The game allows you to continue as much as you want, though, so unlike other games (in the vein of Ikaruka), the spike doesn't have as much impact. You can keep replaying in the area you're not use to yet to work out the patterns and strategies; you just go back to the beginning if you want to work up that score.
I don't have a PS3 myself, actually, but I've played a lot of the game over at a friends. I'm pretty sure you ARE forced into the tilt control, but I don't recall ever checking to see if I could change the control options for "using other buttons" or "turning off tilt," as I wanted to get used to the method.
In the beginning it can be VERY unwieldy, and sometimes if you whip the controller about, you end up triggering it going the other way you intended it to, instead. It takes some patience and finesse to get it down properly, and even then if you're stressed and trying to whip it out to save your butt, you may end up doing it improperly again.
That, and the rather annoyingly-generic bosses, are the only real downsides to the game. Otherwise, I find it to be a better-looking, better-moving, more-in-depth-tactically shooter of this sort. The multi-player add-on is fun, too, where you and some friends can either play co-op, or try to use your waves and blasts to knock stuff out of YOUR way, and into your opponent's, all competitive-like.
I don't have a PS3 myself, actually, but I've played a lot of the game over at a friends. I'm pretty sure you ARE forced into the tilt control, but I don't recall ever checking to see if I could change the control options for "using other buttons" or "turning off tilt," as I wanted to get used to the method.
In the beginning it can be VERY unwieldy, and sometimes if you whip the controller about, you end up triggering it going the other way you intended it to, instead. It takes some patience and finesse to get it down properly, and even then if you're stressed and trying to whip it out to save your butt, you may end up doing it improperly again.
That, and the rather annoyingly-generic bosses, are the only real downsides to the game. Otherwise, I find it to be a better-looking, better-moving, more-in-depth-tactically shooter of this sort. The multi-player add-on is fun, too, where you and some friends can either play co-op, or try to use your waves and blasts to knock stuff out of YOUR way, and into your opponent's, all competitive-like.
Well aren't you the clever one! Did you get that from my first post?
Well aren't you the clever one! Did you get that from my first post?
The game, I think, is notably better than Mutant Swarm (though I can't vouch for the comparative "worthyness" of the lengths of the games [Mutant Swarm can be played much longer, through hundreds of levels, but does so at an extremely leisurly pace], Blast Factor is more tactical, less sillified [indescernable arena reshaping, indeterminable length, and such], and looks, sounds [effects-wise at least, as BF has no soundtrack to speak of, which is fine by me. I have plenty-enough games where music is a driving force, that it's a nice change to have one that simply has pleasing effects instead of loud ones, and let me hunker down with the gameplay], and animates way better), and only not "better" than Geometry Wars for merit of it being styled differently, where instead playing through an unrelenting crush of progressively crazier foes, it's styled in more "Ikaruka-like" fashion, with specific enemy spawns, reactions, and tactical board-beating, where the drive is not to "live as long as possible" so much as "work out the best way to kill them quickest, to hit the hardest boards and score the most points." Since there's very little in the way of powerups, it's all skilled shooting and tactical maneuverying and positioning (both of your craft and of your foes, tossed about by your your waves and blasts) to try to clear the boards as quickly and safely as possible. I know how much Ikaruga tends to get revered, and I don't claim the comparison lightly; Blast Factor (as with all games of that sort) is too hectic to get the true precision and skill you apply in a game like Ikaruga, but even still you find that the more you play it, the more invested you are in memorizing waves and working out how to be as tactical and efficient as possible. (The one thing it does lack is Ikaruga's "continue only so many times, then BACK TO THE START FOR YOU," which was rather an irritation for me with Ikaruga. Certainly it made the game harder--but I wanted to be able to practice the parts and work out my combos without having to play for half an hour first, each and every time.)
The game is indeed notably underrated, in my book. What I get out of most reviews is a sense that they played until they ran out of stock, then slowly "continued" their way through the rest, and judged it against a palette of what they felt they should be playing. The game, however, doesn't strive to be intense (born up by the lack of soundtrack, IMHO)... it stives to be tactical and perfectionist.
AND the reply of his I quoted in my NEXT post! Not only that, but you guys skipped over Arwin's reply, too.
Oh, oh yes, AND ignored the fact that I could hardly play an unreleased game over at my friend's!
But hey, other than that...
And how about those prepaid cards? How do they expect me to buy this stuff? It's like Sony doesn't want my money for some reason, they must be doing really well that they don't need it...
