Project Root

[h1] Project shovelware codename dig, dig, dig. Imagine starting the game and seeing not worst intro but then gameplay part starts... it gets challenging to even force yourself to play it. Then you realize after first mission it's not worth the hassle and your money got away with this game like a fart in mid-air. [/h1]

This is a 2.5D console ported shmup where you control a futuristic fighter and blast waves of enemies. The console port here is badly done, PC gamers are immediately insulted with console peasant kiddy toy gamepad prompts. Speaking of console peasant kiddy toy gamepads, that's what the developer maps PC gaming peripherals like HOTAS and racing wheels as, so the ship steers constantly to the left and the game is unplayable. There's no way to disable this, so that's sheer incompetence from the developers right there. Also, while there's an option for fullscreen, switching to fullscreen causes the game to crash, and it's not very easy to recover from because it locks the desktop. Another good concept ruined by consoles, console devs, and crappy PC porting. Impossible to recommend.

The idea of the game is not bad. You fly a plane and the scenery rotates around you. However... The mouse controlled map rotation is jerky at best, and it seems to love jumping around in 30 degree steps for some reason. The enemy AI is braindead. The enemy planes fly straight at you and shoot slowly, and most of the time you are just reversing out of the way and turning in circles while trying to hit them with your guns while they follow you blindly. The tanks... They drive around predefined paths, lazily taking potshots at you with their wide spread shots. There is no "oomph" in the sound effects, and the weapons feel pretty weak. The "powerups" are fairly rare, they feel meh and you only get 3 charges at a time. They also feel pretty pathetic. IMO this is not worth €10.

i really, really, really wanted to like this game. full disclosure, i didn't finish it. i love shoot 'em up bullet hell style games, and this one really looked good. full 360 degree rotation, ground fire (which is a nice touch), and helicopter style gameplay. unfortunately, the game lags a lot for me, and even when it isn't it's too slow for my tastes. the action got repetitive pretty quickly, and in the end i just wasn't having any fun with it. again, i really wanted to like it. i left it and came back to it months later. sorry to be the bearer of bad news, gang....

This shooting game is honestly almost a hidden gem if you can get past some of the bad presentation aspects... It's a rotational free roam shooter that consists of 20-30 minute missions of varying difficulty. What I really enjoyed about "Project Root" was the kind of balance between "rush and shoot" game play and more delicate "rotate around the bullet" game design. You pretty much have to map the shooting buttons to the shoulder buttons on a PS/Xbox controller and use the sticks to move and rotate. If you don't the game will be unplayable on the later parts of normal and hard. I really liked that each mission had its own setup with unique bosses, objectives and even side missions. The radar is super useful (though there are some parts where you must shoot down a satellite to unjam it) and battles take place across land, sea and air. As you progress you will learn the different movement patterns of each enemy and this will help you figure out how to navigate some really tricky bullet environments. On some parts you can hang back, but in some areas the enemies spawn relentlessly, even during boss fights. As a result you have to "move with the flow" and time everything carefully.…

I'm a bit on the fence here. The game is promising and mainly good in concept and overall graphics execution. I like the open-world approach and, honestly, I think is fun. BUT. Keyboard and mouse is just broken. With a controller is much better. The problem here is that, in a PC port, you MUST consider keyboard and mouse as playable instruments. Second problem is the open-world approach. Why? Well, you have ships and bullets coming from behind (aka nowhere) and they are generally unavoidable. You can look at the small radar but it only detect vehicles, not missiles or bullets. Other times you are so focused on the action that the radar is just not viable to look at. Especially at the bottom left corner. Third problem is that bullets, mainly, doesn't have a life time. If you are backing up for avoiding a buckshot of bullets that spread, and you are in the middle, you can't avoid them. They will keep coming at you and, by spreading, you can't strafe as you will hit one of them. The hitbox of the player ship is also not very forgiving as it slightly bigger than you would expect and, some cleaver dodges between bullets, just end up being "hit" anyway. Fourth problem is hitting …