Caltrops - Reviews - This was a decent budget title

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by FABIO 01/11/2008, 10:34pm PST

Belbo Jacopo wrote:

CON: But the red star's setting and characters are from a famous graphic novel that I'm a big fan of and they do nothing with the plot and BOO HOO SNOTBUBBLES!

Yes, those of you coming to enjoy the game's world-shatteringly awesome plot will be sadly disappointed. All I can tell is that the game takes place in some alternate universe Soviet Union where Magic and High technology exist side by side!!!

They really could have done something with the Soviet theme. How hard would it have been to replace the forgettable techno soundtrack in every level with something vaguely Red Army Choir? End level splash screens in the style of Soviet propaganda posters?

Sending a wave of puny human soldiers (that scream and die with one hit) against you every once in a while is a nice touch.

For downsides that actually matter, know that the game starts out pretty easy (then again I play the shit out of DMC3 and God Hand) but the difficulty increases steadily and cumulatively and by about level 6 (short levels) you learn that this game is as forgiving as comrade stalin. You get one life per level, period. No chechpoints, but the game does miserly dole out health packs that grant 50% health after each miniboss. The ONLY way you get money for upgrades is from your ranking at the end of each level which is either based on the amount of life you lose or the number of times you get hit, so if you're struggling with a level, you start the next one at an even bigger disadvantage (protip: if you're playing for the first time and having trouble, save up the first couple levels and make your first upgrade the one that restores life with successful melee strikes. It will pay for itself. Finally, the game could use a slightly better tutorial because it doesn't quite bring across the kind of combos you can flexibly string together.

Protip: Drago sucks. Have both players pick the chick character. She takes less damage but moves a lot faster so she's always dodging everything. Everyone should have learned this lesson from Aliens vs Predator that the fast "weak" chick is always the better choice over the slow strong dude. Cementing her position as the better character is the rating system that grades you solely on how much damage you took, leaving slow damage sponge Drago out in the cold with the chick constantly outscoring him.

Disagree on the melee health upgrade. The melee portions are a cakewalk and the only challenge comes from the mini-boss fight shooter segments where melee is useless and the only thing that matter is moving fast to dodge all the projectiles (again making the chick the obvious choice). The only upgrades you'll ever want to purchase are ranged weapon upgrades (only the first starting weapon, the other two suck) and armor. Me and my friend found this out the hard way on our first playthrough when we reached the last level and got slaughtered by a boss because we had foolishly put points into melee and the other ranged weapons (a short ranged flamethrower for Drago? Why not just switch to melee at that point?).

$20 is about the most I'd pay for it, though $10 or $15 would be a lot better. If the melee portions weren't such a easy slog this could have bested Aliens vs Predator for the brawler crown.