Astebreed

 PC
User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 128 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 84 out of 128
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 128
  3. Negative: 23 out of 128

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  1. BasilZero
    Feb 25, 2017
    8
    Game: Astebreed
    Genre: Rail Shooter
    Publisher/Developer: AGM Playism/Edelweiss System: Steam (PC) Total Score: 78/100 Value Score: 7.8/10 • Story: 8/10 • Characters: 7/10 • GamePlay: 8/10 • Graphics: 9/10 • Sound: 8/10 • Music: 7/10 • Length: 6/10 • Replay Value: 7/10 • Player Value: 8/10 Pros +Great visuals and animation/cutscenes +Multiple difficulty modes +Gallery    Game: Astebreed
    Genre: Rail Shooter
    Publisher/Developer: AGM Playism/Edelweiss
    System: Steam (PC)
    Total Score: 78/100
    Value Score: 7.8/10

    • Story: 8/10
    • Characters: 7/10
    • GamePlay: 8/10
    • Graphics: 9/10
    • Sound: 8/10
    • Music: 7/10
    • Length: 6/10
    • Replay Value: 7/10
    • Player Value: 8/10

    Pros
    +Great visuals and animation/cutscenes
    +Multiple difficulty modes
    +Gallery mode which showcases artwork and In-Game Lore
    +Leaderboards and Achievements
    +Chapter Select to start from whenever in the game (must beat game once)
    +Can be played with either keyboard and mouse (built around this) or with a controller easily

    Cons
    -Voiceovers are only in Japanese
    -Some voiceovers get cut off (can be read via subtitles but wont hear anything)
    -To activate full screen, you will have to select "Yes" upon start up, the only time you would need to use a keyboard if you go full controller route
    -Important story conversations occur during levels which would make it near impossible to read what the characters are saying unless you risk getting killed in game
    -Very short and can be quite easy    … Expand
  2. marklois
    Dec 25, 2014
    10
    One of the best SHMUPS indie games i EVER PLAYED..Really enjoying.The graphics,the game,the characters its really awesome!!.Since i was playing this always..I've never been bored in this game
  3. anggadaz
    Aug 8, 2014
    8
    the game grafis is very good, the storyline is good. The character is like ne*n g*nesis ev*ngelion. This not bad, the game is too short finish the game and bored if you playing again.
  4. Masterhummel
    Aug 10, 2014
    8
    It's pretty good for what it does. The story is so cheesy, i had to look away from the screen in some cut scenes (you can skip them, though). However, the gameplay is great. It lasts about two hours, but i feel like the game has a great re-playabillity. It's one of those games you will pick if you have to hit half an hour of time to kill and you're going trough your game list. Astebreed?It's pretty good for what it does. The story is so cheesy, i had to look away from the screen in some cut scenes (you can skip them, though). However, the gameplay is great. It lasts about two hours, but i feel like the game has a great re-playabillity. It's one of those games you will pick if you have to hit half an hour of time to kill and you're going trough your game list. Astebreed? Oh yeah, i could play that again. Works for me.… Expand
  5. Cyph3rPunk
    Jun 6, 2014
    9
    So I saw some random video online of this game, saw it for 20% off on steam and decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed in the game. The mechanics are great, and the game forces you to balance between using lock on shots, melee, and standard shots throughout the game. In the final boss battle, if you have not mastered all the systems, you will die. A lot. Graphics are great,So I saw some random video online of this game, saw it for 20% off on steam and decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed in the game. The mechanics are great, and the game forces you to balance between using lock on shots, melee, and standard shots throughout the game. In the final boss battle, if you have not mastered all the systems, you will die. A lot. Graphics are great, game supports 1440P as a display resolution (seems to be a 50/50 thing with indie games) and even up to 8K. The game does have a cohesive story (if you can follow it, more below about that), and lets you skip cutscenes so you aren't stuck watching stuff instead of blowing **** up. I also like that the game has a shield system that recharges when you don't get hit. It makes it less frustrating than most bullet hell games. It is still easy to die on the Hard settings, and you don't get combo points if you take damage, so there is always incentive to not get hit.

