DYSTORIA is a 3rd person space shooter where you make use of gravity to shoot, spin, and collect your way to the portal.
DYSTORIA has fun movement and quality shooting. The object of most levels is to collect a certain number of orbs before you make your way to the portal. Each level is shown before you enter it in this sort of spinny pan zoom in sort of situation, which is nice and if you are quick minded, can help you figure out the path to take. Sprinkled throughout the level are a variety of enemies. The enemies are fun to shoot but the resulting explosion feels less than satisfying. The shooting is interesting and meshes with the controls well but killing an enemy feels hollow and could be improved. The movement works well with the Gravity mechanic but can lead to a loss of direction in small spaces. I mean look at that, he does know where to go.
The art is nice with minimalistic laser looking blocks. I'm not a huge fan of that style, but it is pulled off well here. This is coupled with quality electro funky music to provide a game feel that reminds me of an updated arcade game. The game is even referenced as being an arcade game in the story right there. I mean look at that. That is some fine (sorta) fourth wall breaking right there. The game knows what it is and doesn’t try to force the story on you and doesn't make it a central focus which is nice. The story is there but it isn't shoved in there which I feel makes the gameplay the focus.
The game also has a lot of customization with lots of ships which all have different stats and all manner of guns. This helps give the game more variety. You unlock the weapons from nucleons, which every level is full of, and the ships from scrap pieces you get from destroying enemies.
The game is nice but doesn’t serve as much more than a small side attraction. With a bit more in the way of variety and some minor tweaks to movement and shooting, this game could be easily worth it. I would, however, recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun arcade style game.
Overall the game is nice and earns an 8 out of ten with a label of "enjoyable"
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