Razor2: Hidden Skies

About

Razor2: Hidden Skies is a vertical scrolling shooter game with intense action and vibrant graphics. The player controls a fighter plane equipped with various weapons, battling against hordes of enemy aircraft and bosses across different stages. With its challenging gameplay and upgradable arsenal, Razor2 provides an exciting and rewarding experience for shoot-em-up enthusiasts.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

+11

20%

Audience ScoreBased on 139 reviews

emotional2 positive mentions

gameplay18 negative mentions

The game features an enjoyable thematic soundtrack and decent graphics, providing a visually appealing experience.
Gameplay is satisfying and fun, with a variety of weapons available to tackle enemies.
For those who enjoy classic shoot'em up games, it can be a fun experience if obtained at a significant discount.

The game suffers from poor controls, frustrating hit detection, and a lack of originality, making it feel generic and repetitive.
There is no save feature, forcing players to restart from the beginning after losing, which can be extremely frustrating.
The game is plagued by bugs, crashes, and performance issues, leading to a disappointing overall experience.

gameplay
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
32%
44%
The gameplay of Razor2: Hidden Skies has been widely criticized for being generic, repetitive, and lacking in depth, with many reviewers noting poor mechanics, clunky controls, and frustrating collision detection. While some players appreciated the upgrade system, the overall experience is marred by uninteresting enemy patterns and a lack of creativity, leading to a deeply unsatisfying and monotonous gameplay experience. Many feel the game fails to meet the standards of the shmup genre, resembling a poorly executed student project rather than a polished title.
- “Gameplay is fun, and familiar.”
- “I like the upgrade system, and gameplay, even if the menus and graphics aren't as polished.”
- “Razor 2: Hidden Skies tries gallantly to emulate the shmups of yore, but falls flat not for want of creativity (though it could certainly use a bit more), but due to inexcusable issues with the game mechanics themselves.”
- “The gameplay is monotonous and uninteresting, and collision detection is indiscernible.”
- “Gameplay is very poor and unpolished as it gets repetitive, cheap (as in enemies coming in from behind unexpectedly), and boring (predictable and lame enemy patterns, and bosses take forever to kill without appropriate weapons or upgrades).”
- “The gameplay is repetitive and boring; even before the end of the first level, I wanted to stop playing.”
music
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
55%
28%
The music in the game receives mixed to negative feedback, with many players finding it either boring or inappropriate for the game's theme. Complaints include the music being overly loud, overpowering important sound effects and voice acting, as well as a repetitive and uninspired soundtrack that fails to enhance the gaming experience. Some players noted that while the orchestrated music has potential, it ultimately detracts from the overall enjoyment due to its poor integration and lack of variety.
- “This game has an awesome thematic soundtrack that enhances the experience.”
- “I personally found the soundtrack a bit weird; it felt like I was playing God of War.”
- “The orchestrated music is the only possible reason for grabbing this game.”
- “The music is horrible and you can't turn it off even if you set the music volume at the lowest, so you have no choice but to listen to it while playing until it stops on its own sometime before the first boss, while the voice over keeps repeating the same things over and over again and you'll soon get tired of it.”
- “The music is so incredibly loud that you will not be able to notice over 50% of the sound effects in this game (voices included).”
- “It has dull levels and music, and simply does nothing to capture the imagination.”
graphics
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
46%
42%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players describing them as unpolished and reminiscent of low-resolution PlayStation 1 titles. Issues such as poor optimization leading to stuttering and lag, as well as a confusing hitbox that doesn't align with the ship's graphic, detract from the overall experience. While some players appreciate the aesthetic and presentation, the consensus leans towards dissatisfaction with the visual quality and interface design.
- “Very enjoyable shoot'em'up with nice graphics, sounds, and presentation.”
- “This is a great old-style arcade game that's been upgraded with 3D graphics.”
- “I like the upgrade system and gameplay, even if the menus and graphics aren't as polished.”
- “The graphics are unpolished and the game UI/menus are painfully slow, with unusable tooltips.”
- “A strange thing I really didn't expect was that this game's graphical engine is so badly optimized that I experienced stuttering, laggy controls, and pretty low framerate, and this ruined my game experience in no time.”
- “The controls and hitbox are sloppy, the weapons unbalanced, the music horribly out of place, the upgrades system lacking any sense of actual progression, and the entire visual aesthetic utterly uninspired.”
story
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
79%
21%
The story aspect of the game is criticized for its low-quality, cheesy text-to-speech voiceovers that are often drowned out by explosions, making it difficult to follow mission briefings, which are also poorly written. Players express frustration over having to restart from the beginning after quitting and encountering various gameplay bugs that disrupt the experience. Overall, the narrative is seen as lacking depth and coherence, contributing to a disjointed gaming experience.
- “Each mission has a cheesy low-quality text-to-speech mission introduction voiceover, only it gets a few words into it before the explosions start and the rest is completely drowned out.”
- “I became unable to read mission briefings (not a tremendous loss since they're an exercise in bad English and misspelled words) and upon finishing and going to the main menu, it would spam me right into a new game on easy mode, not allowing me to change settings or even exit the game.”
- “Once you quit, you need to start from mission 1 again.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's replayability is criticized, with users noting that power-ups are ineffective and overall replay value is lacking, leading to a diminished incentive to revisit the game.
- “One thing that still quite doesn't fit in is the replayability feature.”
- “Power-ups seem to be ineffective, and replay value is nil.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been reported to be highly unstable, with frequent crashes and significant bugs, particularly on Windows 10 systems. While some users find the gameplay enjoyable, the overall experience is marred by these technical issues.
- “Not a bad game if you can get it to run... sadly, it's really, really buggy on my Windows 10 machine.”
- “Buggy, game crashed hardcore.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy is criticized as a blatant cash grab, with many users feeling that the game resembles a low-budget flash game lacking quality and depth.
- “This is a cash grab that feels like a flash game that lost 80% of its budget.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's graphical engine is poorly optimized, leading to significant issues such as stuttering, laggy controls, and low framerate, which detract from the overall gaming experience.
- “A strange thing I really didn't expect was that this game's graphical engine is so badly optimized that I experienced stuttering, laggy controls, and pretty low framerate, which ruined my game experience in no time.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is marked by a sense of frustration, as players frequently experience damage from incoming ships without any direct interaction, leading to feelings of helplessness and disappointment.
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is widely criticized, with users noting that it feels lacking and uninspired, contributing to an overall negative experience. Additionally, technical issues and poor controls further detract from the immersive quality expected in a game.
- “Running slow on a fast machine, stupid console controls, and has zero atmosphere.”