Oh. Sad face time for me. I really enjoyed Ska Studios last contribution to the Community Games service. Ok, it was perhaps a little too on the fast paced side at times and certainly owed a slight debt to a certain well known franchise but last time I checked (un)said franchise didn’t contain giant cats with laser beams. Which, I’m so sorry, is an instawin in my books.
Given that ZP2K9 is generally what advertisers would likely term “bigger, badder, more badderererer” or something I was sadly disappointed to discover that instead of getting a nice, fast, smooth deathmatch funarama, I instead find myself with something that’s absolutely bursting at the seams with great ideas but let down severely by being a little too far into the realms of the slow and clunky. Worse though, it doesn’t seem to have anywhere near the breathless sense of idiocy and fun that we know Ska Studio’s can throw unto the world with barely a thought.
Y’know, it’s not really a bad game either – if you can bring yourself to sidestep some of the awkwardness and the pacing, drag a few friends around and well, probably getting incredibly drunk might help this along the way, then you might just find something to giggle along with. Trying it solo, as I did, likely defeats the entire point of the game.
Worth a look at the demo? Certainly.
Video after the jump:
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I’ve been playing this with friends a few times a week. I thought it was a great multiplayer game especially at the 200 price point.
“Worse though, it doesn’t seem to have anywhere near the breathless sense of idiocy and fun that we know Ska Studio’s can throw unto the world with barely a thought.”
The simpler and more elegant design philosophy is is actually one of the game’s strong points. Giant death laser kitties are sweet (how sweet? Totally sweet), but as a multiplayer game ZP2K9 needed to be a little less over the top. It’s hectic and confusing enough when 10 human players and 5 bots are running around, all wearing different suits and hurling different kinds of projectiles at you. If you tossed in crazy stuff like laser cats and giant robots, you wouldn’t be able to follow along.
Playing with some buddies, discovering what each of the suits does and figuring out what weapon works best in situation x is a lot of fun. ZP2k9 actually seems to have legs beyond the first 15 “Wow, that’s freaking crazy!” minutes and that’s pretty impressive for an XNA game.
The trial period absolutely flew by and I had a smile on my dial for most of the 8 minutes…and I was only playing with bots, I can only imagine how fun multiplayer would be!
I agree with the speed issue, if it was a bit faster paced – just a bit but not so as to be confusing, I reckon it would be even better.
OMG the sound! Oh the sound, that and the pick-up-and-play-ability are absolutely top notch, great idea and really fun game, definitely a purchase for me.
[...] service. If you are looking for a deathmatch type game on the CGs try Battle Havoc, Valhyre or ZP2K9 Other posts you might find interesting:SpaceCombat SpaceCombat is a slow paced 3D deathmatch for [...]
Hmm. Apparently some people really enjoy this. Myself, I found the controls far too awkward to even attempt to feign competence.