Solstice Chronicles: MIA

The coolest effects are the flashlights and the bullet tracing, but the awe stops there. The textures are rather bland, the levels don’t have all that much detail, and the characters animations, for the protagonist and enemies, are almost at a minimum. When you put all of it together, you’re left with something that’s just there, with decent visuals and not much else. The sound department doesn’t help either. The only redeeming quality if the voice and the interactions with the drone, but they are few and far in between.

If MIA were cheaper, or had more interesting art design, or tried to say or do something different than other games like it, or at least leaned a bit more into some of the silliness it gestures at (the dialogue has the occasional quip that indicates something the game could have been), then we’d have a something I could recommend buying. At its current state, it’s worth playing if you can get it for cheap. Go save Mars in another game.

A twin-stick shooter with good potential, but also afflicted by bugs and problems.

It’s well polished and offers moments of great fun, especially in co-op, but as a single player experience the game is slow and starts to drag quite quickly. In some aspects it feels rough and unfinished. As it stands, if you have a friend to play Solstice with, you’re likely to enjoy your time with it - but if you’re going to attempt the game solo, then maybe wait for a sale.

Solstice Chronicles M.I.A is a competent shooter, with its dynamic threat level leading to tense, frightening moments. The constant dread forces an engaging and tactical risk vs reward style of play - but the often awkward controls and derivative story let it down.