Rogue Flight Review (Seurath)
It's good. Real good.
The soundtrack is a banger. It oozes with 90s anime and video game VHS feel. UI is beautifully 90s as well, with "fighter plane console" aesthetic to it. The game also lets you select the colour of the UI... this is how you know they are making something special. :D (I remember the original Deus Ex did this, and I always wondered why more games don't do this... looking at you Elite: Dangerous).
Some cons:
- Compared to a 2D arcade SHMUP, this 3D rail shooter struggles with telegraphing enemy positions within the play volume, producing misses that look like they should be hits. I.e. the depth axis is unclear at times. The action being fast compounds the issue. It might also just be inherent to the rail shooter genre.
- Boss battles are a bit tedious. Like in a 2D arcade SHMUP, they behave like levels, with weakpoints to shoot and attack patterns to dodge. But, because your ship moves where it aims, it makes it difficult to align a shot against a boss' weakpoint that also features some counter, which like the point above, doesn't telegraph where it'll hit you that well. For example, early on, you'll be shooting at the boss thrusters, which also puts you in harm's way of their burn. This all results in forcing the player to send pot shots at the weakpoint, breaking off the attack in time to avoid damage. It sounds like a standard arcade SHMUP design on paper, but Rogue Flight's implementation of it leads to a drawn-out fight. Compared to the boss battles from the many insanely challenging 2D arcade SHMUPs, this is challenging in all the wrong ways.
I'm only an hour into the game, so some of these issues I have I might iron out via increased skill. But compared to other SHMUPs across subgenres, I still feel it's fair to offer this critique to the devs, and offer this as a consideration for players.
That's it for cons. I love this game.