Riddled Corpses

Developer: Daniel Fernandez Chavez
Steam Release: Jun 2015
Hours Played: 4.8
Similar To: Deathstate / Hero Siege / Overture
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Riddled Corpses may not strictly be a top-down shooter but it operates on the same kind of principle. In a flat 2D perspective that gives the appearance of an isometric view of things you'll be using a twin-stick set up and shooting at a whole bunch of zombies, skeletons and monsters that spawn around you and attempt to kill you in their hundreds. You have a combo that rewards killing quickly, and with three hit-points or lives to start with you'll be aiming to rack up the highest score. However, in Riddled Corpses, collecting dropped gold that gets strewn about the place is equally important. The screen will gradually shift slowly towards the right or upwards on occasions to move the environment forwards but it's not really a side-scroller. The idea is simple: kill, collect, die, upgrade... and repeat.  

BALANCE & PACE
Initially, you can scoop up two typs of power-ups as you play. This includes a stopwatch to freeze time or sticks of dynamite to destroy everything on the screen.You can also pick up items for a boost to your score as well as the odd rare med-kit to heal up. Opinion is divided but for better or worse the game is heavily based around the grind. In fact we could even assert that while the game is built for those who enjoy the grind, those with an aversion to it should just play safe and keep away. Besides your starting default guy, named Jon, there are an additional five more powerful characters to unlock. Each require increasingly large amounts of gold to unlock and, likewise, incremental increases in gold to upgrade their fire power which can be done in 20 steps.
  

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 
The game is produced in the pixel-art, 16-bit style and there are some odd design choices. Black and unsightly blocky patches are sometimes thrown into the battleground and sometimes enemies and items get obscured from view by the UI around the edges causing annoying deaths. It also has a soundtrack that soon gets irritating and which may no doubt need to be turned off for the sake of keeping sane. However, it has very few sound files and things will remain eerily silent if you choose to hold back on the firing. There is a popping sound to go with the firing and a little tinkle when gold is picked up but there is no sound-effects accompany spawning or enemy movement. Navigating through the menus is swift but some may be put off by the home-page which is all boobs and bums and scantily clad young girls in the Manga style. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
The game consists of five stages which you unlock as you go. All progress is stored and can be viewed at the Upgrade Stats screen via the home-page. On the left, apart from the less important figures of the total kills and total gold, you can see your best score in both the Arcade Mode (which is effectively the main campaign) and the Survival Mode. In addition you are shown what level each of your six characters have reached. All require the farming of gold and it's up to you if you want to max out your first character before moving on but the second and third characters (Cloe and Liery) have abilities that will greatly speed up the all-important acquirement of gold. The first few are relatively easy and swift to level up but by the time you get to Fael and Erika those conditions are pretty steep and you're in for a long haul. 

CONCLUSION
Apart from a few varied monsters getting the odd hit-point hike, the odd enormous boss crashing in on the scene and the driving of a scooter in Stage 3, the basic gameplay involved in Riddled Corpses stays fairly constant. This and its consequent lack of innovation means that it's hardly likely to win any awards. However what it does do, it does solidly and this fact, mixed with the perfectly fair progress system can certainly cater to that sort of gamer who gets a kick out of seeing characters getting more powerful and the destruction they cause. In Riddled Corpses that process is swift and noticeable and hence very satisfying. You will notice your bullets rip through enemies, destroy parked vehicles and blow up oil tanks more easily after a few upgrades. For that reason it's definitely worth checking out when offered on sale.