    So a few reasons why this game doesn't get a 10 -

    Too short. I understand that it's supposed to be a score attack game, but still, 6 stages is a bit short. I still find myself going back to beat my old high score, so the replay value is there.

    Japanese only voice acting. Now, this normally isn't a problem, but when the actual text for the story is flying by super fast, and the only way to get it is the (very small) English text in the bottom left of the screen, you miss out on huge chunks of it.

    The game is a solid 8.5, and I would recommend to anyone that enjoys shooters. Rounding up to 9 because the game deserves that instead of the 8, especially with the melee mechanic system that plays a pivotal role in the game.    … Expand
  6. busterbeam
    Mar 22, 2016
    10
    One of the best, most underrated indie games out there, made doubly impressive by the development company's obscurity & status as part-time devs and sadly held back by various public misconceptions, the primary one being that it is a "bullet hell game" and thus "doing it wrong". Despite classic arcade-like design principles, it's not a "nostalgia game"; it can hardly be described as "XOne of the best, most underrated indie games out there, made doubly impressive by the development company's obscurity & status as part-time devs and sadly held back by various public misconceptions, the primary one being that it is a "bullet hell game" and thus "doing it wrong". Despite classic arcade-like design principles, it's not a "nostalgia game"; it can hardly be described as "X meets Y". Maybe Sin & Punishment's cinematic on-rails presentation + a shmup's bullet dodging + Alien Soldier's sheer variety of stuff to do... but that wouldn't really do it justice.

    It's not really a bullet-hell; I'd have trouble calling it a shmup. It's more of an... anime mecha game. You control a robot while locking-on, shooting, sword-slashing and comboing your way through various perspective-shifting stages. You have two normal shots (activated by tapping their respective buttons) & two lock-ons (holding down their respective button). The lock-ons are a forward & spread shot respectively, either targeting around you in a circle or in a straight line. Your slash is more than it seems at first glance; sure, you can quickly tap the attack button to do a fast combo, but this can often leave you open; sometimes, AVOIDING the longer combo attack by timing your presses just right is the better way to go. You can also hold on to the sword button along with whatever direction you want to dash towards, sword-first. Lastly you have a variety of context-sensitive special attacks; if you press the special attack button while locked on to nothing, you will damage whatever is near you (the range of this effect increases once you unlock the second mech) and creates a short aura of invincibility around you, which adds a nice element of strategy. While locked on to a large group of enemies, your mecha will automatically home in on them and slash them up at a crazy speed; meanwhile, while only locked on to a single enemy, you will pull off a very anime-esque move on it taking out a significant chunk of its health. The scoring system is easy to understand and hard to master and involves plenty of practice of all the aforementioned skills (once again, refer to the tutorial on scoring). Many will feel that the game will completely destroy your fingers, but if you find yourself mindlessly mashing the normal shots chances are you're not playing it right; the lock-on is very useful throughout most of the game and balances out the button-mashing quite well. The on-rails camera-shifting (from side-scrolling to vertical shooter to behind-the-back third-person) is truly impressive; it helps add to the game's variety while also making for interestingly-composed cinematography.

    My only two significant gameplay gripes are the balance issues and the lack of a DEFAULT option to set the movement keys to WASD. The latter, however, is easily fixed by googling "Astebreed WASD" and getting the Astebreed tweaker from the Steam forums (however note that sometimes it might create a strange delay for the directional keys; if this happens, just restore the defaults and set your own controls again). The former might just be a result if my (crappy) play style, but it feels like an area in stage 3 along with the last boss are both a bit too much of a difficulty spike. Even then it's nothing as big as, say, the contrast in difficulty between Ikaruga's first and second stages. Beyond that we have the occasional bizarre crash when using the "restart game" feature, but this can't actually destroy one of your runs, so I can look past it (also my computer is an ancient piece of garbage that was old even when I got it in 2008 and I can't even properly play this on max settings)

    This is also a short game, but if you're into arcade games this should not be an issue; arcade design is not about artificially creating "pacing" by stopping the action to force you to solve physics "puzzles" or pushing a block over a switch, which can be an issue with otherwise-great games. There is no exploration and no grinding; the game's world is not your oyster. Good arcade design is about pure non-stop gameplay bliss, a barrage of creative enemy formations and set-pieces that will stay with you for years. It is not about offering the player the illusion that they are forging their own path, but about creating a pre-set obstacle course and then giving you a very wide variety of ways of making your way through it and grading them based on their inventiveness. Replayability comes in the form of beating all the modes with all the mechs, 1CCing hard more and improving your global score.    … Expand
  7. Dokkodo
    Jun 29, 2014
    5
    It's an ok game but honestly there's better bullethell flash games out there now.

