First Pixel Shooter review by RainbowChicken

There was a whole ton of work put into this game, and it shows. Everything's executed well, and there's a ton of variety. However, some basic design choices mar the campaign. Good: The graphics: They're pretty. The pixelated stuff looks stylish, not old. Arena mode: Perfectly captures the speed and craziness of a CoD match. Tons of fun. This alone earns the game a high rating; everything else is extra. Survival mode: Another good addition. Well-developed, doesn't feel tacked on. The guns: There's a lot of them. They feel different from each other. Running and rolling: Although you can't jump, your character is quite agile and the game never feels as slow as some modern FPS's. The allies: Allies aren't all that common in Game Maker shooters. When they're there you legitimately feel like someone's got your back. Keys and so on: They stay in your possession when you die. This means a lot less retreading while still preventing you from blazing through the game. The story: It exists. It's not just "Go kill some guys." The arena maps: Fun, distinct, pretty, and not too big. Bad: Quick deaths: If you're expected to do a whole lot in one go, then you'd better have a bit of room for error. Respawning enemies: If you die, the enemies you already killed before your checkpoint reappear behind you. This slows down the game and makes backtracking much more painful. The indoor graphics: Indoor areas are hard to navigate. The same textures are pasted over and over, and some are bad enough that it's hard to see where you're going in tight spaces (like the all-brown walls in some wooden areas). Dialogue: It's well-written, but there's no voice acting and you can't click through it, so it can be a bit of a bore. Some of the campaign levels' design: Big, nonlinear maps don't belong in a game that kills you for one bad move. Players who die are sent back a ways, enough that they might want to turn off the game instead of getting the "just one more try" feeling an FPS should inspire.There was a whole ton of work put into this game, and it shows. Everything's executed well, and there's a ton of variety. However, some basic design choices mar the campaign. Good: The graphics: They're pretty. The pixelated stuff looks stylish, not old. Arena mode: Perfectly captures the speed and craziness of a CoD match. Tons of fun. This alone earns the game a high rating; everything else is extra. Survival mode: Another good addition. Well-developed, doesn't feel tacked on. The guns: There's a lot of them. They feel different from each other. Running and rolling: Although you can't jump, your character is quite agile and the game never feels as slow as some modern FPS's. The allies: Allies aren't all that common in Game Maker shooters. When they're there you legitimately feel like someone's got your back. Keys and so on: They stay in your possession when you die. This means a lot less retreading while still preventing you from blazing through the game. The story: It exists. It's not just "Go kill some guys." The arena maps: Fun, distinct, pretty, and not too big. Bad: Quick deaths: If you're expected to do a whole lot in one go, then you'd better have a bit of room for error. Respawning enemies: If you die, the enemies you already killed before your checkpoint reappear behind you. This slows down the game and makes backtracking much more painful. The indoor graphics: Indoor areas are hard to navigate. The same textures are pasted over and over, and some are bad enough that it's hard to see where you're going in tight spaces (like the all-brown walls in some wooden areas). Dialogue: It's well-written, but there's no voice acting and you can't click through it, so it can be a bit of a bore. Some of the campaign levels' design: Big, nonlinear maps don't belong in a game that kills you for one bad move. Players who die are sent back a ways, enough that they might want to turn off the game instead of getting the "just one more try" feeling an FPS should inspire.