Release Date: 21/06/2017
Played On: Win
Available On: Lin / Mac / PS4 / Win
Time Played: 4h 36m
Progress: Made it to the final boss a few times
Developer: Alientrap
Publisher: Alientrap
In the last decade we've seen a lot of indie darlings make a splash for being small little creative games that big studios wouldn't even bother thinking about. It's been an awesome period in gaming, as we've seen smaller games have a bit of a boom, which has introduced some truly unique experiences, and even defied traditional genre definitions. At the same time though, there's been a flood of games that piece together seemingly random elements to form another eye-rolling attempt at grabbing the hype for a few minutes of success.
Add to that the evolution of early access games that come with the trials and tribulations of selling an unfinished product, and you have a risky landscape. These kind of games are always open to failure from the moment they begin making promises to sell part of the final product, but I always feel like it holds back development in another way.
It stands to reason that if a game wants to attract players (customers) before it's been finished, there are some popular genres and features that many will promise. For a while there it seemed like every indie game in development was promoting their use of "rogue-like" features, or selling their future promise of "a new take on an old genre".
Both of these things fast became warning flags for me, and it's why I generally stay away from early access games these days. I've had my time of backing disappointing Kickstarter projects and getting in early on exciting new games. I'd like to say that the disappointments and failed projects were the exception, but unfortunately they soon became the norm. I could list a number of abandoned or forgotten early access games that will never see the light of day, despite their interesting promises and good ideas.
It's why I never got onto Cryptark as early as it seems the rest of the world did, as I started playing just before it left early access. I think I picked up the game in a bundle or something, which seems to be the only time I buy early access games anymore, but I figured I'd give it a go either way. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.
The first hurdle is trying to describe a game like Cryptark without using too many references to other games that already exist. At the end of the day though, there's nothing in this game that we haven't seen before, despite it potentially becoming more than the sum of its parts.
So mechanically we can say that it's a 2D twin-stick shooter with rogue-light progression and faint RPG elements. Story-wise you find yourself in a science fiction universe where a corporation has hired your team to salvage derelict ships to earn credits and upgrade your gear. If you manage to survive through a handful of salvages, you'll eventually find THE Cryptark: a huge derelict ship full of salvage and bad guys.
Although, there aren't really any "bad guys" per se, as the derelict ships have nothing on them other than various systems that may or may not be operational, along with a horde of robots that will try their best to get rid of you. Thus, salvaging a ship ends up following a linear progression of finding an entry point, disabling hostile systems, and destroying the ship's core. Along the way there are alien robots and systems that will try to stop you, so you'll need to pack some firepower.
The meta progression feels a lot like FTL, as you'll be moving from sector to sector and ship to ship, for a random configuration of enemies and resources. Choosing which ship to infiltrate and salvage in each sector becomes an important decision as you progress through the game. You want to successfully make your way through the ship, but you also want to keep an eye out for bonus objectives that will increase your payout. Is it worth attacking the strongest ship in the sector for a bigger payout, but a much higher risk? Or do you go for the safe money on an easier ship, even though you'll earn less in the short-term.
During the game you have a consistent account balance, which essentially works as a health meter. You need to spend money on loading out your mech to salvage each ship, which earns money and tops up the balance with each successful mission. It adds an interesting layer to decision making in the game, as there are often times when I would take on a more difficult ship, because I was flush with money and knew that I could afford to redeploy some more mechs if I failed.
The additional objectives are ways to earn even more credits, so long as you meet their unique conditions. It could be something as basic as "don't use grenades", or it might be challenging and task you with preserving dangerous systems on the ship that will make reaching the core difficult. One optional objective that seemed to come up a lot in my playthroughs was to limit my mech's health, or limit the cost of my mech's loadout. These are interesting conditions as your loadout is extremely flexible, but obviously makes life harder or easier when fighting the alien robots and ship systems.
In fact I think this is one of Cryptark's greatest strengths, as it offers a unique gimmick that I haven't encountered all that much in other games. Having to balance your loadout with the objectives you want to accomplish provides an influential risk/reward system. Most of the time I find myself glossing over these kind of incentives in other games because they don't add anything interesting, but somehow Cryptark has managed to make it seem vital and important. There were many moments where I'd spend ages on the loadout screen, tweaking different weapons and options to get the most out of a limiting condition. It's a nice element in the meta of the game that feels good and manages to be compelling enough for more than a cursory glance.
When you eventually decide on a ship and get to the salvaging, Cryptark becomes a frantic twin-stick shooter and really comes into its own. The contrast between the meta-planning phase and the action gameplay is extreme at times, but it always feels good to plan a route and bust into a ship to see what you'll find inside.
I have to admit that I was sold on Cryptark as soon as I get stuck into its control scheme, which works as keenly as a twin-stick layout should. Everything is responsive, including movement which is tight, and avoids the annoying floaty physics that you might expect from flying around in space. Shooting is equally satisfying, as it's clear the game was made with gamepads in mind and aiming with the right stick is responsive and accurate. I was thrilled to discover that when I missed my shots, it was because I had aimed poorly, not because the game decided to aim somewhere else for no reason.
So I have to highlight the fact that this is a twin-stick that actually uses a gamepad well. Moving and shooting feel good, and I didn't feel like I was fighting the controls at all. This is exactly what I want from a twin-stick, so kudos for that.
Additionally, using the different weapons and loadouts on offer is fun and can really change up the way you approach each obstacle. There are nodes in every ship that will unlock more weapons when you activate them, so each run starts with a base loadout of standard guns, grenades, and a melee attack. I soon unlocked a shotgun that shot explosive shells, and a nuke launcher that could destroy systems in one devastating explosion. Another time I ran with a laser that stunned enemies, and a slow-firing heavy gauge machine gun that packed a real punch.
