In this sequel to Down Load, the player once again takes control of Syd, a young "cyber diver" - a highly trained agent who is able to infiltrate the "cyber world", a virtual reality network that has replaced real life for so many humans in this grim futuristic scenario of the end of the 21st century. This time, Syd is up against an even bigger menace: a terrorist organization that has taken possession of Adolf Hitler's brain, in order to re-create it in a digital form, thus reviving one of the most vile and insane dictators in human history!
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Horizontal shoot em up. Makes some changes to the previous game by no longer having you select weapon types before a mission, instead allowing you to swap between four as you play, your flying bike has been replaced by a ship, and you can no longer alter your speed at will and instead have to find powerups. Your weapons are a fast straight shot that upgrades into a spread and then a shot behind you, increasingly large spread of lasers that penetrate enemies, increasingly faster shooting homing shots, and a short beam out the front of your ship that does high damage with upgrades increasing the length of the beam and then adding a beam behind your ship. You no longer have a health bar and are killed in one hit, but you come back in the same spot as long as you have lives. Dying will lose you your powerups and satellite attachments but weapons only powerup twice and they are fairly common. It's actual a very easy game and made somewhat difficult to die at times as shield pickups will absorb about five hits (though crashing or certain kinds of shots ignore the shield). Good music.
Has some good looking cutscenes for the time though some scenes are reused, dialogue is Japanese with no translation or subtitles and it seems like it might even be difficult for native speakers to hear sometimes with the loud volume of music or sound effects in some scenes. Stage design is either fairly simple and uninteresting or just full of usual backgrounds that sometimes contain enemies.
Stage design and mechanically isn't doing anything too interesting but the weapons are all useful and it's a fun playthrough. Can kill mutated cyber Hitler.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1663373047192256513
Has some good looking cutscenes for the time though some scenes are reused, dialogue is Japanese with no translation or subtitles and it seems like it might even be difficult for native speakers to hear sometimes with the loud volume of music or sound effects in some scenes. Stage design is either fairly simple and uninteresting or just full of usual backgrounds that sometimes contain enemies.
Stage design and mechanically isn't doing anything too interesting but the weapons are all useful and it's a fun playthrough. Can kill mutated cyber Hitler.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1663373047192256513
Very creative shooter that borrows inspiration from Gradius, Star Wars, and even Adolf Hitler makes an appearance. A step up from the original in every department; visually, gameplay, story, and audio. Down Load 2 has as a cinematic feel to it. Levels are either in the real world or 'jacked-in' in the digital world.
Wonderful to see the other review on here saying basically what I'm going to: this game is absolutely bonkers. Mechanically it's just a sideways shooter game where you're in your little ship.
But the presentation and cutscenes and visuals? Absolutely the most bonkers stuff I have ever seen. Nothing I can describe would do it justice in any way. It's trippy and wild and so cool and radical. Truly wild and fun stuff.
But the presentation and cutscenes and visuals? Absolutely the most bonkers stuff I have ever seen. Nothing I can describe would do it justice in any way. It's trippy and wild and so cool and radical. Truly wild and fun stuff.
The Sengoku 2 of horizontal shooters. Mechanically nothing to write home about, but packed to the gills with wild, creative, absurd shit screaming towards you, things you just wouldn't be seeing in contemporaries. I admit I'm no expert, but I assume no other shooter from the time was throwing you into the Buddhist Cyberzone or having you shoot down pseudo-3D swastika ships in the techno-organic Hitler Hive. Have I mentioned the cutscene transition into the cyberspace levels, by the way? Look at this shit! 2077 could never. Also there's what is blatantly an AT-AT in the snow level. I'm glad we all think AT-ATs are cool!