    They may not look as cool, especially with the shifting camera angles and such, but the gameplay on them is more challenging and more fun. It also doesn't help that the voice acting is in Japanese and there's no subtitles. When you're busy dodging and killing you can't really read subtitles, so    It's an ok game but honestly there's better bullethell flash games out there now.

    They may not look as cool, especially with the shifting camera angles and such, but the gameplay on them is more challenging and more fun.

    It also doesn't help that the voice acting is in Japanese and there's no subtitles. When you're busy dodging and killing you can't really read subtitles, so storywise I had no idea why I was killing these alien robot thingies.    … Expand
  8. portmanjohnny
    Jul 22, 2014
    8
    really very good game...enjoy while playing this game, and graphics also awesome.my score is eight out of ten and physics mechanism also very good in this game...really very enjoyable game .http://catmarioonline.net/
  9. praxisseizure
    Jul 1, 2014
    9
    I love shmups to death This is in the uncanny valley of great shmups. It's great! But it falls just a bit short of being glorious. Benching against Ikaruga (one of the best shmups of all time) Astebreed takes a lot from its spiritual predecessors and delivers a solid drop kick to the face of arcade space blasting. Think the beauty of Ikaruga, camera of Einhander and some of the mechanicsI love shmups to death This is in the uncanny valley of great shmups. It's great! But it falls just a bit short of being glorious. Benching against Ikaruga (one of the best shmups of all time) Astebreed takes a lot from its spiritual predecessors and delivers a solid drop kick to the face of arcade space blasting. Think the beauty of Ikaruga, camera of Einhander and some of the mechanics of Radiant Silvergun with even more in store all wrapped up in a crazy fluid and chaotic package. Oh and it has a better, more fleshed out story than any of the aforementioned.

