Sine Mora

80%
Game Brain Score Based on 519 reviews
  • story
  • graphics
  • gameplay
Sine Mora Game Cover
Sine Mora is a really refreshing game, and is one that is created with a lot of love and affection. People who are fans of this genre shouldn't think twice about picking this one up; it is possibly one of the best Shmups I've ever played.
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Sine Mora is a critically acclaimed horizontal shoot'em up, combining innovative gameplay and stunning graphics. Its unique time-based challenge system sets it apart, while it offers a fresh take on classic shooter mechanics. Now available on iOS, get ready for a breathtaking adventure and one of the best shooter experiences.

  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • PC
  • Phone
  • Windows
  • Android
  • Mobile Platform
  • Ouya
  • Play​Station
  • Play​station 3
  • Play​station Vita
  • Tablet
  • Xbox
  • Xbox 360
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

80%
Audience ScoreBased on 519 reviews
story82 positive mentions
grinding5 negative mentions
  • Gorgeous graphics and art style that enhance the overall experience.
  • Innovative time-based health mechanic that adds a unique twist to the gameplay.
  • Engaging boss battles with varied designs and attack patterns.
  • Confusing and convoluted story that can be hard to follow.
  • Frustrating difficulty spikes, especially in later levels and boss fights.
  • Unforgiving power-up system where losing upgrades can significantly hinder progress.
  • story309 mentions

    The story in this game is often described as convoluted and difficult to follow, with many players noting its complex themes of war, time travel, and personal struggles. While some appreciate the depth and unique narrative elements, including well-developed characters and a dark tone, others find the delivery—primarily through lengthy text screens and philosophical narration—distracting and overwhelming. Overall, the story adds a layer of intrigue to the gameplay, but its execution may not resonate with all players, particularly those who prioritize straightforward narratives in shoot 'em up games.

    • “The story is rich and engrossing, and the gameplay is fluid, frantic, and fun as hell.”
    • “Sine Mora is a wondrous shmup, extremely well done and fluid, yet, what truly distinguishes such a baffling title is its setting and deep, philosophical story.”
    • “The graphics are great, and the game has a great premise, even if the story is a bit out there.”
    • “The story is lazily delivered via bland walls of text in between missions, without effort to bring the game's world to life.”
    • “The story is convoluted and hard to follow, with the majority of it conveyed as walls of text between levels.”
    • “The story is a tad bit confusing and overwhelming, but if you take the time to read everything, you should be okay.”
  • graphics185 mentions

    The graphics in the game are widely praised for their stunning visuals, beautiful art style, and immersive 3D environments, making it one of the best-looking titles in the shoot-'em-up genre. Many reviewers highlight the creative level designs and impressive boss visuals, although some note that the focus on aesthetics may come at the expense of gameplay depth. Overall, the game's graphics are considered a standout feature, contributing significantly to the overall experience.

    • “The standout feature of the game is the gorgeous visuals.”
    • “Sine Mora's graphics are absolutely gorgeous, with its stunning steampunk futuristic settings it really made me say 'wow' a few times here and there.”
    • “The graphics and art style are really impressive, while it's hard to concentrate on the scenery while dodging hundreds of bullets, this game is an absolute pleasure to watch.”
    • “Sine Mora EX won't run after setting graphics settings to ultra; it crashes to desktop upon startup.”
    • “Not the longest game with average graphics; I can see the bounds of the world flashing sometimes due to bad positioning of the image they are using on the mesh.”
    • “I experienced some graphical glitches, putting black boxes across parts of the background.”
  • gameplay170 mentions

    The gameplay of "Sine Mora" is characterized by its unique time-based mechanics, where time serves as both health and a resource, adding a layer of strategy to the traditional shoot-'em-up format. While many players appreciate the beautiful graphics and challenging gameplay, opinions are divided on the execution of its mechanics, with some finding them innovative and engaging, while others criticize them as frustrating and poorly implemented. Overall, the game offers a visually stunning experience with solid mechanics, but its difficulty and design choices may not appeal to everyone.

    • “Easy to play, yet difficult to master; its solid gameplay earns it a recommendation.”
    • “The gameplay is fantastic, somewhat challenging and hard, but it can be played multiple times.”
    • “Great bullet-hell gameplay, if a little slower-paced than what you might be used to.”
    • “Visually beautiful, yes, but the gameplay is atrocious.”
    • “However, many reasonably small design choices in the gameplay and general design come together to make for a game that is bland at best.”
    • “The game mechanics are bad, the controls are equally as bad on mouse, keyboard, and gamepad, and I could not wrap my head around the design decisions these developers made.”
  • music46 mentions

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it forgettable or uninspired, particularly in relation to the game's aesthetic and gameplay. While some praise the high-quality soundtrack and its fitting ambiance, others criticize it for lacking the intensity expected in a shoot 'em up, with Akira Yamaoka's contributions being seen as underwhelming. Overall, the music is described as decent but not memorable, failing to enhance the gaming experience significantly.

    • “The music is awesome, really catchy.”
    • “Gorgeous art, breathtaking bosses, and a fantastic soundtrack.”
    • “Audio-wise the game keeps up the pace with an excellently composed soundtrack that is worth listening to.”
    • “The soundtrack, mostly electronic ambiance for the levels and more upbeat EDM for the bosses, is pretty forgettable in my opinion and doesn't really fit the aesthetic.”
    • “It was so forgettable that I don't even remember if there was some background music to begin with, and I'm not even joking.”
    • “The dull music doesn't help much to set up the mood, either.”
  • replayability30 mentions

    The game offers a mix of high replayability due to its challenging gameplay, multiple characters, unlockables, and various game modes, including score attack and arcade. However, many players note that the short campaign length (around 2-3 hours) and repetitive nature can diminish long-term engagement. Overall, while it caters well to hardcore gamers and achievement hunters, the limited content may lead to boredom after extended play.

