Calum Petrie reviews God’s Trigger…
When it comes to Twin Stick shooters, I am very much in the category that is past this genre. I had to make one in college on my game design course and I did very much enjoy it, but I just feel the concept is a little too “back to basics”. This was until I sat down on the couch with a friend and played God’s Trigger, then my bias was out the window and the couch co-op syndrome came into play.
God’s Trigger, as the previous paragraph has outlined, is a top-down Twin Stick shooter in which the 2 playable characters are an Angel (Harry) and a Demon (Judy). The story is centred around our two characters killing their way to Heaven while trying to take down the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – though do not expect the grandiose adventures of Darksiders here.
The game is insanely fast paced; fans of Hotline Miami might find this just a tad too tame for their styles, though newcomers to the genre will have plenty to enjoy.
The game us played from the bird’s eye perspective, where the left thumb stick controls the player movement and the right the direction your biblical brute faces. The two characters both have a dash/teleport ability which does mean in solo play that the characters can be swapped, whereas in co-op play you have to work together.
The game is infinitely better as a co-op experience, the single player game is rather slow and lacks the enjoyment I was hoping for. The two-player experience however will be filled with laughter, swearing, threats of throwing controller and in the rare occasion … broken controllers. This might sound like a terrible fate, but I found the willingness to keep pushing forward with the game easier when I had a friend to share the instant deaths with. The insane combat means lightning quick decisions that more often than not, we failed with.
The game adopts an extremely quick restart system when players die, and you will die; one hit kills are everywhere in this title. Though the upside is that enemies are very much the same one hit fashion, which can be extremely satisfying.
The characters both have their own unique ability which can bring a tactical edge to the fighting if you wish to employ logic to an illogical situation. There is enough mechanics in this game to make it stand out from the rest of the similar styled games to come out in recent years, though the theme and setting are sure to give it a distinctive edge over other titles.
Hunting down the Horsemen in the game is bizarre. In the early stages on the game you are hunting one that is posing as an actor. All of the extras, stage hands and everyone else are bent to the horseman’s will and are an instrument of deadly precision.Fighting your way through wooden sets made to look like the wild west is just how modern a take we have on the biblical shooter. Instead of setting a game in that period we have a satirical look at how easily a biblical entity could corrupt us through pop culture. Though reading that section back I might be looking a little too far into that matter.
The game’s upgrade system lets players control their character’s ability progression. This can be used to decide wither a player chooses to change the cooldown time, ability range or how much experience is gained from using certain attacks. Once a player chooses though, they can rearrange the stats at the end of the next level, allowing customisation of abilities tailored to the mission. You can increase your range of attack from one mission to extend your killing area, or you can change it to increase your attack speed in the next level.
The only downside to this system in a single player experience is that if you don’t swap your characters often you will not earn experience for the less used characters. Though in co-op play, the more you kill the more experience you earn.
The games music is rather enjoyable, though I could not find a copy of it on YouTube (I usually listen to a game’s soundtrack when writing a review). The heavy riffs and rock theme lend themselves very well to the tone of the game, making the experience just that little more enjoyable.
The art style is gorgeous, with a strange cell shaded design to the world and characters. The comic-book stylings have always worked well in violent games, taking Borderlands as a prime example; the visuals allow for short burst of violence to be portrayed in an over the top manner.
Looking back at God’s Trigger, I am glad that I got a second player to help me with this review. I found the game extremely boring as a single player experience, so much so that I was worried about how I was going to review a game that did not excite me enough to play it.
The two-player experience is where this game comes into its own though. Buddy up and expect to be picking each other up off the floor both in and out of game. The fast-paced action and deaths will have you both laughing and nearly crying at how brutal the game can be at times.
Pros
- Fast Paced action
- Extremely quick reloads after death
- Brilliant co-op experience
Cons
- Single player experience is weak
- Unforgiving to players new to the genre
Rating – 7/10
Calum Petrie
