Nukezilla Review: Xotic (PC)

People often point to the independent development scene as what’s great about PC gaming today, but the majority of what comes out of it are mascot platformers, RPGs with vestigial design choices left over from 1992, and knock-offs of custom Warcraft 3 maps. Many of them are fun, and almost all of them are cheap, but they really aren’t doing much new or different.

Xotic takes the first person shooter in a direction I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it go before.

As the story goes, an evil orb has been traveling through the galaxy, draining planets of their life force and leaving behind little bits of its polluting essence. The story really only comes into play at the very beginning and end of the game, but both times I couldn’t help but think of the Loc-Nar from Heavy Metal. It is your job as an interstellar plant-man (or something) to go from place to place, blasting any trace of the orb into oblivion to restore the planets to their former selves.

Xotic puts players in small, arena like levels armed with a strange, bug-like weapon on their arm. Starting with the basic “pew-pew” Spine Shot, you spend experience points to add and upgrade extra firing modes and secondary attacks. From the enemy disabling Volt to the rocket launcher like Bombbug, the weapons are varied enough to give you options, but easy to get a hang of. There isn’t any ammo in the game, at least on in the traditional sense. You have an energy well that all your attacks draw from, some more than others. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, so a big part of the game is knowing which to use when.

There are also solid holograms the player can drop, either as shields from enemy fire, or as platforms to get at some out of reach orb fragments and power-ups. You start with a basic hologram, but upgrades are scattered through several levels in the game that increase the size and strength of the shield.

The levels are broken up into four regions: The Underhome (caves), Drifting Canyon (desert), Forgotten Subway, and Vanishing City. You get the sense that the regions were chosen in part to let the little, closed off levels the worlds are broken up into work. There are a little over 20 levels in the game, mostly with live firing enemies. There are a few time trial levels though, which are enemy free and all about building the bigest combo possible.

The game is single player only, and the levels aren’t especially challenging to get through. I think I only died once in my play-through. But that’s not the point. The leaderboard at the end of each level is. Everything is scored, time is kept, accuracy is measured, and completionist tendencies are rewarded. Keep a chain going as long as possible and shoot for the top of the board. The only similar game I can think of is Bulletstorm, but that’s more focused on set pieces fights and co-op play. In Xotic it’s just you, the level and the desire to keep one upping your own score, and those of your friends.

This isn’t developer WXP Games’ first release, but it is the first they can truly call their own. Their previous release highlights include The Daring Game for Girls and Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball. Fine games I’m sure, but it’s great to see them woking on an original IP.

Also, it’s refreshing to see a shooter that doesn’t feature the word “modern” in its marketing, roided-out dudes in shoulder pads, or a number higher than three at the end of the title.

Xotic takes a simple, slightly different look at the genre and executes what it sets out to do superbly. It’s a fresh take and at only $10 at launch I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Disclosure: We were provided a copy for review by WXP Games.