    First and foremost, it's a blast, literally, such enjoyable mayhem. It's easy to feel like a badass saving humanity. Story is good. Has some EVA aspects (    … Expand
  10. AtreidesXXI
    Jul 10, 2014
    9
    El juego es pura adrenalina. Su duración es escasa pero muy satisfactoria. Los gráficos son maravillosos y la fluidez total. La historia es difícil de seguir con los subtítulos debido a la acción. Un gran juego.
  11. JLK88
    Aug 21, 2014
    9
    Although slightly overrated, this game was a fast, fluid shoot'em up with a story behind it. The game is meant to be played through multiple times and is worth doing so.
  12. Potitoman
    Dec 31, 2014
    9
    Great visuals, audio, art and character design and, above all, brilliant gameplay.
    It's frantic shooting 90's style but uses modern hardware to switch the game mode from horizontal to vertical to 3D seamlessly as you plough your way through legions of enemy mecha and space ships.
    My only criticism is that the game feels too short, but considering how much fun it is, you'll be sure to    Great visuals, audio, art and character design and, above all, brilliant gameplay.
    It's frantic shooting 90's style but uses modern hardware to switch the game mode from horizontal to vertical to 3D seamlessly as you plough your way through legions of enemy mecha and space ships.
    My only criticism is that the game feels too short, but considering how much fun it is, you'll be sure to replay it again and again.    … Expand
  13. Ayreos
    Jul 1, 2014
    5
    Cheap bullet hell arcade game. It plays okay, but for people who do not speak japanese reading subtitles is virtually impossible. The game constantly spams the players with enemies and numerous important plot details at the same time, coupled with a lot of typical anime-style chatter from the protagonists. It's barely decent button-mashing, but nothing else.
  14. budwheizzah
    Oct 14, 2014
    4
    Truly bland and ordinary shmup with questionable mechanics including the boring" feels like you're not even controlling the gunfire" drag-reticule-across-the-screen aim. Full of annoying incomprehensible non-translated dialogue - the back and forth banter is unbearable. A sub par game with extremely misleading reviews and an overall disappointing purchase. Metacritic ought to investigateTruly bland and ordinary shmup with questionable mechanics including the boring" feels like you're not even controlling the gunfire" drag-reticule-across-the-screen aim. Full of annoying incomprehensible non-translated dialogue - the back and forth banter is unbearable. A sub par game with extremely misleading reviews and an overall disappointing purchase. Metacritic ought to investigate how this ordinary 4/10 made it on the top of their ranks for a bit. Inexplicable.… Expand
  15. kermitdaftfrog
    Jul 5, 2014
    9
    Great flashy arcade style shoot em up game. This game was made in Japan and has the whole japanese/anime feel to the game play and story. Sometimes it can be tough to read the subtitles but only because the fights are so intense. One of the best action arcade shooters I have played in 2014.
  16. MatDerKater
    Aug 2, 2014
    4
    Bought this seeing the universally great reviews. Obviously I forgot that how retarded everyone can be in their taste of media content and in general. To cut to the chase, I played one game of this on normal difficulty. At first, I was really impressed. All looked ultra slick and cool. But before long, I didn't know what the **** was happening. Despite not having a clue what was going, andBought this seeing the universally great reviews. Obviously I forgot that how retarded everyone can be in their taste of media content and in general. To cut to the chase, I played one game of this on normal difficulty. At first, I was really impressed. All looked ultra slick and cool. But before long, I didn't know what the **** was happening. Despite not having a clue what was going, and how the aliens were all sying and I wasn't, despite getting battered with their sometimes unavoidable flak and gun power, I got to level 5 before I died. yes, that is right, level fkn 5 before I died, and even then I am sure that I only died out of boredom.

    A game that requires no skill to win, is not a game, but an interactive 'light show' for a computer monitor. I was annoyed at blowing £10 on an interactive light show for my monitor.    … Expand
  17. GRANITsalvo
    Jan 1, 2015
    8
    A very good casual SHUMP. The graphics are great, the configuration options highlight what I love about Japanese games; missing a few key resolutions, but up to 4k scale, full button rebinding, and an audio config menu that puts US games to shame. All localized to English.
    I said casual, because it is trying to be more cinematic and therefore more forgiving since the focus is moved    A very good casual SHUMP. The graphics are great, the configuration options highlight what I love about Japanese games; missing a few key resolutions, but up to 4k scale, full button rebinding, and an audio config menu that puts US games to shame. All localized to English.
    I said casual, because it is trying to be more cinematic and therefore more forgiving since the focus is moved more away from bullethell and more towards the storyline that they seem to have put a good effort into. It's a SHUMP for couch play and those that are just getting into the genre.
    Good music (nothing really memorable,though), manga cutscenes that can be skipped, and good subtitled voiceacting make this an enjoyable game.

    $14 is a great price, and on sale, it is a steal.    … Expand
  18. FalconX
    Nov 30, 2014
    10
    I like to play arcade style shmups and they seldom release on PC (or if they do they come with a low console-quality resolution). This game is fun and looks great. It isn't difficult to get from stage to stage, but the game does offers enough challenge for score chasing that drives you to re-play for a perfect run.

Awards & Rankings

11
#11 Best PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Games.cz
    Oct 29, 2014
    80
    Astebreed is a two-faced retro arcade game. It presents a clever scoring system along with a great fun, though it can be also boring and stereotypical. Fortunately, it gives you a choice from which perspective you wish to get to know the game.
    Read full review
  2. Eurogamer Italy
    Oct 26, 2014
    90
    A savvy mix of sweetly balanced mechanics, dazzling speed and spectacular graphics.
    Read full review
  3. CD-Action
    Aug 25, 2014
    75
    Astebreed is most fun when you try to beat it on high difficulty level without using continues while improving your score over and over again. If you’re not interested in that, you’ll spend no more than one evening with this game. [08/2014, p.73]
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