Shatter

Developer: Sidhe
Steam Release: March 2012
Hours Played: 4.4
Similar To: Grey Cubes / Ionball 2 / Wizorb 
Rating: 4/5 Parsnips




GAMEPLAY
Pong helped kick-start the whole video-game phenomenon so the genre needs little introduction: it is from the Break-Out stable where you hit a missile back and forth with your paddle (or ship) in an attempt to destroy and clear a configuration of blocks. Miss the missile and you lose a life - game over when all lives are lost. Shatter is Break-Out on amphetamines! After selecting your level you get shots of a futuristic structure in outer-space and then you're taken to your first screen or wave. Some are vertically based and some are horizontal. You fire a triangular glowing missile which flies in the direction of the blocks before you. The missile collides and rebounds off the blocks while destroying them in sparkling explosions. When the missile heads in your direction you'll need to hit it back or you'll lose a life. 


BALANCE & PACE
Meanwhile, from the debris, loads of S-shaped symbols gently float downwards which you can pick up to add to your power-meter. When the power-meter is fully charged, you can unleash a salvo of bullets (in a limited time) at the blocks to clear them quicker. You may also use the power to create a shield to deflect any blocks that float down towards your ship. Additionally, you may suck debris towards you or blow it away and even steer the direction of the missile. With all this to consider and power ups constantly floating towards you, there is plenty to keep track of. A level consists of eight waves with a boss and bonus level at the end and although action is fast and frenetic you're usually given enough extra lives to make completion doable. At the end, you're shown a score and automatically thrown into the next level.


PRESENTATION & DESIGN
The soundtrack is the star here making it great to play while sinking a few beers before heading out to party of an evening. Each level comes with its own pumpingly immersive track. Developers have also gone to town with the effects of the explosions. The game glows radiantly with its neon-lit motif giving it that outer-space feel and when the missile strikes the blocks, explosions sparkle and glitter brightly. The downside is that the missile sometimes gets lost in the bright lights obscuring your view. On hitting Play Shatter you are taken to a choice of seven modes which you can scroll through in carousel-like fashion. Modes include Endless where you carry on until you lose all lives and Time Attack where you attempt the best score in five minutes. The ten level Story Mode is where most players will spend their time. 


PROGRESS SYSTEM
Levels in Story Mode become unlocked as you complete the previous one. It's all quite flashy with neon lighting and sparkles. The Leaderboards option takes you to your high scores for each of the levels and the different modes. You visit the Leaderboard screen to view your best scores for the seven modes and the ten levels in Story Mode. Following completion of each level in Story Mode, you're also shown a World Score and a World High Score which I found very confusing. To this day, I don't know if my World Score is my high-score for each level and the World High Score is a cumulative total for the whole campaign. For example my best score in the Kinetic Harvest level is 60,402,700 but this is also displayed as my World High Score. The game should definitely explain the distinction more clearly.

CONCLUSION

Inconsistent and confusing scores annoy me because by muddling up what should be a simple feature throws the context of playing the game into disarray. Why can this not be displayed with clarity and in no uncertain terms? Why is my best score for the Kinetic Harvest level the same as my World High Score? It just doesn't make sense. Maybe with more time I can figure this out and change the review accordingly but until then my gripe stands. Despite this irritation, Shatter remains a feel-good game with the star of the show definitely being the cracking music. It is the music that gives the game that powerful drive forward and which feeds the player the buzz. Perhaps enjoying the intense experience of the game and forgetting about the score is really where it's at.