Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
Main game
3.28 average rating based on 245 ratings
- Developers
- Final Form Games
- Publishers
- Final Form Games
- Platforms
- Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows)
- Genres
- Indie, Shooter
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy, Historical, Science fiction
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony?
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Fugazi57's review of Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
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 …
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.
agersant's review of Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
- 2D shmup with a nice scoring system which makes you trade screen positioning and/or smart bomb for points
- Unlockable ships feel significantly worse than the default choice
- Level design is forgettable and there's very little variety within each stage
- Some visual clarity issues, especially in stage 2
- Passable pixel art
- Possibly the worst soundtrack I've ever heard in a shmup
hlavko's review of Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
Pure awesomeness! Hats off before these Final Form guys. They mixed there steampunk scifi theme, retro graphics and gameplay that moved me in the time to titles such as Raptor and Tyrian. And everything is compounded by two. Looking forward for their next title.
FredLobster's review of Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
A bizarre introduction to the bullet hell genre, Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony is a reimagining of the mysterious disappearance of Roanoke, North Carolina, inexplicably throwing anachronistic sci-fi aliens and general weirdness into the mix. In the end, it winds up feeling more like something out of Edgar Rice Burroughs' century-old Barsoom novels than anything else. That hardly matters though, as the story is just a quirky backdrop for a whole lot of solid bullet hell shoot 'em up gameplay. It's fairly merciful compared to everything else in the genre (at least until you attempt the highest difficulty settings), but that's not necessarily a bad thing; you can expect to beat the base game in a day, while the extra content will require throwing your fragile body right into that meat grinder ever so many times. Hit detection is solid, the various ships each have interesting special abilities, boss and level design are cleverly sadistic, and the pixelated visuals are pretty alright when you get right down to it. My only real gripe is that it's a bit short, but plentiful challenge missions and a joyfully chaotic multiplayer mode more than make up for this. Overall, this is …
Read MoreA bizarre introduction to the bullet hell genre, Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony is a reimagining of the mysterious disappearance of Roanoke, North Carolina, inexplicably throwing anachronistic sci-fi aliens and general weirdness into the mix. In the end, it winds up feeling more like something out of Edgar Rice Burroughs' century-old Barsoom novels than anything else. That hardly matters though, as the story is just a quirky backdrop for a whole lot of solid bullet hell shoot 'em up gameplay. It's fairly merciful compared to everything else in the genre (at least until you attempt the highest difficulty settings), but that's not necessarily a bad thing; you can expect to beat the base game in a day, while the extra content will require throwing your fragile body right into that meat grinder ever so many times. Hit detection is solid, the various ships each have interesting special abilities, boss and level design are cleverly sadistic, and the pixelated visuals are pretty alright when you get right down to it. My only real gripe is that it's a bit short, but plentiful challenge missions and a joyfully chaotic multiplayer mode more than make up for this. Overall, this is a solid, charming, affordable play for both bullet hell neophytes and veterans alike.
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