ATOMINE
- May 4, 2017
- Broken Arms Games
- 4h median play time
Get on Steam"ATOMINE is a fast-paced, procedurally generated twin-stick shooter with a minimalist design. Players must clear level areas of enemies to progress, while collecting XPs, energy, and weapon modules. The modular weapon system allows for unique customization, as modules can modify specific parts of the weapon such as bullet type and rate of fire."
Nintendo Switch
PC
Playstation 4
Windows
Xbox One
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- Atomine features captivating cybernetic graphics and a minimalist design that enhances the overall aesthetic experience.
- The game offers a variety of weapon types and upgrades, providing a refreshing and engaging gameplay experience.
- Many players found the game to be fun and addictive, with a unique hacker theme that adds depth to the twin-stick shooter genre.
- The game suffers from significant bugs and balance issues, including unresponsive upgrades and frustrating enemy spawn mechanics.
- Players reported a lack of clarity in gameplay mechanics, making it difficult to understand how to progress or utilize upgrades effectively.
- The difficulty curve can be steep and unbalanced, leading to frustrating experiences, especially with bosses that lack clear attack indicators.
- graphics46 mentions
- 37 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a minimalist aesthetic that some players find captivating, showcasing a unique cybernetic style and clean visuals. However, this simplicity can lead to visual clutter during intense gameplay, making it difficult to track action on screen. While many appreciate the artistic design and thematic coherence, there are notable concerns regarding optimization, rendering issues, and repetitive visuals that detract from the overall experience.
“Despite some shortcomings, its original setting and minimalist design showcase captivating cybernetic graphics in a sleek manner.”
“A fun little twin-stick procedural shooter with some very pretty voxel graphics.”
“It has a great aesthetic, it uses mostly monochromatic colors and looks very clean and futuristic.”
“The graphics are 'minimalist' but in practice, things can get really hectic and it becomes very difficult to see what is actually happening on screen, especially when you're starting out.”
“Got a few crashes as well and it seems totally not optimized, having such resource demands for not that awesome graphics.”
“Extremely uninspiring graphics, makes you sleepy.”
- gameplay28 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 68 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this twin-stick shooter is characterized by fast-paced action and smooth controls, but it suffers from a lack of depth and repetitive mechanics, leading to a mixed reception. While some players appreciate the minimalist aesthetic and strategic elements, many criticize the insufficient documentation of mechanics, lackluster upgrades, and various bugs that detract from the overall experience. Overall, the game offers a solid foundation but fails to fully engage players due to its shortcomings in gameplay variety and communication.
“This unique twin-stick shooter, developed by Broken Arms Games, offers a refreshingly different take on the genre, combining fast-paced action with a minimalist aesthetic and strategic gameplay elements.”
“The story/environment is quite cool, the artwork is nice, the music is great, and most importantly, the gameplay is solid.”
“Addicting gameplay, nice level design and art.”
“It plays it safe in every aspect of the game such as the gameplay, upgrades, enemies, and so on yet still manages to fail.”
“The gameplay is dull and unexciting, the upgrades are lackluster, the weapons/combat lack punch, and worst of all, there are two really annoying elements which make it unplayable for me.”
“First, I had no idea what I was doing, how to use certain mechanics, and I had no idea what I was even collecting on the map after killing these red anti-viruses.”
- music22 mentions
- 45 % positive mentions
- 41 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players praising its ability to create a dense atmosphere and enhance the gameplay experience, while others find it repetitive and occasionally annoying. Many appreciate the thumping soundtrack that complements the game's aesthetic, though some note that it can overshadow subtle sound effects. Overall, the soundtrack is described as decent to great, contributing positively to the game's unique style and setting.
“I relaxed for 5 minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”
“Nice little rogue-lite with minimalistic but good-to-look-at graphics and a very good soundtrack.”
“A unique and stylish top-down shooter with an incredible art style and soundtrack.”
“The sound design is mediocre with the music being okay but very repetitive, and the low health noise is super annoying; trust me, you will be hearing it often.”
“- the music, sound effects, and general aesthetic aren't great and tend toward annoying after a bit.”
