A wonderful Asteroids inspired game that will have you quickly orbiting your planet and protect it from all kinds of space objects. This game is still in alpha but has a lot of gameplay ready. I encourage you to check it out and see the great work coming from this team.
The centroid game is centered around the spaceship arcade genre. It is a unique game that has you zipping around your planet—protecting it from flying asteroids, planet debris, ice walls, and alien pincer ships. With multiple control styles, you can fly around various orbit levels and shoot down the planetoid objects making their way to the planet. Your weapons are enough to take down these objects with ease, along with the aliens and meteors on a direct path to hit your world. You are the only protection this planet is going to receive. Otherwise, it will be riddled with these meteors and aliens. Given enough time, you can obtain additional weapons and create a shockwave capable of removing debris and enemy alike. The game is fun and has you moving around quickly, keeping you engaged and looking out for the next incoming wave. This game has a lot going for it. Go check it out and give the team a shout out and help them continue to make this game hit a release date.
The team over at Bravado Game Studios are working diligently to make this game great. They are continually adding features and updates which you can see over on their itch.io development page. I highly recommend checking out the latest updates. If you do play the game, be sure to leave them a review and let them know of any bugs or issues you run into while playing. Indie Studios need our help to ensure they make a game that appeals to us, but only when we give them the feedback, they need to make it better.
Experience
Centroid has an experience that has a cross between asteroids and geometry wars. Add the mechanic where you are locked in orbital movements, and you get a closer feel to this game. An interesting idea to add to the game would be to have the music in the background sync with the experience. It would add another dimension to the game. But the sound in the game is also engaging and keeps you playing. The rapid shoot action of making sure you do not blow up while keeping the planet safe is enough to keep you busy.
For the price of a cup of coffee, you can be orbiting your planet and protecting it from the harsh environment of space. The studio is also known for putting this game on sale, but this game and studio deserves the support. The game is in early alpha but has a lot of solid experiences that have you believing its closer to beta. It is currently only on Windows, and some others have asked for Linux builds. If you are on Mac OS or Linux, ask the developer to support the platform to increase the chances that it can be supported in the future. They will be continuing to add more and more features to improve the playtime and fix bugs.
Controls
When playing Centroid, it might take a moment to get the controls locked in your head when using a keyboard. The better experience is with a PS4 controller or Xbox One controller, though. I would recommend either setting up your Xbox controller or installing DS4 Windows for the PS4 controller support for Windows. You will find an experience that feels better than just a mouse and keyboard. The two experiences are different enough that you will see an improved ability to clear each wave faster and taking less damage.
The controls are a primary focus for this developer. In these arcade shooter games, if the control scheme feels off, then they know it will be dead in the water before release. Improving the control experience is where we can help and let them know what is annoying and what we like. For instance, the controller is fantastic, but maybe we want to keep using the keyboard, how would you like the keyboard controls to work? This kind of feedback can only improve the game and your experience.
Difficulty
There are three difficulty levels in the game so far. Easy, Medium, and Hard. I am pretty sure there will be some tweaking on the difficulty as it stands now. Things spawn faster and hurt a lot more. It is still fun and frustrating to be zipping around and then get owned by a pincer alien pretty quickly. But there needs to be a little more variety, and different levels of tension added to have you perfecting your ability to zip and change the orbit level in perfect timed sequences.
Remember to give feedback to the developers on what you would like to see, perhaps more walls of Ice or some kind of resistance that you have to blow up a specific meteor before you can take down others. Increasing just the health and damage is one way, but I love to see creative ways to increase difficulty.
Replayability
The replayability of this game is excellent. The quick gameplay and when you get taken down when you think you were nowhere close to dying. You load up and try again and get as far as you can. Even considering it is still very much in alpha, increasing the difficulty helps in challenging yourself. I am also looking forward to more and more ways the level will get an increase in complications making you want to hit that next level.
Multiplayer support mode would bring in higher replayability as well. I just need a way to brag about what level I hit and then be crushed and later determined to play more when a friend surpasses me. Or local co-op with multiple controllers and keyboards.
Support the developer
Centroid is a game that is easy to get into and enjoy. I recommend following this studio and this game for updates on their game. And for the price of a coffee, you can support them by buying this game. Or show your support by following them on Twitter @BravadoGS.
You can check out their Itch.Io Page here, review, buy, and follow them to see the fantastic work that comes from these hardworking indie developers.
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