Let’s get this out of the way about We Are Doomed: it’s a quick, simple, fun action game. And it’s brutal. You fly around the area with one hell of a gun, shoot whatever is on your screen, and survive for as long as you can until the baddies finally take enough of your life to force you to start over… again and again… and again.
Its difficulty ramps up, but it’s also oh so pretty.
Vertex Pop’s We Are Doomed is incredibly easy to play. You use your left analog stick to fly the hero around through the vibrant colors and your right analog stick to aim your hero beam and knock out enemies. The beam looks like it came straight from classic arcade shooters, but in a more modern visual design. It’s an homage to retro, without being retro itself. As pretty as it is, the colorful background does make it a bit hard to see where the enemies are from time to time, especially when they start to blend in.
Killing enough enemies will cause powerup blocks to spawn, which when collected not only power up your Superbeam but also increase your score modifier. When you do use your Superbeam, you double your score modifier while active. Getting hit by an enemy halves your modifier, but at least you’re invincible for a short time. It’s brutal, but I like it. It keeps you on your toes at all times, forcing you to check your surrounding area often for incoming danger. It gets exponentially difficult as the game progresses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH2PO-Lz0rE
There are two modes that the game offers: Waves and Endless. In Waves the game offers 30 different rounds of enemies that you have to try and survive. Each wave offers some sort of challenge by adding unique enemies each time, some of which — especially those that shoot back at you — provide a very different challenge then just chasers.
The further I got into the waves the more enemies started to fill the screen; it was easy to say to myself, “Good luck. Have fun trying,” as I was overwhelmed. Depending on how aggressively or offensively players react, the experience can be different each time. I took more of a defensive stance, avoiding enemies to prevent a quick death.
Endless mode is what it sounds like: endless enemies show up to take you out, with no breaks, pauses or letting off of the gas pedal. They will continue to show up till you are out of lives. Where Waves gives you challenges to complete, Endless is more of a chill-out mode. This can be perfect for relaxing after getting home from a long day of work.
I am a fan of We Are Doomed’s vectorized art style, and the electronic music is pretty solid. I found myself lost in how beautiful the game is, as a whole. It controls well, and its core, no fluff twin-stick mechanics are spot on. Because of all of that the game is fun to experience in short bursts, providing a gaming fix when we’re pressed for time. Have the time? I’d recommend playing through Waves mode first and then switching over to Endless once you’re ready to decompress.
Even though I really liked this game, with only two modes and not much to offer afterwards it’s hard for me to tell you that it’s crammed with things to do. But if you enjoy the genre and are looking for a consistent way to unwind then this could be worth loading up into your collection.
We Are Doomed is available for PlayStation 4, XBox One, and soon Steam.
This review is based on a Playstation 4 PSN code sent to SideQuesting by the developer.
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