Review for Sky Force Reloaded. Game for Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Steam and Xbox One, the video game was released on 30/11/2017
Sky Force Reloaded it's one of those titles that, at least to a longtime player like myself, evokes so many fond memories of afternoons spent blasting enemy ships and ranting excessively, long before any Souls Like became mainstream. Sky Force Reloaded in fact, it is part of one of those genres that have made the history of the video game.
Sky Force Reloaded, realized by Infinite dreams, was born as a mobile game, extremely enjoyable for other things, but the best of it certainly gives it with its "enhanced" versions for PC and for PlayStation 4 (and conversions for Xbox One e Nintendo Switch).
The plot of the game is classic and extremely simple: at the controls of a war plane we will have to face a series of vertically scrolling levels, full of enemies and deadly pieces of artillery, avoiding an almost continuous hail of shots up to, classic among the classics , face a huge and powerful boss at the end of the level. As if all this were not enough, we will also have to do our utmost to identify and rescue the unfortunate drivers who preceded us, who, however, had the misfortune of falling into full enemy territory. All exquisitely old school.
To the classic shoot'em up facility, Sky Force Reloaded it also adds a robust grinding component. Unlike many illustrious predecessors of the same genus, in Sky Force Reloaded we will not be able to upgrade our armament by collecting various power ups around the levels. This time we will have to buy every single modification to the basic structure (and subsequently upgrade it) in the hangar of our base, spending without too many thoughts the stars that act as currency and which, fortunately, we will find in a fair amount by knocking down the enemies during the games. The upgrades are of various nature: they range from a powerful side cannon, homing missiles, improved armor to culminate in an inevitable Mega Atomic-like Bomb.
Each level of Sky Force Reloaded it presents, in addition to the destruction of the final boss, also four distinct objectives: to finish the level by destroying a certain percentage of enemies, to save all the surviving pilots, to destroy all the enemies and to complete the level without suffering damage. Each time a goal is achieved we will earn a medal. The medals are then used to unlock the next levels. And here, we find perhaps the only real flaw of the game: sometimes it is frustrating to be able to beat a ferocious Boss, who may have made us damn for hours, and not being able to access the next level because we do not have enough medals. It is then up to replay one of the previous levels only by aiming to complete that given objective that we had left behind.
Luckily, once you have achieved all the objectives in a level, you unlock a version of the same with higher difficulty and with new challenges. In addition, hidden for the levels, there are also collectibles, which give us additional power ups or even, enhanced models of our basic aircraft and various support characters: at least having to grind has some more stimulus.
On a technical level Sky Force Reloaded definitely comes out with his head held high. The graphics are clean and detailed, with an attractive dieselpunk design that never hurts, but above all it is fluid and without the shadow of various slowdowns. All crowned by a great electronic-style soundtrack that you will struggle to get out of your head. Also from the gameplay side Sky Force Reloaded does its job at its best, with a perfectly balanced learning curve (you will curse yes, but not too much, the right one) and simple and intuitive controls.
A great game, capable of immediately creating a lot of addiction, given the fast and simple nature of its games, in a very luxurious version. Absolutely recommended!
► Sky Force Reloaded is a shooter type game developed and published by Infinite Dreams for Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Steam and Xbox One, the video game was released on 30/11/2017
