I tried out Daemon X Machina, but although the initial experience was okay, I completely ran out of ammo against the first proper boss fight, and after flying around the arena for a minute, it finally dawned on me that the ONLY way to get more ammo mid-mission is to kill the cannon-fodder enemies…which I couldn’t do because I was out of ammo. I also didn’t have a melee weapon, and when I checked the shop after reloading my save, I saw that they didn’t have a melee weapon, either! With no recourse for a problem the devs almost certainly know about and consciously chose to leave in, I uninstalled the game and moved on:

• Snake Force
  

  26 minutes playtime

  13 of 25 achievements

Twinstick shooter, no controller support. WASD moves, mouse aims, and holding left-click rapid-fires.

The core concept of having a row of units following you and needing to reach the goal with a set number of them still alive sounds interesting…right up until you realize the game has friendly-fire on by default, which severely hamstrings potential level design options since the dev has to make sure the player can kill enemies without rear allies killing front allies. Because of this, it won’t surprise you to learn that the game’s only enemy type is “chase and shoot directly at you when in range,” with the only other obstacle types being 1) barrels that explode after a second when shot, and 2) blue circles that bounce you up so you can get on/over walls.

Despite the bland levels and lack of enemy variety, the friendly-fire still manages to be frustrating on its own since enemies can shoot at you while you’re still trying to position yourself in a way so you won’t shoot yourself. This means the only way to have any chance of avoiding damage is to go through the level alone, then go back for the hostages once all the enemies are cleared out. In other words, the best way to play the game is to ignore its central mechanic, which really puts into focus how no consideration was put into building the game around the gimmick and how little else the game has to offer.

By the way, even if you only have the initial soldier, the generic enemies can still get cheap shots in. If you’re moving south, enemies will notice and shoot you before they appear on-screen, and if you’re walking up a slope, enemies can shoot you before your own gun makes it over the wall to allow you to counterattack.

P.S. When you beat the game, you unlock “badass” mode, but it’s literally just the same levels as the campaign again, except the hostages are replaced by more of those generic enemies.

Not recommended.