    • “It's incredibly well designed and tight with a great depth of options for replay value, it's just such a damn shame that it's so short on levels and content.”
    • “The story itself is intriguing enough to keep me playing and the modes that it offers gives it a lot of replay value and top it off with a rich scoring system.”
    • “Albeit short, it has a lot of replayability combined with a well-structured story, beautiful graphic design, and a great soundtrack.”
    • “The game is challenging even on normal, so many players may give up after a while. The game is replayable, but not that much as the campaign is roughly 2-3 hours long only.”
    • “But despite the replay value offered by multiple characters, aircraft, unlockables, and different gaming modes like score attack and arcade, it's just boring and repetitive after more than a few hours.”
    • “It has 0 replayability since everything is random and you don't earn your score by doing anything; you get it by the randomly generated item pickups.”
  • atmosphere7 mentions

    The game's atmosphere receives mixed reviews; some players find it lacking excitement and energy, while others praise its unique steampunk design and atmospheric music, likening it to classic titles. The combination of gorgeous visuals and engaging audio, including Hungarian elements, contributes to a captivating experience for many. Overall, the atmosphere is seen as a strong point for those who appreciate its artistic direction.

    • “The bullet-hell implementation of this game reminds me of the classic Gradius 3 for Super Nintendo that I often played growing up; however, it is unique enough in atmosphere and level design that it is completely its own.”
    • “You don't have to be fond of the genre to enjoy it unless you have trouble with gorgeous design and atmospheric music.”
    • “Its steampunk approach renders it a unique atmosphere - even more interesting is the Hungarian audio that, by default, you will hear.”
    • “The problem with the game starts with its atmosphere.”
    • “You can find no excitement, no energy, no atmosphere in it.”
  • optimization6 mentions

    Overall, the game's optimization is mixed; while it performs adequately on average hardware and offers smooth controls, users report significant issues such as screen freezing, stuttering, and mouse control problems that remain unresolved.

    • “It's optimized pretty well, so don't worry if the screenshots make you wonder if you'll handle this... you will!”
    • “The game runs smoothly on an average laptop and a standard graphics card.”
    • “Aside from that, the game runs smoothly and controls are responsive.”
    • “Poor performance.”
    • “There are multiple screen freezing, stuttering, mouse control problems, and other issues that will not be fixed at any point.”
    • “Adequate performance on Intel HD4000 on normal at 720p.”
  • grinding5 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be enjoyable initially, but it quickly becomes tedious, especially when pursuing achievements that require repetitive tasks, such as dying a certain number of times. The inclusion of time-limits further complicates challenges, leading to increased frustration and a sense of trial-and-error.

    • “Was really fun the first 10-20 times I've played through it, but it gets a bit tedious if you keep grinding at it for the achievements.”
    • “This is augmented by a time-limit element which complicates some fights and increases the trial-and-error/repetition to a truly tedious degree.”
    • “Some of the challenges are very grindy, especially things like 'die 100 times.' I've had multiple ranks bottlenecked due to randomly grindy prerequisites like this.”
  • emotional5 mentions

    Players find the emotional experience of the game to be profound, with moments of overwhelming feelings when quitting and a heartwarming transition from gameplay to the desktop. Despite some gameplay frustrations, such as difficulty in distinguishing elements and the need to restart chapters, the game is praised for delivering intense and emotionally charged shooting action, comparable to other renowned titles in the genre.

    • “Literally quitting was so overwhelming, and seeing the game switch from menu to my desktop screen was a heartwarming feeling.”
    • “Besides Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun, both being Treasure masterpieces, Sine Mora is the only other shoot-'em-up that is successful in delivering intense yet highly emotional shooting action.”
  • humor3 mentions

    The humor in the game is a mixed bag; while some players find it unamusing, others describe it as one of the most entertaining and funny bullet hell shooters on Steam, with enjoyable replayability that adds to the comedic experience.

    • “One of the most entertaining and funny bullet hell shooters on Steam.”
    • “Just beginning the game, but I found it unexpectedly funny to replay missions all the time to get every achievement.”
    • “The move sensitivity feels like an unfunny joke.”
    • “The humor attempts fall flat and feel forced.”
    • “I expected a lot more laughs, but the jokes just missed the mark.”
  • stability3 mentions

    The game generally runs well on Windows 10 (64-bit) and supports ultrawide resolutions, but users report frequent crashes and graphical glitches, indicating it may be a buggy console port.

    • “Runs great on Windows 10 (64-bit) and it is ultrawide friendly (2560x1080).”
    • “I experienced some graphical glitches, putting black boxes across parts of the background.”
    • “I love the game; really cool characters, planes, voice acting, bosses, and awesome backgrounds, but it crashes... a lot... buggy console port, I guess...”
  • character development1 mentions

    Character development is perceived as lacking depth, with some users finding the character design to be unusual or off-putting. This has led to a disconnect between players and the characters, impacting overall engagement with the story.

    • “Character design feels weird.”
    • “The character development is shallow and lacks depth.”
    • “I found the characters to be one-dimensional and unrelatable.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

86% average critic score

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Play time

5hMedian play time
4hAverage play time
2-6hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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