Ever wondered how cool it would be to pilot a planet, armed to the teeth, on a glorious space crusade across the Milky Way? How it would feel to command a band of dangerous lunatics when chasing after Space Super-Death God? Or maybe about tossing synthetic and very unhinged lifeforms onto a living planet to "colonize" it? Worry not, for the answers to your deep ponderings arrived in the form of Zet Zillions - a spanking new deckbuilder roguelike adventure!
Before I jump into anything, we need to address the most hard-hitting part of the game. The style. Because damn, the game has Style, with the big S. It looks as if Jojo Bizarre Adventures met Helldivers satirical storytelling and then got blended with an Invader Zim vibe. Lots of comparisons, and maybe not every reference would click, so to reiterate - it's outrageous, boisterous, and zany. Over the top is the rule, in a sharp-edged, cartoon style. Filled to the brim with explosions, bombast, and a surprising amount of references - making this whole paragraph a bit meta. In short, I love it. It's unique, stands out from the crowd, and is meshed very well with the game interface and flow, always being a boon, never a hindrance.
But great style isn't the only good thing going for it. The gameplay itself is fun and well-crafted. Zet Zillions isn't reaching deep into its genre, it doesn't try to flip it over and scrounge up some completely new mechanics. But it tossed enough fresh things at your face to make it feel different from the contemporaries. On top of dealing regular damage to enemies, you can also Colonize them - that is, toss your population of Trash (in-lore synthetic lifeforms, extremely expendable) to fill their bar. This staggers them, canceling their action and leaving them open to unleash some powerful cards that reap benefits from said population flying goofily around the enemies. They also put a lot of effort into making your 'collectibles' very interactive. Traits often impact actions, actions trigger traits. Companions add another layer of extra features to each round. And the cards themselves are quite varied with what you can do with them - from evolving, to one-time effects and then... Fusion.
Fusion is a core concept of the gameplay. A big portion of the cards can be bashed together to form a new card, often more powerful or with wildly different effects than the cards used to make them. It's always fun discovering a new fusion, and lots of other game elements do interact with that core mechanic. Be it enemies that buff or debuff whenever you fuse, or your traits triggering when they happen. It's an excellent, simple system, that keeps on giving and makes every new card brimming with potential.
However, for all the praise I am piling upon the game it has to be said - it feels unfinished. Not even by a small degree, but rather by a mile. First, let's talk about technical issues because some impact the gameplay quite a lot. The game lags, often and a lot. The lagging touches everything - from applying damage, population, and effect to whole turns. Sometimes a card when used isn't consumed, but hovers over your hand, making interacting with it troublesome. But the issues don't end here. The UI has some troubles, especially handling bigger decks. Interacting with some events is tedious because of it, and there's a lack of proper explanation of what does what. Once I pressed a SKIP button on the event, thinking it would skip the animations - which are nice, but looking at them for the tenth time can get old. But alas, the skip was a full skip of the entire event. Logical, sure, but wasn't obvious to me then. Lesson learned.
But technical issues aside - which should be fixed in quick patches! - the game feels very stingy with the progression. If there even is any! The intro screen to every run tempts me with the idea that there are more decks, and more characters perhaps, but even after defeating the initial "final" boss twice, I got zilch. I am stuck on the initial deck forever I reckon. Sure, there are companions to modify it, but in the many runs I completed, still got only one - leveled up the wazoo, to the max, but still. Just one. This makes the runs repetitive rather quickly - sure, there are lots of cards and traits and critters to evolve, but it doesn't cut the mustard. Need more. Need to feel like each run contributes to my growth of options and for now, that's lacking.
And thus I must grade this game lower than I would, given the fun it promises and provides. It's a title with great potential, easily a 4 out of 5, maybe even a top score... When it's completed. I am withholding final judgment here, a little off-brand, but I like this game and wish to see it succeed. But I can't overlook its rather barren state at the moment of writing this - having a nasty feeling that it should be released as an Early Access title to avoid issues with how it can be perceived. I will surely revisit it in some months to see if improvements filled it out, for the ideas are great, but execution matters even more.
Comments