Reign Of Bullets

 
Developer: Critical Bit
Released: Aug 2015
Hours Played: 10.9
Similar To: Drifting lands / Jets 'n' Guns Gold / Platypus / Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser
Rating: 5/5 Stars

GAMEPLAY

Reign of Bullets is a bright and colourful horizontal side-scrolling shooter that makes heavy use of loot dropped from wrecked enemies. First and foremost though, you fly over a landscape from left to right while crashing through two minute levels destroying as many tanks, robots, trains, trucks and flying contraptions as possible. The loot itself comes in three forms: (1) scrap metal that can be used as currency to buy upgrades; (2) modifiers that can be attached to weapons to give them extra strength and firepower, and (3) dropped weapons which can be equipped and stacked multiple times onto your ship. Gameplay itself is a sure-fire blast with enemies going down under a relentless barrage of missiles, lasers, bullets and fire in a satisfyingly explosive romp.

BALANCE & PACE

Another plus added to the Reign of Bullets experience was the vast customisation on offer. To begin with you get to choose ten difficulty levels from Rookie and Beginner to Veteran and Standard, right on up through to Master and Expert. This is accessed via the user-friendly level-select screen by the use of a simple dial. Additionally, you can access which of the ten levels to battle through from one of the four worlds that you unlock during your journey. What this type of customisation allows, of course, are levels that are tailored exactly to your current needs from a lazy, stress-free romp through reasonably challenging levels to tough as nails foes with high-as-you-like hitpoints who are going to effortlesly destroy you.

 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 

The game comes wrapped in a coating of bright and vibrant colours along with a mildly comical veneer involving a story about a young chap getting his own back against the corporate giants out to demolish his house. However it's the solid and chunky levels along with the design of the hangar, which you go to between runs to upgrade, that wins the show. Everything is refreshingly intuitive and can be picked up with the controls of the Xbox controller mapped out finely for hassle-free menu navigation. With a lot of time required to be spent at the hangar, to equip optimum weapons and to modify accordingly, this is very welcome indeed. With the loot count being fairly high, expect to spend a lot of time salvaging a heap of junk like unwanted modifiers and out-of-date weapons.      

PROGRESS SYSTEM

As mentioned, Reign of Bullets features a well-put together progress system that allows the player to move through the game at their own pace. First off, you're shown ten slots for the ten levels of the first world of the game. There are four of these worlds making 40 levels in total. Underneath this layout you get a dial showing ten different difficulty levels. For each, figures are shown to indicate what adjustments are made to things such as enemy hit-points and damage dealt etc. At the end of each level you are shown a percentage of how many enemies were destroyed and health remaining, along with a grade (S, A, B or C) that are awarded as medals along the way. At this point, you're also given the option to either dive straight into the next level or improve your ship with upgrades as well as sell the junk back at your hangar.

CONCLUSION

As well its polish, freshness and vibrancy, Reign of Bullets will keep the interest of players alive precisely due its tantalising and customizable reward system. It is a veritable geek's paradise! Charge through the 40 levels on Rookie or Beginner regardless of grades; see how far you get with the same weapons on each of the difficulties; attempt to beat the game on Champion or Legend early on; or go the rigorous route and attempt to beat the game gradually with a clean sweep of all S grades on all levels and difficulties. With its refreshingly intuitive system Reign of Bullets achieves that glorious happy-medium of both allowing all such possibilities to be tried and delivering a quality experience by handing the player such smooth gameplay achieved by its fluidity and crystal clear graphics.