Another audio-visual treat that’s even more inventive than the first
Format: PS3 Dev: Q-Games Pub: Sony Out: 02/03/11 Players: 1-2, 2 online
There’s a profound elegance to PixelJunk Shooter 2 that shines brightly across it’s fascination with futuristic caving. It’s a virtual hazard awareness test where every prominent substance has an equal or opposite reaction to one another. You hear sizzles as water rapidly cools hot magma, gaseous clouds form when it comes into contact with oil and fleets of purple bubbles liquidise in a shower of condensation. All of this is beautifully expressed by a soft aesthetic, where subtle shades of colour indicate your path to safety.
Proving they’ve plenty more chemical tricks to engage you, Q-Games pick up Shooter 2 moments after the original, having been swallowed up by a gigantic worm. Your objective remains the same: To rescue your fragile human allies and escape in one piece. However, in the belly of a great beast you now face the danger of searing purple acid and strange globules of expanding green sludge.
The sight of these early worm levels are something to behold. Passageways undulating before you hypnotically, making spatial awareness crucial for survival, something you quickly learning when contact with the side douses you in acid. Creatures attack you like white blood cells pouncing on an intruder, and cascades of magma and acid add to the urgency as you race to save your allies.
The ‘shooter’ label continues to be a misnomer here, as gameplay is more about the interplay between your weaponry and auxiliary gear. The grapple is once again your primary means of interacting with your surroundings, from collecting allies to swinging on bodily glands. Suits, such as the meat suit or anti-magnet suit, flip the game rules on their head allowing you to venture safely through previously impassable territory. It’s easy to acclimatise, but destruction is never far away. Some sections require speed and precision so accurate that it’d be easier to save a group of trapped Chilean miners. But the finesse and execution in Shooter 2 always reels you back.
Local co-op returns, and there is also a new online battle mode for those who are hankering to shoot magma in the direction of their friends. Shooter’s idea of multiplayer is a cat and mouse game where players take it in turns to rescue survivors or gleeful shoot the other up the tailpipe. Pre-match betting adds to the competition, though play is hurt by some poor matchmaking that can see rookies pitted against players with far more firepower. Regardless of this server-side blemish, Shooter 2 is a triumph. From its distinctive audio-visual design to its deliciously moreish gameplay, this is interactive elegance in one.
Aaron Lee
Tags: download, multiplayer, pixeljunk, pixeljunk shooter, shooter, sony
