Force Reboot is an FPS with rogue-lite elements that looks and plays like a retro FPS where it is very fast-paced and requires quick reactions rather than methodical cautious approach to survive. Or as some would call it, a typical Boomer Shooter.
No Choices, Like The Ol’ Days
True to this newly renamed genre, Force Reboot actually forces you to play it quickly and maintain that run and gun motto in its mechanics and style of play by having your health constantly drop down as time goes on in a room. The only way to increase your health is to kill enemies and enter into a new room, but fret not there are “safe zones” after a few rooms at the end of the floor where your health won’t drop and be at 100. So killing off enemies and finishing the room as fast as you can is paramount.
Some Breather
At the end of every floor is the Safe Zone, where you’ll be presented with a number of Buffs and Debuffs to choose from. Each buff will come with a debuff and depending on RNG, some buffs can be presented without a debuff and vice versa. Typically you would have 4 choices, however some debuffs that you may have chosen earlier can lessen the choice you’re presented on the next floor.
Bleeding Through
The art style of Force Reboot is similar to other games of the genre, instead of enemies bleeding red for blood the enemies you fight are robots so they “bleed” or leak green liquid that resemble the pool or acid that you’ll find in the levels. Unlike those traps that will injure you, these are a pleasing sight as it tells you that your shots landed.
Light For Now
The level variation and enemy types as for now isn’t much, there’s 5 enemy types who all have their own style to them, but all are robotic. Room variation won’t be noticeably little on a single run but on multiple runs is when you’ll see repeats. Another thing that isn’t much for some players is the weapon type, which total to 5 for now. However, early on if you get the double gun via the buff “card”, the lack of selection won’t matter as it is good enough to beat the game with those.
To Note & Modes
Which brings us to the point that as the game is currently in Early Access, the levels aren’t much and can be completed quite quickly. On the positive side to counter the longevity of the game at its current state is there’s a total of 3 playable game modes minus an unstable one. There’s the main game, Rush Mode which forces the player to play even faster as there’s no heals after entering a room and the Endless Mode, which will probably be the bulk of one’s playthroughs at this current juncture.
Final Thoughts
At the time of writing, Force Reboot is in Early Access, the availability of Endless Mode available from the get go is a bonus. Aesthetically the game looks nice and good enough for what you’d expect for this genre’s artstyle. The gameplay is where its strengths lay, shoots feel good, visual feedback of it is ideal, animation and movement is at how it’s expected to be, smooth and solid. Combat initially seems hectic and difficult but once you get into that flow state, you’ll feel it click as you slide through the room, stomp and blast enemies and make your way to the exit post haste. Definitely another good addition to the Boomer Shooter genre, so keep your eye out for this one.
Purchase Force Reboot on Steam!
Hailing from a small Island. Huge football fan. Drinks too much tea.
Survival, Roguelikes, Turn-based or Indie games in general are my go to genres but I like to dabble in all kinds of genres. I tend to have a soft spot for Shmups and Hidden Object Games once in a while.
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