Excubitor
- May 25, 2016
- Tesseract Interactive
Get on SteamIn this classic inspired Tower Defense Bullet Hell Shooter, security bots have revolted and you, the sole surviving pilot, are all that stands between the colonies and defeat. Upgrade your ship, weapons and turrets whilst facing a plethora of enemies and colossal bosses. Why did the drones turn?
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Reviews
- Excubitor successfully combines tower defense and bullet hell mechanics, creating a unique and engaging gameplay experience.
- The game features impressive graphics and sound effects, along with challenging boss battles that require strategic thinking.
- There is a good variety of weapons and turrets, allowing for different strategies and replayability throughout the game.
- The tower defense mechanics are shallow, with turrets often feeling weak and lacking strategic placement options.
- The game suffers from bugs and performance issues, including freezing and crashes, which can disrupt gameplay.
- The user interface and sound design are basic and could use significant improvement to enhance the overall experience.
- gameplay11 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 45 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is a mixed experience, featuring fast-paced action but hampered by a lack of depth and diversity in mechanics typical of the tower defense genre. While the menus are well-organized and the visuals are impressive, the controls can complicate the experience, leading to a sense of repetition and dissatisfaction for genre purists. Overall, the game struggles to balance its tower defense and shoot-em-up elements effectively.
“Fantastic optics, decent gameplay, and very well arranged menus that let you find everything you need quickly.”
“Tight gameplay: the action is fast and furious.”
“A little bit different in the tower defense and shoot 'em up genres, Excubitor is a mixed bag of gameplay.”
“Another negative is the controls - the frantic shoot-em-up gameplay calls for a controller, but said controller makes building towers and selecting menu items like upgrades needlessly complicated.”
“Lacks the diversity of mechanics that is essential to the tower defense genre.”
“But it's also weighed down by some repetition, and a lack of oomph in terms of gameplay: nothing really strongly stands out in the genres in terms of mechanics in the end.”
- story10 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The story revolves around piloting a small ship to defend a larger vessel, Antares, while engaging in tower defense mechanics that become increasingly ineffective against stronger enemies in later missions. Players can upgrade their ship and strategically place turrets, but the gameplay often shifts to relying on crowd control tactics rather than direct combat, as the towers lose their effectiveness over time. Overall, the narrative is serviceable but lacks depth, with gameplay mechanics that can feel repetitive and shallow.
“You fly a small ship that you can upgrade after each mission and you have to defend a bigger ship.”
“During missions, you'll also need to protect a ship called Antares.”
“Sadly, the tower defense part is very shallow, and one you will need to place and forget early in most missions.”
“While during early missions they can kill and heavily damage weaker enemies on their own, with later missions and higher difficulties, with more and stronger enemies, they become more and more useless.”
“As previously mentioned, the towers in Excubitor aren't very strong, but they are still extremely necessary to successfully complete a mission - you can't guard the multitude of enemy paths all on your own.”
- graphics5 mentions
- 80 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The graphics are generally praised for their quality and detail, earning high scores from users, though some players experienced minor stability issues and motion sickness due to the 360 movement. Overall, the visuals contribute positively to the gaming experience.
“The graphics and sound effects are excellent.”
“The graphics are pretty good; it gets a 9.5.”
“There's some nice details in the visuals.”
“But while playing, the 360 movement combined with the visuals made me feel a little bit motion sick.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the variety and strategic options that enhance replayability, others feel it falls short compared to other titles in the genre, suggesting that it may not justify its price. Overall, the presence of diverse strategies can lead to increased replayability for some players.
“There is a ton of variety in the game which allows you to try different strategies, increasing the amount of replayability.”
“Given the vast replayability on top of a good amount of content, the value-content proposition gets a solid tick.”
“Variety leading to increased replayability: if you thought that the only strategy occurred during the actual battles, think again.”
“Still, the game is not worth €14.99 - you can get better tower defense games or top-down shooters for that price or cheaper, and compared to them, this game doesn't really have replayability.”
“There is a ton of variety in the game which allows you to try different strategies, increasing the amount of replayability of the game.”
