''Xeno Crisis'' is a 2019

twin-stick shooter A twin-stick shooter is a subgenre of shoot 'em up video games. It is a multidirectional shooter in which the player character is controlled using two joysticks: one for movement on a flat plane, and one to aim and fire shots at enemies, Usually ...

from independent developer Bitmap Bureau for the

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, with releases for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita,

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, Microsoft Windows,

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Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, Sega

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...

Evercade The Evercade is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by UK company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulated games. Development began in 2018, and the console was rel ...

, and

Neo Geo Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed by SNK. On the market from 1990 to 2004, the brand originated with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo AES. The Neo Geo MVS was ...

. The game was fully funded on Kickstarter on January 10, 2018, with a release on October 28, 2019.

Gameplay

Xeno Crisis is inspired by similar arcade shooters like ''

Smash TV ''Smash TV'' is a 1990 arcade video game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams Electronics Games. It is a dual-stick shooter (one for moving and the other for firing) in the same vein as 1982's ''Robotron: 2084'' (co-created b ...

'' and '' Shock Troopers'', with art direction inspired by the

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

movie franchise. Featuring single or cooperative gameplay, one or two players play as unnamed

space marines The space marine, an archetype of military science fiction, is a kind of soldier who operates in outer space or on alien worlds. Historical marines fulfill multiple roles: ship defence, boarding actions, landing parties, and general-purpose hi ...

and work their way through seven levels in a scientific facility featuring procedurally generated rooms and levels, with a number of enemies of various difficulty in each room, concluding with a final

boss battle In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...

at the end of most levels. After a player kills enemies on screen, a chance of an item, a weapon drop, health, or dogtags are dropped to aid the player. Dogtags are used as an in-game currency to help purchase upgrades like additional health or player speed. To increase the challenge to players, the starting machine gun has a limited amount of ammunition, and weapon pickups have a limited number of uses, requiring players to stay on the move and on the lookout for ammunition boxes.

Plot

The game begins with Commander Darius receiving a distress signal from Outpost 88, a scientific research facility. The two controllable space marines are sent on a drop ship to the facility, where they begin to work their way through each level of the facility, where they face off against aliens, robot defenses, and even

Cthulhu Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was first introduced in his short story " The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the p ...

, on their way to figure out what is going on. Along the way the two space marines find survivors of the facility that they are able to rescue and release to safety. When the space marines reach the final stage, they are confronted by Dr. Herzog, where he reveals that he was behind the various horrors the space marines battled up to this point. If either space marines drank any "elixers" (the continue feature in the game), or if the player used any cheat codes, Dr. Herzog reveals to them that these elixers were designed by himself and they contained

nanomachines A molecular machine, nanite, or nanomachine is a molecular component that produces quasi-mechanical movements (output) in response to specific stimuli (input). In cellular biology, macromolecular machines frequently perform tasks essential for l ...

that will kill the player characters and the game will end with the "bad" ending. If the player did not use any elixers before confronting Dr. Herzog, he will attack the player as the game's final boss where he reveals himself to be a creature like the creatures battled up to this point. When they players defeat Dr. Herzog, the "good" ending will be revealed with the two space marines evacuating the facility.

Reception

Reception to Xeno Crisis was generally positive.

Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and oth ...

praised the game's design and gameplay, but criticized the difficulty as being off-putting for inexperienced players. Wireframe also praised the game's polish and gameplay, but criticized some design decisions like the weapon upgrades and the melee attack feature.

References

{{reflist

External links

Bitmap Bureau

Development blog
2019 video games Indie video games Twin-stick shooters Neo Geo games Linux games MacOS games Sega Genesis games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Xbox Cloud Gaming games Xbox One games Video games about extraterrestrial life Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games Dreamcast homebrew games Homebrew software Kickstarter-funded video games Single-player video games Cooperative video games Multiplayer and single-player video games