I found this game to be pretty OK. Just that. OK.
Nothing really stood out to me, and that got me thinking about what I like about Shoot 'Em Ups. My favorites of the genre ever are MUSHA for the Mega Drive and Radiant Silvergun for the Sega Saturn, so I thought it would be an interesting exercise to compare …
I found this game to be pretty OK. Just that. OK.
Nothing really stood out to me, and that got me thinking about what I like about Shoot 'Em Ups. My favorites of the genre ever are MUSHA for the Mega Drive and Radiant Silvergun for the Sega Saturn, so I thought it would be an interesting exercise to compare Jamestown to those two.
First of all, I think the basis of everything would be to have satisfying gameplay. I love the power trip of mowing downs through HUNDREDS of alien spaceships. MUSHA and RS provide that through crazy weapons that you power up throughout a run (or several runs in the case of RS). Another important aspect, I realized, is to have many smaller enemies that you can practically one-shot in order to really create that feeling that you're obliterating the enemy lines.
I got the feeling that Jamestown's weapons felt bland, but most importantly, kinda weak. Towards the last levels, it seemed that every weapon was struggling to take down even the smallest enemies, with the only exception being the charge shot, which also wasn't very satisfying to use due to being kinda slow and clumsy. The lack of power ups also removes the sense of progression and of gradually becoming more powerful that MUSHA and RS possess.
The second major factor for me would be an energetic soundtrack the gets the blood pumping. Jamestown has a mostly orchestral soundtrack that I also felt was kinda limp. Orchestral compositions are not usually my cup of tea, but that being said, RS's OST is fully orchestral and still KICKS ASS. Not really surprising considering it is a MASTERPIECE that comes from Hitoshi Sakimoto (of Final Fantasy Tactics fame), but it just comes to show that you don't really need crazy fast tempos and hardcore drums to be energetic. And MUSHA has arguably the most metal OST ever so there's not even a point in comparing lol.
Other than that I think it's important to have nice visuals, an interesting setting and a simple but effective narrative. MUSHA and RS excel at those points (hell, RS even had me crying at the end lol). When it comes to Jamestown, in my opinion, those are all just OK.
