Pros:
+Big weapons that pun the female life
+Amazing story that gives our heroine a 90’s video game start
+Map designs using top down design offer a delightful Diablo-esque experience
Cons:
-Requires a decently powerful PC to play
-Controls on keyboard may be slightly disorienting to non-PC gamers
-Quest NPCs can be difficult to find
Earlier Dustin wrote his piece on Bombshell, a game we have both been taking on quite a bit of. Due to my time not being as free as his, I’ve been working on it here and there, but also dabbing a bit more at the problems I’ve found with the game. While many of his pro’s and con’s are much like my own, we can always revisit his review to get a small recap of what was said. Today? Mine is adding on a bit to what has already been said, but in another perspective.
Bombshell as you’ve already read previously is a game that wants players to be explorative. With much of the map being open through each zone, the game features both high-paced action, puzzle-like features, and many RPG mechanics we’ve seen in games like Diablo, but now with a touch of 3D Realms’ infamous touch of what can only be said as Duke Nukem or Rise of the Triad. The main star as we know isn’t your badass cigar chomping Duke or even one of our insanely kill-crazed stars of Rise of the Triad. Instead we’ve gotten our rather unique Shelly aka “Bombshell” who brings back the use of one-liner’s as we’d always hoped would happen.
Much like the QuakeCon hands-on we did, Bombshell utilizes the WASD setup while also utilizing the mouse for attacks for those who prefer mouse and keyboard. While mouse and keyboard do make combat a bit easier, I myself preferred plugging in the Xbox One controller and going from there. Unlike the ease of use with controller, traversing maps in order to get past puzzles was troublesome at first with mouse and keyboard, which made someone like myself incapable of thoroughly enjoying the game until my son, Dustin, had shown me that the controller does make this a bit easier. While designs for mouse and keyboard seem as if they could use a bit more work, Bombshell is still a solid game when it comes to exploration, and even traversing terrains. In the long-run, however? That isn’t the case as many of the settings seem as if they are re-skins of the past ones in order to create a bit of uniqueness to them. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this done though, take a look at the Diablo franchise, many of the maps in each game are re-skin upon a re-skin, but with slightly newer attacks for each enemy.
Back on the note of Bombshell, however, the game does manage to make a few unique throws that made the game interesting. As with any game, weapon variations are of importance, and take credit due to the fact each one is not the same. With limited ammo being available without vendors, each weapon will be heavily utilized. The most common for myself was the Mother Flakker, the games attempt to be creative with a shotgun. This gun does deem itself as important as it quickly disperses enemies near by while the other guns still do the job, but just not as effectively. If raining bullets is your idea of fun, there’s plenty of that to go around since each weapon is unique, and offers devastating blows as fans begin to level up their character and each gun. This improving upon the RPG elements we’ve become rather familiar with over the years. The only thing that we truly miss? Being able to find new variations of each gun to add elemental damage such as fire, poison, bleeding, etc. If that were to be implemented? Bombshell would just get all the cooler since its metal background music pitches the sound a bit more than one would expect.
Though Bombshell is sound in many of the areas pointed out in the previous review, Bombshell does have one massive underlying issue outside of jumping across large gaps; the map. While exploration is a nice feature to have, with limited time the game is almost too big, which can cause a bit of trouble in the long run, and that trouble is quite irritating to say the least. While Dustin was capable of getting around quite well, I wasn’t able to spend as much time as he did on the game, and that being said, it was quite hard to do any of it like he had. Finding objectives was quite difficult without pulling up the full map to find out where pings were at on it that give an idea of where objectives are. This lead to having to back-track a numerous amount of times in order to complete side missions, which awarded little, if anything at all due to the progression having already been made. While hidden objectives are present that require a certain gun or item to open, there’s still a bit of disgruntlement to be had since those guns may or may not be unlocked at the given time.
Bombshell – PC (Reviewed)
Developer: Interceptor Entertainment
Publisher: 3D Realms
Cost: 39.99 USD
Release Date: Now Available
While mechanics can be troubling, Bombshell redeems itself by offering up hours of gameplay and high-end graphics if your computer can run it in that state. While ours isn’t high-end, we did manage to play the game on medium settings at decent frame rates in order to enjoy it. I personally found the game quite intriguing, creative, and fun, but as the Old Man Gamer, it’s a game that does have its flaws. Once flaws such as the map designs and enemy types that variate very little between each other are kinked out? Bombshell is a game that has a lot to offer, but until then? It’s just fun to blow shit up as my son says.
Our review is based upon the final version that the publisher provided us with. For information about our ethics policy please click here.
Final Score: 7 out of 10
About the Writer:
David Murphy is B.A.T.G.R.’s behind the scenes man who helps get things up and going as well as keeping things in order. Don’t be surprised to know that the old man contributes rather heavily to editing, news, and information he digs up so that editorials as well as articles are done properly. He also likes Fallout… A lot. We’re not sure he’s not secretly the Vault Boy in disguise.