“The sounds are okay, but my only problem was with the music; I didn't like it, to be honest.”
- story12 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's story is criticized for being unclear and poorly executed, with many players feeling it lacks meaningful dialogue or cutscenes, leading to confusion about the plot. While some appreciate the minimalistic design and the setting, others find the narrative lacking depth and coherence, making it difficult to engage with the overall experience. Despite these issues, the gameplay and visual style receive positive remarks, suggesting that the story may not be the main draw for players.
“Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
“The story/environment is quite cool, the artwork is nice, the music is great, and most importantly, the gameplay is solid.”
“Starting with the good, the visual style is nice as is the story and setting in which the battles take place.”
“✅ no story”
“Not worth it, and I got it 60% off. It does not explain anything because it is too caught up trying to make a story, even though there are no cutscenes or dialogue at the beginning to make it worth the time. It's not like an abstract story either; it's just bad. The upgrades have a very bad description to them as well. Now, if you ignore all of that, the gunplay is still bad.”
“Still have no idea about the story though; I think I'm a computer virus?”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including persistent glitches and bugs that occur regardless of graphics settings, leading to frequent freezes, especially with many objects on screen. Many users find it unplayable and plan to revisit after potential fixes are implemented.
“Actually, the glitches occur regardless of the graphics settings, but despite various tweaks, it always runs into these issues.”
“Frankly, the combination of these glitches and other bugs leads me to believe that it is simply poorly coded.”
“Unfortunately, it's just too buggy to be playable, so I will uninstall it and check back in a few months with the hope that these issues are ironed out.”
- grinding3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious and unengaging, with repetitive combat and minimal variety in unlocks and upgrades. The only notable challenge comes from the first boss, which adds to the overall sense of monotony in the grinding experience.
“The combat is just not that interesting, the unlocks and upgrades don't add a lot of variety to the game, and the idea of grinding through the game as many times as it would take to unlock everything just sounds incredibly tedious.”
“The only enemy in the game that provided any substantial challenge was the first boss, a long and tedious battle that can only be described as a major difficulty spike.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, leading to frequent crashes and underwhelming performance despite the hardware being more than capable. Players report that the resource demands are disproportionate to the game's graphics quality, resulting in a frustrating experience.
“My GPU/CPU should be more than sufficient to play this game, and I have gotten great performance from other games that are clearly more graphically demanding.”
“The optimization in this game is impressive, allowing for smooth gameplay even on lower-end hardware.”
“I appreciate how well the game runs on my system; the developers clearly put effort into optimizing performance.”
“I experienced several crashes, and the game feels completely unoptimized, especially considering the high resource demands for graphics that aren't even that impressive.”
“The optimization is lacking; the game struggles to run smoothly despite not having particularly demanding graphics.”
“With frequent crashes and poor performance, it's clear that the game is not optimized well, especially given the mediocre graphics.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability, enhanced by impressive graphical effects and an engaging soundtrack, making it a worthwhile experience for players looking to revisit it.
“It is, however, a very good game, with plenty of replayability, some nice graphical effects, and a thumping soundtrack.”
- atmosphere1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is notably dense and immersive, enhanced by an impressive soundtrack that, while somewhat repetitive, complements the abstract setting of playing as a computer virus.
“Together with the incredible (but sadly a bit repetitive) soundtrack, the visuals were able to invoke a - given the rather abstract setting (you're a computer virus) - pretty dense atmosphere.”
“The atmosphere feels flat and uninspired, lacking the depth needed to engage players in the game's world.”
“Despite the interesting premise, the overall atmosphere fails to immerse players, leaving it feeling hollow and disconnected.”
- humor1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as frenetic and engaging, complementing its challenging rogue-like gameplay. Players find the comedic elements to be a notable aspect that enhances the overall experience.
“A really frenetic rogue-like; it's as funny as it is challenging.”
“The humor in this game is brilliantly woven into the gameplay, making every moment enjoyable.”
“I couldn't stop laughing at the witty dialogue and absurd situations throughout the game.”
