Onslaught is a WiiWare exclusive that attempts to answer the question "What if you took Earth Defense Force but made it a arcade-y first person shooter?" Before I found this game, I wasn't aware that that question needed an answer, but an answer I have, and I can't say that my life isn't a little bit better having that question answered. The game's story is definitely its weakest attribute; it's stupid and makes zero sense. Basically people on Earth experimented on insects to turn them into huge cybernetic creatures with the purposes of terraforming planets for colonization. They sent a ship load of these insect cyborgs to a planet as an experiment, and oops, they mutated and ended up massacring all of the teams that were later sent to investigate. You meet up with a couple of random special forces folks and go do bug killing things. I stopped paying attention around that time. The story's stupid, so don't worry about it. The point is that it's pretty much EDF but in a very arcade-y first person shooter. What I mean by that is that it feels and plays a lot like an arcade rail shooter except that there are no rails and you can move about freely. It's hard to describe, but I guarantee that you'll know EXACTLY what I mean if you play the game. Visually, the game is actually pretty impressive. The Wii in general isn't exactly known for its graphical prowess, and WiiWare games especially with their roughly 500 MB limit tended to look...shall we say, minimalistic. Onslaught, while definitely not as good looking as The Conduit or Metroid Prime 3, looks much better than I was expecting. Unfortunately the controls are average at best, and the sound is just...not great. The motion controls are extremely twitchy which is in sharp contrast to the character movement; your crosshairs zip around the screen, but your character moves as if he were in a pool of pudding. You get used to both the sensitive aiming and the sluggish movement, but they're definitely not what I would call ideal. The audio, on the other hand, certainly isn't the worst I've heard, but it's certainly not something to highlight when trying to convince folks to play the game. The sound effects for the guns all feel rather hollow, and the music is remarkable only in how forgettable it is. I know I've been perhaps a bit harsh, but Onslaught really isn't a bad game. I had a good bit of fun the two or three hours I spent playing it. It's just not a very memorable game. It looks good for a WiiWare game with a realistic art style, and once you get used to the somewhat janky controls, it's actually a good bit of fun to play, but it's definitely not a game I'd urge you to go download immediately. If you've got a hacked Wii or Wii U, then there are definitely worse games to pirate, but you're not missing out on a classic or a hidden gem or anything if you forego Onslaught. My Rating - C |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
March 2024
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