Following an ever increasingly popular trend of “Rogue-like”
games, Kitfox Games opted to return to the roots of the genre with Shattered
Planet. An isometric turn based RPG with some very interesting mechanics thrown
in for good measure and it’s harder than your Granny’s stew!
Playing as one of four playable clones you descent through
Shattered Planet looking for scrap metal and crystals and trying to not die
horribly. You’ll lose everything you were carrying when you die except the
scrap and crystals. These can be used to purchase strength, wits and health
upgrades for your clone and also used to create randomly generated items or
summon companion pets. When you’ve spent your hard earned resources it’s time
to dive back in for another randomly generated shot. Rinse, repeat, Rogue-like.
Exploration is at the heart of the title, you’ll constantly
be pushed to find the next teleporter plundering further into the unknown. Being
nudged to fill a research catalogue to level-up is also a very nice feature.
Levelling up will unlock summonable companions, other classes and items. If
you’re a completionist, like me, you’ll find it hard to resist coming back to
Shattered Planet. Even if your goal is just to collect new entries to the log. The
daily challenge mode offers an experience in itself and the exploration mode,
where the real meat of the game is, is long enough to keep you interested in
progressing.
The environment Shattered Planet is set in is a perilous yet
lovely world. The soft palette of colours coupled with the cartoon style seems
to pop off the screen, you will not have a huge amount of time to explore each
environment as with each move a spreading area of damage known as “Blight” will
spawn into the area. Not only does blight damage on contact, it will spawn
reasonably difficult enemies to contend with and ultimately will lead you to
your death or to the next teleporter. Unfortunately, it feels like a mechanic
solely used to push you further on. For me, I’d find it much more entertaining
to clear the area of enemies and reap the rewards of the zone before moving on,
it doesn’t add tension, only frustration.
The combat is refreshing, there’s been quite a few
Rogue-like titles recently that fixate on the action being live rather than by
turn. Rogue Legacy, Tower of Guns and Risk of Rain all done this, all
successful in their own right but all having larger difficulty curves.
Shattered Planet isn’t an easy title to master, but it is to learn. Being played
solely with the mouse makes it easy to plan your next move through the world
and decide which path to take. Clicking on your character will cause you to
wait a turn which can also be useful to bait enemies into coming into your
range. Focusing mainly on Swordplay means being kept to melee range and this
can lead to some hectic situations. Being forced into a corner by two adjacent
enemies can be extremely frustrating but is usually avoidable.
Shattered Planet does a lot of things right. The combat
works well as does the music and sound and being able to fill a codex of
everything you’ve seen a goal in its own, however, where the game frustrated me
most was with its randomness. Rogue-likes, by their nature, are designed to
have random elements. Levels are generated, randomly. Items dropped, at random.
Enemies spawn, at random. It’s random. Kitfox may have pushed this a little too
far. Before beginning a level you will be given the option to buy consumable
items for crystals, these items rotate in options of three and if the Gods of
RNG aren’t with you, you could end up buying quite a few grenades and no
healing items. Throw in the fact that the crystals are also used to generate
your equipment (either a weapon or an armour) and you could very possibly be
equipped like Rambo with a headband and 6 grenades and no sword or you could be
Robocop with regenerating health and a plasma sword, most of the time it’s down
to sheet luck. There’s ways of circumventing this outcome, your inventory will
store equipment, healing items and companions and there’s the very real option
of saving for that one run that you’re going to throw everything at. Only to be
squashed with more RNG from bottled pick-ups or unfortunate enemy spawns. Some
more focus on guided gameplay, for example, by telling the player what the
bottled item does, and a more forgiving item roll algorithm would help
Shattered Planet greatly. When the outcome of your run is down to more luck
than skill, that sense of being gripped to keep playing fades quickly.
Shattered Planet is on the right track, it does a lot of
things right and with a bit more structure to the randomness it would be a
highly enjoyable title. In its current form, and asking for £10, its worthy of
your time. Throwing half an hour at it at a time is how to get the most out of
Shattered Planet, playing it for a few hours on end will leave you frustrated
by its heavy reliance on randomness.
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