Droid Assault for Linux Review

Droid Assault is a 2D arcade shooter developed by none other than Puppy Games, the same studio responsible for Titan Attacks, Ultratron, and Revenge of the Titans.

The Puppy Games developers have chosen a very difficult path for themselves. Their first game was called Titan Attack and it was a hit. In fact, every game released so far by them has been a resounding success, and it seems that everything they produce is just good. Droid Assault is no different.

Up until a year ago, Linux gamers were struggling to find an interesting game to play that hadn't been in the works for the last ten years, and that wasn't still in the development stages. Now, with the release of Steam for Linux, the gamers can even be picky about what they're playing.

I got the game during this last Steam Sale, which is still ongoing, along with all the other games from their collection. With an 80% discount, it would be foolish not to buy them all. As we have seen so far, Titan Attacks and Ultratron are superbly executed games, although a bit on the difficult side.

Gameplay

As you have probably noticed, I didn't mention anything about a story. That is because it doesn't have one and it doesn't pretend that it needs one.

Droid Assault is promoted by its developer as a tactical shooter and that's correct, for the most part. Unlike previous games from this studio, which required you to shoot everything that moved, in Droid Assault you will need to be a little more cunning and a lot less gung-ho.

You will take the control of a droid (what else could it be?) and you will try to survive and gather a small flock of droid followers. Unlike the other game I just mentioned, in Droid Assault you get to control a lot more units, although only one at a time.

The gameplay starts very simply, with the player and just one droid, but this is no ordinary droid. He has the power to take control of any other unit it encounters, with some restrictions, of course.

At the beginning of each level you receive a number of transfer points, which can be used to take control of other units. The bigger ones require more transfer points than the little ones, but they are also a lot more powerful.

If you manage to get through the levels in one piece, you will be able to keep them and start the next one with all the droids that you saved. They seem to be pretty good at staying alive and they have very good aim. Be warned though, friendly fire is active and if you're not careful enough you can kill them by mistake.

Some of the enemy units will drop upgrades, money for points, better weapons, shields, and even transfer points. These are very important and they will keep you alive. The game wouldn’t be complete if there weren't boss units.

From time to time, you will encounter a very large droid that can't be controlled and that you will have to fight. It's not very difficult and, if you manage to save enough droids, the fight will be easier than you can imagine.

The only problem I had with the game was that sometimes it was difficult to see what was going on. The developers from Puppy Games use the same 8-bit theme for their engine across all titles. It's beautiful and unique, and it allows users to instantly recognize their titles at a glance.

The downside is that, when there are a lot of things happening at once, it can be very hard to distinguish what to do, especially in a 2D environment.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion