Antecrypt

released on Jul 10, 2021

Single-stick arena shooter on mankind's last hard drive


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Antecrypt was pretty fun. "Single stick shooter" where your crosshair bounces around the level as you play. You need to stop shooting and get close to your crosshair to recharge your ammo. Good looking game with decent sound and music. Some of the enemies can be very frustrating to fight, especially if your crosshair won't cooperate. If you do play, be advised that you can use your upgrades by pressing down on the dpad after selecting a level and before launching it. Upgrades are consumed if you beat a level with them. I beat it in an hour and a half.
I think it's worth a play, it's a nice little game and it's short.

Composed of a million little frustrations. Wanna control where you shoot? Nope, the crosshair bounces around the screen like a DVD player logo. Well, maybe that'd be okay if your gun had some spread, but nope, it's a laser that shoots straight on ahead. It would be nice if it could kill enemies in one hit, but nah, it's actually kind of weak and you need a few seconds of sustained damage to kill anything. At least you can spray and pray- oh what's that? Nope, you have limited ammo and you have to recharge it by standing in the area around the bouncing crosshair. At least you can upgrade ammo and damage and stuff. Well, sometimes the game lets you. You only ever get the choice to upgrade one of two stats. What's that? You want a bomb that'll save you? That's cute; anyway, here's a bomb that covers a pitiful area and only goes where your crosshair goes. But at least the enemies are pushovers. Just kidding! Nope, they're annoying and confusing, shoot bullets, and even some will pester you by slowing you down and yanking you around. But there are powerups to help you. Except, you only get to use them once. Ever. Use them once and then never again. Good luck with those boss battles who spawn ads!

Honestly every single part of this game is infuriating, but I don't even hate it. I plan on giving it up, sure, but it's an exercise in design ethos. I find it kind of fascinating how uncompromising and inconvenient it is. Bennett Foddy would be proud. Now, I need to delete this from my drive before I get a migraine.