UPDATE: Just found out a little more details via research on Google today. The game is actually made by Warlock Arts which is based in Turkey. So, I'm assuming Ertem Yazilim is part of that company though I'm not sure if I'm correct or not. And if it's made by them, then they should be a shame by themselves for releasing this Euro-crap shmup without letting any PS4 user know in the first place. And to make matters worse, this game is being greenlited on Steam, meaning it'll be ported to PC. The only good thing about this game is that, if you played on Steam and you found it crappy, then you have the option to make a refund before two hours of gameplay.
Original Post:
So, yeah. Not all that many impressions I made in the forums, but I feel like it to do so. I decide to give and share my impressions (opinions) regarding about MasterCube since nobody else knows what this game really largely due to lack of info. Only reason why I decide to show it in the forums, because nobody knows if this game is worth buying it or not. However, things didn't made me too happy after playing. I know you're thinking, "hey, aren't you the OP being the troll who likes to bait and waste people's time?". No, I'm not. I'm just honest after playing it twice. There's something that really puts a bad taste in my mouth. Now, I don't normally say anything negative about the game(s) in the forums. Most of my opinions are positive after I played though I kept them in my head (unless I feel like to share). This one, however, is about to turn into buyer's/completionist's remorse as soon as he/she buys and plays. This happens to me, too.
After doing a little research on Google, I do not see any info about this game other than the product's description on PSN store in European region. I have seen the trophy list on PSNTL and there is non-platinum. At first, I thought it was European exclusive after seeing EU-related players. Today, however, in NA (US/Canada) PSN store, it popped up in a rather quiet release. I happen to view it after I came home from work. From what I see, it only costs $5.49. So, I went, "hey, this game can't be that bad with that price tag, right?", and looked at the screenshots and description and it shows that it is an shoot'em up (shmup) title, so I went on and bought it. Only reason why I done this on purpose, because I'm a big fan of shmups.
After I finished downloading it, I begin playing and think "this is gonna be fun". Then, unfortunately, things went wrong as soon as I play. The first thing I have seen is the presentation of the game itself. It looks rather unappealing to me. You only see yellow dotted stars in the background, and no you can't change it nor the game will. It seems like the visuals they made looked like it's created by thirteen year old(s). I had no idea how in the world do people like the looks of the game when I looked at the Steam Greenlight page. Also, there are no other options to look at other than just 'Start' to start a new game. What's the point on not having options in a shmup game? If I don't like the in-game music, why I'm forced to mute the volume from TV and not the game options? Okay, enough ranting about the lack of options, let's get into the game system itself.
You take the control of the titular character being a Cube, as what the title said. The controls worked fine in movement and shooting at the same time, just like Geometry Wars, Smash TV, and other twin-stick shooters do. You start off with the one-line shot, and you get two kinds of upgrades (double shot and triple shot (spreader)) every 10,000 points scored. But the problem is, the game is simplistic and even much more uglier. If I wanted to keep the upgradable weapon I like, I rather keep it; instead, it downgrades and upgrades repeatedly every time I score 10k which is ridiculous. Even though the original Geometry Wars Evolved do that, the only real difference is that it's easy (yet hard to master) and entertaining to play. But this, it's really not. Instead of having smart bombs (bomber) to defend against the larger hordes, you have to figure it out how to get out of way by your own in a random fashion. This is a pain in the ass when there are tricky situations. If I want to score higher, I want a strategy plus having bombers in the game! The lack of bombers really hurts your gameplay overall. The multiplier grows rather slow and it increases by one when you destroy many enemies as possible. No matter how good you are on playing, even with decent strategy, you still going to die very fast and it makes high score runs even more harder and depressing. Another thing that really bothers me is that when you're near close or closer to Red Circle mobs, it drags you depending on where they're are until you destroyed them. If that happens when more mobs are near you, it's very easy to die.
As for sound quality, the thing that made it so wrong about this game is the music! The sound I find is the generic rock track that tries to fit to an arcade style shmup or play like a Nickelback marathon (I effing hate Nickelback). It doesn't fit after all.
If you think the non-platinum trophy list you find is easy enough, well guess what? It is NOT easy. They made the list rather almost impossible (already impossible?). Brace yourselves! There are trohpies that asks me (and you) attempt to destroy 2,500 without being hit once and as well as scoring up to 15,000,000 points. But because of how problematic the game system and design is being made, this made the trophies rather impossible for many people. Another thing that really blows my mind is that one trophy asks me to survive up to 14,000 seconds (yes, you have to survive in four hours in one sitting without taking a hit). How in the hell you do the impossible when there's a large amount of purple fiends chasing you? It's weird for me to think that people may assume it's an easy 100% and short amount of hours because of the price. However, that is not the case at all. That kind of opinion I find is rather mind numbing. I analyze games' trophy list whenever I played it. No matter how good your skill is, the game is extremely unforgiving. I played it twice and I had enough of this Euro-crap shmup. My final score is probably around 1,200,000 or little so. Never got 2 million nor 15 million.
There is no way I will ever come back and play again. I do not like to make rage-quitting nonsense in a single player game, but this happens occasionally to games like this. To add another insult to injury, there are no local high-scores nor being online. Also, there is no save system. What's the point of having an shmup title with no high-score feature nor save system? If there is a save system, I would have cheated back this garbage game. It feel likes they love to make the trophy system looked like it's inspired by Geometry Wars Evolved, but fails miserably.
After the short time of waiting for the trophy to be synced, the NA version is now being uploaded to the servers. This means you can sync your trophies. Both NA and EU versions are stackable. However, there's no way me and others be able to 100% both versions due to cryptic game design and choices the developer has made. If the game is being less of an anti-gamer crap and accessible to everyone, then I can forgive them. At times playing a game containing a difficult trophy list can be rewarding (if not too grindy and let us win by strategy), but dealing with MasterCube is not worth a hassle.
In the end, the game turned out to be both buyer's and completionist's remorse. I'm not trying to sound like a whiny bitch or cry baby. I spend two hours and thirty minutes total, and many of the attempts I made really shows a bunch of failures. I regret on buying it when it first came out. I feel completely burned out after playing it, especially when I attempt to 100% to earn more respect. I also feel sorry to other users who really can't get that many trophies. Many of us will end up getting between 0% to 20% trophy XP earned. Unless someone made a guide regarding the certain trophies, maybe I'll give another go when I'm bored.
sake. I cant watch your stream though.
