movement separately leads you into many situations where you must choose between walking into damage or shooting into empty space.
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In level design, the game is basic in the extreme; flat space, a few platforms to jump on to in order to save baby penguins (the nonsensical requirement to continue through each area is to rescue all of them) and infinitely respawning enemies. The game tries to spice things up by adding a would-be puzzle mechanic: when you kill an enemy it drops a colored sphere. Collect five of each color of sphere and get a power up for your attacks or health. As the manual says, “The fun part is deciding whether you need more rockets or health.” Riveting. Unfortunately, since there is no time limit for the levels, there’s nothing to keep the player from simply standing in place and farming power ups. Once again, the manual celebrates a design flaw as a selling point; “There’s no time limit in the game, simply a blast fest…”
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In addition to boring, repetitive, and all around mind-numbing gameplay, Gunbolt’s presentation is dismal. The graphics are made up of looped, low-res 2D animations derived from ugly 3D models. The music is made up of a very few repetitive, harsh, and discordant MIDI tracks. The whole ordeal is obvious testament to the amateur status of its developer.
Finally, as if the game play flaws, poor presentation, and sheer ugliness of the game weren’t enough, the developer has the gall to demand $12.95 for the full version. It is admirable to see a start-up dev with zero funding manage to release a game, but not one of such poor quality. There are multitudes of free games with similar play mechanics available for free download all over the Internet. Gunbolt earns a 1/5, and a strong urging that gamers take their money elsewhere. Hopefully the designer at Stratobit will make his next project a more worthy one.