Unlocking weapons is easy enough that I never felt like I was missing out in the early game. Instead, I found that I was rolling with a fun different loadout after the first or second salvage. In this way Cryptark succeeds at pacing its progression nicely and keeping the action fun throughout.
Enemy difficulty and ship systems also ramp at a nice pace, which meant I found myself challenged at every point along the way. It's a hard thing to accomplish in a somewhat random game, so it's even more impressive that the player's power increases at a relative rate to the enemy's.
All of this adds up to there being a buffet of options available to the player for each and every ship. You can barrel your way through the game without giving a lot of thought to these mechanics and systems, but if you want to do a little min-maxing to play a tighter challenge, the option is there.
Essentially Cryptark feels good to play and has been designed and balanced well enough to make each run feel viable and interesting. I'm tired of lazy game design in so-called "rogue-likes" where you're just as likely to get an unwinnable run, as you are to have an overpowered stomp. Obviously then, I'm pleased to discover that Cryptark has been built with balance in mind, and happily it shows.
Finally though, let's have a word about the presentation, as Cryptark looks and sounds pretty great. The 2D art is detailed and stylish, with a unique science fiction aesthetic that consistently develops through each ship you encounter. Thankfully there's a clear distinction between foreground and background, which I was immediately worried about as both are quite detailed. There were only a few moments where everything was lit up from a short explosion that I got a little confused, but the confusion suited the situation more often than not.
At first the enemy designs can be a little confusing, as they don't immediately convey what kind of attacks or strength each machine has. However, the enemies looks great and it doesn't take long to get used to what you're looking at and acting accordingly. The hard sci-fi style is further enhanced by a few characters that will teach you how to play and relay information at sparse intervals. Their portraits are of an obviously alien creature, which contrasts well with the mechanical ships and their robotic protectors.
A few small things really excites me about the design though, like the bright neon pink brain that represents each ship's core. In fact each of the ship's systems and some of the enemies have neon pink parts that look a little organic and raise some questions about their origin. Ultimately though, these little details really help expand the world you're in and develop an environmental narrative that gives you a reason to care about what you're looking at.
When I started playing Cryptark, I didn't like the audio design at all, as there are loads of coarse metallic sound effects that did nothing but grate on me every time I heard them. A little later I became more immersed in the world and how each environment looked and felt, so the sound effects and ambience started growing on me. Now I can see how the audio landscape of Cryptark isn't meant to be comfortable, and instead serves to represent the mechanical enemies and systems with a unique and authentic flair.
I've always been a sucker for twin-stick shooters, and especially the ones that feel great to play, while looking and sounding fantastic. When all of these elements are firing, it's easy to play short action packed missions for hours at a time.
The only downside to Cryptark for me, is that I find it a little too difficult to master, so I think I'm done with it for now. I made it to the final ship and I even managed to have a couple of runs at it, but these were kind of futile as I was destroyed quickly every time I tried.
It might be something to keep in mind, as I would place this toward the more difficult end of the twin-stick spectrum, but that might just be because I haven't played enough to really get into the groove. The pace isn't over-the-top-fast, but success is often randomised along with everything else in these rogue-light games. Even though the balance between power and challenge has been delicately balanced, I often found that I'd die because I made some poor loadout decisions. Either that or I'd get confused about how different ship systems interact, as they're not explicitly explained until you interact with them.
For example, there's a system on many ships that will repair other systems when they've been destroyed by the player. Hence, the repair system is one of the first targets on a ship, as you can then go about your business without everything coming back online. Seems straight forward enough until you introduce another system that will mimic any system that's been destroyed. So now you destroy the repair system, but this other system starts repairing it, because it's taken on the role of the repair system.
Fair enough though right, as you just make that other system another prime target to quickly destroy. Except that on some later ships, there's a system that shuffles the location of every system on the ship. You might have planned out a path from the repair system, through the mimic system, then to the shuffle system, but they've all moved by the time you get there.
Now go ahead and include another system that cloaks the ship so you can't plan your route, and another system that releases enemies every five seconds, and you're faced with seemingly impossible odds. At times it can feel like a never ending cycle as you attempt to quickly go from system to system and outrun the repairs, or the mimics, or the shuffler, or the cloak… and so on.
It's an aspect of Cryptark that confuses me a little, as it's obviously an escalation in difficulty to have all of these synergies between systems, but at times it might take things too far. Like with other randomised games that create an overpowered run from time to time, it's like Cryptark creates an unbeatable run every now and then. I realise that I'm complaining about the difficulty, which is rarely a reason to dislike a game, but it's the reason why I won't be playing this one forever.
What I mean is that I love twin-stick shooters and there are a few titles that I frequently pick up and play every now and then. These games are the best of the best in my opinion, which is a high standard to reach, but it's why I can see myself playing them for as long as I have the time and opportunity to do so.
Unfortunately, despite everything else being fun and interesting in Cryptark, this difficult synergy between ship systems in the late game can be enough to put me off for longer periods of time. I found that I was happy to reach the big boss ship at the end, but after it kicked my butt a few times I didn't feel much of a pull to go back and try again. However, it shouldn't take way from the fact that every other part of Cryptark is worth checking out and enjoying.
Sometimes we just have to accept that there's one little thing that puts us off playing a game. There doesn't have to be anything particularly "wrong" with the game, as it comes down to personal preference. So when I say that I'm done with Cryptark, it's not without the caveat of saying that it's a very well put together game that I think most twin-stick fans will enjoy.
The staying power is just a little lacking for me, but there's a lot there for the right player.