Xenoraid Preview

Developed by the 10Tons Ltd, Xenoraid is a vertical shooter that focuses exhilarating action along with deliberate shooting that designed to challenge players – not overwhelm them. The game comes packed with a campaign, survival mode, and leaderboards on steam. While the game releases October 1st, the content that is currently presented is put together well and is a lot of fun to play.

Xenoraid Preview. What an awesome title screen!

Introduction

Xenoraid is a vertical shooter that focuses exhilarating action along a handful of modes and an upgrade system that enables players to make their ships stronger as the game progresses. The graphics, while nothing special, are colorful and crisp. Environments in the game are extremely typical but present a level of depth that is similar to Treasure’s Ikaruga. 10Tons Ltd has the game in the Beta stage of development but states the game will see a release date October 1st.

Gameplay Impressions

Much of the gameplay in Xenoraid consisted of the typical shoot the enemy, avoid their fire, and take out the boss. However, this tried and true formula is met with some fresh ideas that really enable this game to stand on its own. The ideas consist of a team of 4 ships players are able to alternate with no limits throughout each level as well as campaign and tech upgrades to make each ship stronger as the game progresses. What I enjoyed about the game was how the challenge increased with each level but did not overwhelm me. In some levels, there would be additional obstacles, such as meteors, that would add to the action and in some cases get my ship destroyed.

Xenoraid Preview. Don't go to the right!

My favorite elements to Xenoraid was the variety of enemy ships and the tech upgrades. The variety of enemy ships was actually a surprise to me because not only did the ships have aesthetic differences, they had varying attacks that sometimes confused me. This was a good thing because it forced me to tread through each stage carefully in order to avoid the numerous bullets coming at me. Some of the enemy ships are harder than others but that is where the tech upgrades come into play. Tech upgrades can make your guns, armor, and ship more powerful and enable players to take down the enemy ships faster. It is important to mention that this upgrades only make the game slightly easier but the overall challenge is still present due to the amount of enemies and obstacles in each level.

If you would like to see a glimpse of what Xenoraid is about, take a look at my Let’s Play video below: 

Additional Impressions

The core game presented by the developers at 10Tons Ltd is extremely satisfying. Other elements that I found to be a delight are the sound and additional ships that can be unlocked throughout the game. From the explosions to the sound of the bullet spreads, there was never a dull moment as it was the attention to this particular detail that helped me get into Xenoraid on a level that I did not expect. The additional ships were a nice touch and it made me want to experiment with the combination of ships that I can have on my team. My current set up is 2 tank-like ships with stronger attacks and 2 balanced ships with faster weapons and maneuvers. Overall, my time with Xenoraid was fun and one that I plan to revisit in the near future. It is good to see this type of game coming back because when I was younger, I really enjoyed games like R-Type and Gallaga.

Xenoraid Preview. Everything burns, baby!

Last Words

Xenoraid is a nice call back to the scrolling shooters from the good old days. The vertical aspect was done with past games in mind but the variety of ships and tech upgrades really give the game a fresh feel as opposed to similar games in its class. The sound of the bullets and explosions added to a really good game and made it better – which believe it or not can either make or break a game regardless of the how well the content performs. The release of this game cannot come soon enough. The only thing left to say at this point is nice job 10Tons Ltd and I look forward to the release. 

For players that are interested in Xenoraid, you can visit the website for the game as well as Steam for any additional information or to simply purchase the game upon release. 

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