brainwavez.org | Wrath v1.0.6 | Android Game Review

Wrath v1.0.6
A brainwavez.org Android Game Review

By: Mandy J Watson on 13 July 2010
Category: Games > Android > Reviews

Use your favourite finger to mow down waves and waves of inter-stellar bad guys and bosses out for your blood, then head for the space bar for a brewski. (Ok, not really, but this game could do with more variety and/or a mini drinking game to provide complexity to the challenge.)

Wrath

Wrath is a retro shooter with graphics, music, and sound effects reminiscent of Amiga games (if you can remember that far back). You pilot a starship from a top-down view of the playing field. Underneath you the starfield scrolls past in the background and ahead of you enemy ships await. Some take one shot from your auto-firing gun, others require several, and a few shoot back. Your job is to destroy them all and survive each wave. There is no story. It doesn't matter. (Sort of. I'd still like one.)

Controlling the game is really simple - you just need one finger. You tap, hold, and drag the ship, which autofires, around the screen to aim in the right direction. If you wish to use a smart bomb, you just double tap the screen. The only problem with this control method is that sometimes your hand obstructs your view of what's happening lower down on the screen in more frenetic, later levels. Pickups will occasionally appear that will allow you to upgrade your weapon, replenish your health (10% at a time), or pick up an extra smart bomb.

A wave always comprises 80 enemies, except the boss levels, which occur every fourth round (and there are three bosses that rotate). During the boss levels any other enemies are there purely as decoys, distractions, and obstacles - you don't have to kill them. During the normal levels your primary aim is to get through to the end without dying and your secondary purpose is to kill all the enemies that try and pass you. Once you've mastered how to kill the boss enemies their levels become the easiest in the game, while the main levels become more difficult with waves of small, fast-moving ships filling the screen along with enemy bullets that you need to try and dodge.

Gameplay Tips
• The bosses look intimidating but they're really quite easy to beat.
• The highest-ranking weapons may not be the best ones for you. If you accidentally pick one up it might be worth taking a health knock to get it downgraded to a basic weapon.
• Sometimes you may have to pick up a weapon you don't want in order to get to an enemy you can't otherwise hit. Worry about the enemy first. You can deal with the weapon problem afterwards.
• Destroying an enemy by ramming into it doesn't count as a kill and you won't get a perfect round. Rather take a health and weapon hit by moving through a bullet field to get closer to an enemy you're struggling to hit - or detonate a smart bomb, which does register as a kill.
• Don't forget about your smart bombs. You can only store a maximum of five so if there's a pickup nearby use one in your arsenal and then pick up the new one. If you have a perfect round you'll also score two more - remember this and use them.
• At the end of a level you can still grab pickups and the occasional enemy straggler will still damage you and cause your weapon to downgrade, so be careful.

If you achieve a perfect round (you kill all the enemies, either with your firing weapon or a smart bomb) you'll be awarded five health pickups and two smart bombs at the end of the level. If you finish a round but miss a few enemies you'll be awarded three health pickups and one smart bomb. The only way not to finish a level is to take too many hits to your health and die, which also ends the game.

The smart bombs become very useful in later levels when you end up with a field of enemy bullets interspersed with fast moving enemies that can be quite difficult to hit, especially if you have the wrong firing weapon.

Having said that, however, the game is incredibly easy - disappointingly so. It has the makings of an epic battle but instead it becomes more a pleasant distraction when you have your phone on you and time to kill. If you pay attention and are careful I imagine that you could play an infinite game. The first time I played I eventually died around level 57, and only because I let myself be distracted momentarily. My second game lies unfinished on about level 75 because I had to return the test phone. In the beginning the levels increase in difficulty but by about level 24 it seems to hit a maximum and then it's all just more of the same, continuously. Your motivation to play becomes less about discovering what's out there in higher levels and more about trying to beat your high score, which you can then post to an online board.

The game is fun but it needs more variety and a greater challenge in later levels. It's still on version one so I'm hoping that in time it will be improved - I certainly look forward to it.

Wrath v1.0.6 was tested on a Motorola Milestone cellular phone running Android 2.1.