Heavy Storm Shadow
- April 26, 2024
- SmokingBear Studio
Get on Steam"Heavy Storm Shadow" is a mech-based shooter game where players can constantly upgrade and grow their mech through battles against waves of enemies. Gather resources to enhance weapons and armor, unlock new skills, and form unique fighting styles. Survive against overwhelming numbers of enemies in various environments, and experience powerful combat possibilities.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features enjoyable mech combat with a decent gameplay loop that can be fun for short sessions.
- Graphics and visual effects are appealing, contributing to an overall solid presentation.
- There is potential for fun builds and customization, especially for fans of the genre.
- Performance issues, including frame drops and stuttering, significantly detract from the gameplay experience.
- The game suffers from a lack of content and variety, with repetitive maps and limited enemy types.
- Balancing issues exist, with certain abilities and upgrades feeling underwhelming compared to others, leading to a shallow progression system.
- gameplay12 mentions
- 58 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
Gameplay is generally enjoyable, featuring responsive controls, a solid gameplay loop, and customization options, though it suffers from performance issues like frame drops. While the mechs are largely similar aside from unique abilities, the game offers a fun experience for fans of the genre, despite some limitations in content and progression. Overall, players appreciate the entertaining mechanics and graphics, but some find the core gameplay mechanics clunky and limiting.
“Fun gameplay, easy to understand but a lot of build combinations.”
“The game is solid, with nice gameplay and nice graphics, so you will have some hours of fun.”
“Entertaining gameplay with customization, an upgrade system, and four characters to choose from.”
“Gameplay is slow; different mechs are largely identical except for their single ability.”
“Gameplay-wise it's decent, but performance-wise it's kind of bad as it still has lots of frame drop issues.”
“While it feels fairly unique, it's just such a weird and clunky mechanic to have as one of the core functions. Many skills and functions seem to revolve around this boost, and it's very hard to utilize in a satisfactory way. If you choose not to use these skills, your build choices are significantly reduced.”
- graphics11 mentions
- 45 % positive mentions
- 27 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their neatness and appealing art style, particularly the design of the mechs and visual effects. However, some users note issues such as blurriness and performance drops during high enemy density, along with a desire for adjustable graphics settings to enhance performance. Overall, while the visuals are considered solid, there are areas for improvement.
“There aren't too many contents as of now if we compare to other bullet hell roguelites but it's good enough if you want mecha-based with great graphics.”
“It should be called the Gundam Survivors, the game is solid, nice gameplay with nice graphics so you will have some hours of fun.”
“I love the art style, the mechs look cool, each one plays a little differently, and there's enough customization to feel like you could play around with it for a while.”
“I do wish there were graphics settings you could change for better performance.”
“Please add changeable graphics settings.”
“Graphics feel blurry.”
- optimization7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant frame drops and stuttering, particularly during cluttered scenes or on the Steam Deck. While the core gameplay is enjoyable, the performance issues detract from the overall experience, leading to a desire for improved graphics settings and patches to enhance stability.
“I do wish there were graphics settings you could change for better performance.”
“Right now it's not that well optimized; it's pretty choppy on the Steam Deck once you are later in the level with more enemies, so I hope they can improve performance with some patches.”
“Performance is struggling sometimes; it's mostly smooth, but when the screen is cluttered, the FPS may stutter and it shouldn't (given my specs).”
“Gameplay-wise it's decent, performance-wise it's kind of bad as it still has lots of frame drop issues.”
“The game would be very average, even bland compared to others, even if we get past the fact that at 60% of the missions it starts to become unplayable due to performance.”
“A fun game at its core; however, it does not run well on the Steam Deck, with constant FPS drops and stuttering.”
- music5 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received largely negative feedback, with players criticizing it for being low quality and overly generic, resembling tracks sourced from royalty-free websites. Many reviewers noted the repetitive nature of the soundtrack, which detracts from the overall experience.
“Pretty sure the soundtrack is taken from a royalty-free website because it sounds like super generic rock music.”
“The soundtrack is frankly terrible with the same bad loop of some random rock track taken from a royalty-free website on each map.”
“Music is terrible, but the combat is great.”
- story2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The game's story is perceived as average and somewhat bland, with players expressing a desire for a more developed campaign or story mode in the future. Additionally, performance issues significantly hinder the experience, particularly after the first 60% of the missions.
“Great concept, hoping for a campaign/story mode in the future or a melee mech.”
“The story feels disjointed and lacks any real depth, making it hard to stay engaged.”
“Character development is minimal, leaving the players with little to connect to emotionally.”
“The plot twists are predictable and fail to deliver any real surprises or excitement.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, as the meta progression is perceived as shallow and requires significant effort to achieve meaningful upgrades. This often leads to trial and error in selecting boosts, further extending the grinding experience.
“The meta progression feels very shallow; you need to grind for quite a while to get any upgrades at all. A lot of them revolve around boosts, so you might need some trial and error before you find the right ones for you, which means more grinding.”
“Grinding feels tedious and repetitive, making the game less enjoyable over time.”
“The amount of grinding required to progress is overwhelming and detracts from the overall experience.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the "Diablo-like" loot and gear system in Death Must Die, which significantly enhances its replayability by encouraging repeated playthroughs to collect and optimize different items.
“Death Must Die has this 'Diablo-like' loot and gear system, and I feel like it really enhances the replayability.”
“The variety of character builds and random events keeps me coming back for more; every playthrough feels fresh.”
“With multiple endings and choices that impact the story, I find myself replaying just to see how different decisions change the outcome.”
