➤ Astebreed, review 🎮

The magical world of independent video games is, at times, really difficult to understand. Not because of those who are part of it, it is clear, how much more because of a sector now dominated by marketing and triple A titles capable of carving out space and interest in the eyes of the players despite the production values put in place are not particularly original or innovative.

So it happens that a semi-unknown Japanese team gets to work on a small masterpiece that you, up to two months ago, didn't even know existed. Fortunately, however, the effort encountered by independent developers to emerge in an increasingly overcrowded landscape, finds a precious collaboration in reality like Playism, which offer visibility to projects from the land of the Rising Sun with the hope of being able to make them known to the great public. It is precisely in this way that Astebreed had the opportunity to be talked about before its debut on Steam on May 30th. The title developed by Edelweiss is as atypical as it is spectacular: it makes gameplay its strong point, belittling everything we are used to seeing as fundamental in a successful blockbuster.. Story, contamination of genres, pumped graphics, characterization of the characters, game modes step aside to give way to a frenetic, captivating, explosive and adrenaline-pumping carousel which once you get on, you will never want to get off.

Astebreed is a deep, fun and curated title. Short but a must try!

Defense of the Earth

Astebreed is an old school shoot'em up, one that the XNUMX-year-old adepts of arcades may still remember.

Its greatest merit, however, is that it is not an anachronistic title: thanks to a high level artistic direction, to the continuous leaps of perspective, to a refined gameplay and to the robots, which, as we know, make everything more beautiful, it succeeds in an attempt, if ever needed, to reinvigorate the genre with an extremely current and appreciable formula from many points of view. In an unspecified future, the Terrans, thanks to technological progress, have managed to colonize Mars and sneak up on numerous colonies scattered throughout the Solar System, but a mysterious alien race undermines their stability by waging a war that brings death and destruction among the population. To face this threat, in typical Japanese style, powerful mechs with a respectable arsenal will be used, piloted by kids of an unspecified age and an equally mysterious past. The clichés are wasted, but, as mentioned, it is not the plot, indeed rather confusing and poorly presented, the fulcrum of Astebreed. What matters is the gameplay.

The robot, to be strictly controlled with the pad, is equipped with a devastating sword and cannon combo capable of delivering death and destruction from any distance. Among the standard attacks we find an area attack and a more precise barrage of bullets, each of which can be loaded for a sort of automatic attack very useful to catch your breath during the always crowded fights. In this case, in fact, the weapon hooks up to all enemies in the mech's attack area, riddling dozens of targets with bullets simultaneously, in a vortex of colors, sounds and explosions that fills the heart with joy. Target locking also works on different planes, so that when the game phases are in a two-dimensional perspective it is still possible to simultaneously attack the spaceships in the background and the spacecraft that will parry in front of us, or detonate groups of missiles in the distance before they are too close to harm us. Obviously, all this increases the chaos on the screen, raising the difficulty exponentially during the continuation of the story and the appearance of enemies with multiple attacks more and more powerful.

Sword and cannons never disappoint

Last, but of fundamental importance, there is the sword. It is since the appearance of the Gundams that there has been this fascinating mix of three hyper-technological mechs and classic combat weapons, and the sword could only be a well-appreciated element in the game's economy.

It is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal, but that quality is well balanced by its narrow range which makes it practically useless against end-of-level bosses. In these cases, in fact, getting too close exposes us to easy attacks that we are not able to dodge, condemning us to certain death. To underline the ability of the blade to cancel certain enemy blows, unexpectedly revealing itself to be more defensive than offensive equipment. To make your way through the scenarios at the highest difficulty levels, it will in fact be necessary to continuously move the robot on the screen and obsessively beat the fingers on the pad, alternating the cannons with the sword in an incessant whirlwind of attack and defense essential to survive. At least until you get cramps in your fingers, which is far from remote. Precisely because of the soreness of the phalanges, the choice of the developers to limit the main campaign to just over an hour and a half of play makes sense, more than sustainable time to finish it all in one breath by destroying one in line at the other the various bosses of each level.

To underline instead the lack of alternative ways with which to extend the longevity of the title, currently entrusted to the desire of individual players to climb the online leaderboards by scoring higher and higher scores. On the offline front, the only thing that can keep the attention high are the forty achievements to unlock on Steam, some decidedly tough to obtain: finishing the entire campaign without taking damage at the highest level of difficulty will require a good dose of patience, as well as a rich collection of insults. Technically, Astebreed defends itself very well. Although the production values are not exceptional, the title constantly runs at 60 frames per second with no drops whatsoever, the image is clean and detailed and the anti-aliasing filters prevent any jaggedness, all accompanied by explosions and particle effects of excellent workmanship. The main story is told through interludes with static anime-style images and numerous dialogues during the game sections; however, these are dubbed in Japanese and accompanied by practically illegible English subtitles during the agitated phases of combat.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
Intel Core i7 2600 processor
8 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card
Windows 7 operating system

Minimum requirements

Core 2 Duo processor or higher
GeForce 8600GT or better video card
Controller use strongly suggested

Comment

Digital Delivery: Steam Prezzo: 19,99€ Resources4Gaming.com

9.0

Readers (10)

8.8

Your vote

Astebreed is a fantastic acid trip to be enjoyed in full consciousness, in front of the PC, grabbing a pad and destroying the phalanxes by repeatedly alternating sword and cannon in the hope of getting out alive from endless hordes of increasingly powerful enemies. The only drawback, the price: twenty cards are needed to take home this extraordinary title developed by the Edelweiss guys. The advice at this point remains only one: take it, play it, have fun. Whether you buy it now or at the upcoming Steam sales, do yourself the favor of giving it a try.