Utopia 9 - A Volatile Vacation

Developer: Whalegun
Steam Release: May 2016
Hours Played: 5.2
Similar To: Blue Rider / Neon Chrome / Shadowgrounds / Synthetik
Rating: 4/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Top-down shooters tend to come in two varieties when it comes to type of action: first there are the arena shooters like Assault Android Cactus or Crimsonland, that keep the action within the confines of a boundary; second, you'll get those that allow more free roaming within an area. Some of these, like Gatling Gears or It Came From Space... never let you relax and force you to keep moving while others like Blue Rider add time pressure by using a multiplier. For a quirky slice of the latter but with no time pressure to hurry you up and set in a dramatic and spruced up 1950s version of what the planet Mars might be like... Utopia 9 whisks your bored office-worker character off to a holiday destination he won't forget. After your journey through space you alight from your space capsule armed with just a suitcase and pistol ready to enjoy your holiday.

BALANCE & PACE
Of course, this means killing all mutant alien life-forms. Yep, in true twin stick style and with trigger at the ready, you'll need to clear a path through six areas so as to arrive at customer services to find out what the hell is going on. Guarded crates, usually stored in interior areas, are what you need to aim for to keep you supplied in fresh weapons and ammo (not to say the odd health pack). You equip these in your few weapon slots, rejecting less useful stuff, as you slay and destroy. U9 is that rare top-down shooter that demands a little thought and planning, and with ammo also being at a slight premium, bounding in with all guns blazing is not always such a good idea. Becoming skilled with the gun and not missing your target too often (plus being adept at the odd melee attack) is something you'll need to factor in.  
      

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 
With the help of exploding barrels of squelching paint and some satisfying splattering effects, U9 adds up to a fun and absorbing experience. Enemies will drop their shields and helmets with a nice clunk and be thrown back a little when met with a blast of gunfire. Red barrels and crystals will also explode causing damage to both alien and player, while extra damage will be caused through multiple explosions as they detonate next to each other. The tops of interior areas vanish nicely so the player can see inside clearly and the varied guns also come in many flavours with plenty of sound-effects used to tell them apart. Comical cries of anguish abound and that soundtrack is pretty hard to get out of your head as well. Needless to say, it's all very well polished and implented. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Dead enemies litter the environment with pink soylent crystals which can be collected and serve as experience points. When your XP bar reaches the end of the meter, you can then buy one of three or four perks. These crystals also count as points towards one of two scores and further stats are shown at the end of each run. An online leaderboard shows this info with a rank. A run always starts in the crash landing area where you'll see tutorial info and where you'll battle past your first few aliens towards opening your first crate. The game then moves you onto the first of six areas (2 in the Vacation Resorts, 2 in Adventure Caves and 2 in the Staff Only area). While progress is slow to start with (it took me over 3 hours just to get to Adventure Caves), your job is to complete as much as possible.

CONCLUSION
Utopia 9 - A Volatile Vocation is a top quality game that is a fantastic antidote to all those ferocious top-down arena shooters out there. Players should certainly not come to this game expecting to romp through it like a Full Mojo Rampage, a Nation Red or a Meltdown. Patience is required and rewards will definitely come to those who take their time to work out the strengths and weaknesses of each gun. With very limited weapon slots and ammo, care will also need to go into considering which weapon to carry on with and which to reject. Thankfully, while the gameplay is most certainly not a breeze, this is not a particularly unforgiving game either - which means that in Utopia 9 you have a title that sets the bar at just the right height to make it a good challenge.