from HexaDrive, the would-be Japanese equivalent to Bluepoint, artistes who brought you Rez HD, Okami HD and the year-late damage control 2.0 patch for Zone of the Enders 2nd Runner HD on only PS3 that fixed the abysmal framerate and Kojima had to personally fund as an apology, comes their very first original game
checks notes wait, wait, no I'm receiving information that their actual first original game was...uhhhh...The 3rd Birthday? the Parasite Eve game for PSP that seemingly nobody liked? poor guys, they got so critically SLAMMED that they retreated into the shadows to be a support and port studio for the next decade or so, and then their first original IP game was 2022's Voidcrisis, a "tower offense" game with mechs that has mixed reviews on Steam and looks like a visual clusterfuck, both that and this game echoing ZOE2
a decent enough successor to games like Metro-Cross and Temple Run (compare and contrast to Namco's cancelled but leaked also sci-fi successor Aero-Cross that I also reviewed), it's as short-lived as it is fast as it is free (as in free beer), featuring an exceedingly lean four short levels wherein you guide Genji Overwatch through an obstacle course, one of them being a tutorial, once you start it you may as well finish it instead of fritting about to another game in your Steam Library because if you don't care about the S-ranks you can complete it in 15 minutes
if you do care about the S-ranks add another hour or so
atmospheric-enough programmer art visuals, seemingly taking inspiration from the virtual areas in Astral Chain or Metal Gear Solid VR Missions
the title screen has such chill music that it reminds me of the eminently-loungeable soundtrack of a game they ported from 3DS to PS3, the excellent excellent E.X. Troopers, a Japan-only spinoff of Lost Planet that has since received a fan translation, the forbidden result of splicing Vanquish with Monster Hunter and the fastest most technically impressive shooting action the 3DS has to offer
oh yeah, did I mention Bright Tracer is free? and only in Japanese? fear not though, it's one of those imports that are just gameplay and soaked in tons of English text to look cool, so pretty much the only way a language barrier manifests is wondering whether you're changing from windowed to fullscreen or vice-versa
it's Unreal Engine 5 so it looks pretty nice, ran well enough on the Steam Deck OLED to look smooth, but it's pretty evident this is just a test project to get used to the engine, which makes you wonder, could they be making a proper full length original game in UE5? maybe one day we'll find out, or not
it's a weird feeling to miss the PS3 and 360 library of digital only PSN and XBLA games, but it's a feeling I have
anyway here's the URL, it's worth 15 minutes, it's FREE, might as well have it in your Steam library: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2253460/BRIGHT_TRACER/
checks notes wait, wait, no I'm receiving information that their actual first original game was...uhhhh...The 3rd Birthday? the Parasite Eve game for PSP that seemingly nobody liked? poor guys, they got so critically SLAMMED that they retreated into the shadows to be a support and port studio for the next decade or so, and then their first original IP game was 2022's Voidcrisis, a "tower offense" game with mechs that has mixed reviews on Steam and looks like a visual clusterfuck, both that and this game echoing ZOE2
a decent enough successor to games like Metro-Cross and Temple Run (compare and contrast to Namco's cancelled but leaked also sci-fi successor Aero-Cross that I also reviewed), it's as short-lived as it is fast as it is free (as in free beer), featuring an exceedingly lean four short levels wherein you guide Genji Overwatch through an obstacle course, one of them being a tutorial, once you start it you may as well finish it instead of fritting about to another game in your Steam Library because if you don't care about the S-ranks you can complete it in 15 minutes
if you do care about the S-ranks add another hour or so
atmospheric-enough programmer art visuals, seemingly taking inspiration from the virtual areas in Astral Chain or Metal Gear Solid VR Missions
the title screen has such chill music that it reminds me of the eminently-loungeable soundtrack of a game they ported from 3DS to PS3, the excellent excellent E.X. Troopers, a Japan-only spinoff of Lost Planet that has since received a fan translation, the forbidden result of splicing Vanquish with Monster Hunter and the fastest most technically impressive shooting action the 3DS has to offer
oh yeah, did I mention Bright Tracer is free? and only in Japanese? fear not though, it's one of those imports that are just gameplay and soaked in tons of English text to look cool, so pretty much the only way a language barrier manifests is wondering whether you're changing from windowed to fullscreen or vice-versa
it's Unreal Engine 5 so it looks pretty nice, ran well enough on the Steam Deck OLED to look smooth, but it's pretty evident this is just a test project to get used to the engine, which makes you wonder, could they be making a proper full length original game in UE5? maybe one day we'll find out, or not
it's a weird feeling to miss the PS3 and 360 library of digital only PSN and XBLA games, but it's a feeling I have
anyway here's the URL, it's worth 15 minutes, it's FREE, might as well have it in your Steam library: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2253460/BRIGHT_TRACER/
2 Comments
and it was made in UE5! like I predicted
PZT
2 months ago