Bezier

Developer: Philip Bak
Steam Release: Mar 2016
Hours Played: 4.8
Similar To: Death Ray Manta / Tachyon Project / Xenoraptor
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Much lauded by Steam users, this Asteroids inspired game has you traveling in a small ship in outer-space. Utilising a rapid-fire mechanic that fires a fairly short-ranged stream of missiles out of three points, you are tasked with the job of hunting down and destroying 3 or 4 glowing shields which spawn at various intervals. These shields, looking more like swirling portals, are protected in various ways and take multiple hits to take down. All shields must be destroyed before a timer runs out otherwise it's game over. Of course you are constantly being thwarted by a variety of glowing and squiggly enemies. At the bottom of the screen are three circles. The green one on the left (maxing out at 100%) shows your Ouch or health while the blue one on the right (maxing at X10) is your multiplier or Oomph.

BALANCE & PACE
Destroying enemies causes most of them to leave green or blue dots in their wake and collecting these increases those meters. The middle circle at the bottom shows the cooldown of your special weapon which are dropped by destroyed shields. The game operates through a levelling-up system whereby skillpoints are awarded to upgrade or boost a defense or an attack feature. As your ship becomes more powerful, therefore, you are more likely to progress deeper into the campaign. Lastly, there is an auto-aim ability that can be used in short bursts. The Campaign numbers 15 waves in total and with each one urging you to destroy shields before the timer runs out, a definite sense of urgency fills the air. However, with each level lasting a good few minutes, one game can take a very long time. 
 

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Bezier's atmosphere is dominated by a towering male voice, with a thick English accent, who announces right at the beginning that he was "born inside a computer" giving the game an intense kick from the beginning. Help tips are shouted out with urgency to encourage that feeling of being rushed while the story is told in a high-falutin and purposeful manner. On the visual side it is a very explosive game with plenty of razzle-dazzle. The eye-candy works well enough but as many of the enemies and much of the harmless debris is made up of colourful squiggles it can sometimes be confusing to distinguish between the two. The soundtrack is excellent with each wave being accompanied by a different but decent tune which is always a fantastic plus in a game.

PROGRESS SYSTEM
There are three flavours when it comes to game-modes. First off you have the Campaign where you attempt to blast your way through 15 waves. For this, you have a Leaderboard showing your overall score and online rank plus your score and rank for each individual wave - which is a good touch. As mentioned, you upgrade your ship with a skill-point with each level-up so expect to improve your score over time. You also have Endurance mode which throws you into a see-how-far-you-can-get romp covering 100 shorter waves where both difficulty and multiplier increases with each wave. Finally, there is a Daily mode if you want to pit your skills against others online but of course the scales are tipped in favour of those on a higher level. 

CONCLUSION

Bezier joins the long queue with many other Asteroids inspired shooters to knock the crowns from the heads of the two main kings: Beat Hazard and Geometry Wars but there's a long way to go before those arena-styled giants can be pushed from their thrones. However, let's not take anything away from the fondly respected Bezier which does have a small yet loyal following from Steam users. This is a solid title that does a great job in calling you back for more. The drip-feed of upgrades allows you to see progress in the high-score department while the game itself sizzles and sparkles with aplomb. See you next Tuesday.