Receiver (2013)

Receiver is an interesting premise, a paranoia laden journey through intricate gun handling versus tough as nails first person shooting. Given the rough nature of this first entry it might be better to just move onto the second one.

The story is sparsely told through 11 tapes that must be collected in order to beat the game. Worrying messages about mindtech, media conspiracy, and the "mindkill" weave a strange tale but the player need worry only about gathering tapes and shooting enemies on a procedurally generated building area.

The game has two types of enemies - a turret and a drone. Both kill in one hit and are extremely fast once they spot the player, with not much room to give the player time to escape. The player has a randomly selected inventory, which has three different possible handguns to receive. Each has an intricately realistic way to load the gun, whether it's spinning a revolver cylinder, loading magazines, turning the safety off, etc. It's a novel way to say "it takes a long time to reload the gun". Shooting the gun also seems like it works along realistic physics, as hitting at a distance ranges from unreliable to impossible. Enemies have specific parts that can be shot but it might take a few shots to actually hit the target, often ending in the player's quick demise.

This creates a wildly varying gameplay loop, as tapes are slowly and frustratingly hidden in a wide array of deathtraps that kill the player far too quickly and randomly. Players end up sacrificing the atmosphere of the game (turning the music off in order to hear drones properly, centering the gun automatically instead of manually aiming it) in order to have some chance and even then it will feel like the game is too random to reward careful shooting and stealth.

The game's setting is drab yet oppressive, with a night-time cityscape in a series of same-y looking rooms. Given that I needed to hear the enemies around corners I did not listen to the music as much.

Receiver definitely lives up to the game jam nature of its premise, being a few interesting ideas mixed with some agonizingly rough design. It might take a sequel to make this diamond in the rough shine.

TLDR: Just go play receiver 2, it's a lot better.

I really like the idea of this game. Simulating detailed operation of firearms is cool.
I've only seen stuff like this in VR.

But I wouldn't consider Receiver 1 to be a "game". It's a tech demo of the core idea.
It delivers well on the gun handling mechanic, but the rest is not fun.

• There is only one level with no progression
• It's unfairly hard, which ruins the fun
• The map is mostly primitive shapes, not fun to explore
• Very poorly optimised

If you're interested in analysing what makes a good game, this could be useful. Because by comparing this and Receiver 2, you can see how:

• A good, novel and unique mechanic alone is not enough to make a fun game
• Improving certain little elements of the prototype can turn it into a proper good game.
• How important it is to not just give a fun toy to a player, but also a purpose of using it.

"If you are listening to this tape it means you have survived the MindKill. Previous attempts to listen to this tape would have found it blank, but now it contains immediate instructions of your difficult path forward. This is the time that we have prepared for. Take a moment now to find your firearm."

This is more of a gamejam than an actual full-on game. It has the endless-gimmick model where you basically die in minutes. The game has three pistols (a colt 45, magnum, and glock 18 machine pistol) which serve different balance as well as function different. Your goal is to familiarize yourself with the controls on how to manipulate the various minutiae of your weapon, and hope you don't miss or die from the killbots in the maze.
it's then a manner of clearing one room to the next, slowly. and hoping you can find a bit more ammo to keep you going. You are looking for these strange cult tapes which describe your situation. Every tape you collect enlightens you a bit more and promises you transcendence, however it makes the killbots more desperate to eliminate you, and spawns more of them just beyond your vision (in the next room)

the game is neat and unique in it's vision with the tape collection and cult idea (it's very bent and mental like hotline miami and it's likely where Super Hot got their inspiration from) but it's just impossibly hard. there simply isn't any way to collect enough ammo to survive in the game, and landing hits is extremely challenging in addition to the complex control mechanics of operating a firearm and landing hits on precise locations of fast moving robots.

it's a surprising mix of interesting different ideas for an FPS that unfortunately don't pan out that well in terms of gameplay. it is however, extremely immersive and atmospheric despite being bare bones in it's minimalism. (And there are cheats which let one finish it/hear all the tapes)