izigame.me

The first negative review I've written and certainly not something I take much pleasure in.
Chaos Domain as has been mentioned by many reviewers is a return to the age old Contra formula, static 8 directional shooting (much like the sort a classic D-pad was meant for) with awkward platforming, enemies that can shoot you through platforms that are supposed to be solid objects and ridiculously slippy controls without all the fluidity of Contras double jumping, this game is best left on the wayside.
For those of you like me, who don't own a 360 controller and don't necessarily see it as a requirement for games on a PC- don't get me started, the control scheme is a nightmare. I'm left handed and the standard controls are made with a right handed user in mind so you'll need to go through the borish task of arranging them to better suit you. The keyboard controls are poorly responsive and in a twitch shooting game where dozens of enemies might be shooting at you at once this is unacceptable.
Now on to the basics, I played one mission- that's three sections of a map that are broken up to create a single mission- so three 'check points' as it were. The beginning of the game as you might expect has you running to the right- but not able to return to the left (!) to collect missed pick ups or kill enemies and has you repeat this process three times, all while being shot by enemies through floors and walls, ceilings and anything else they seem to teleport their bullets through, which would be forgivable if you didn't get three lives (and one continue on the easier difficulty per check point) and died when you were hit once.
At the end of the first mission I was faced with a boss that is clearly a rip off of the loader from Aliens and other titles in the same franchise where it might well crop up. You are on a conveyor being dragged towards it while it fires either on a platform above it, or down the conveyor you are travelling on. You MUST hit it in the cockpit, meaning you need to be on the upper platform- not an issue, if not for the respawning guy on the platform above, lobbing grenades down at you that have an AOE far larger than is indicated by the explosion shown on screen.
It was at this point I turned the game off, and cursed myself for even bothering to pick it up.
I'm not going to list pros and cons for this, as I can't be bothered to do so. I'll simply offer my honest advice, keep your money, don't waste your time and don't waste a friends time- unless he/she and you are equally brain dead, by forking cash over for this half baked attempt at a classic and realized concept. Your friendship will swiftly end, your irritation will reach maximum levels in record time and your relatives will swiftly disown you if they learn you have this in your library.