Slave Zero X

Slave Zero X will certainly put a smile on the face of those who played the original in the late '90s, and oozes a distinct biopunk style. However, a short and shallow structure prevents it from being a must play, even though the gory hacking and slashing is a lot of fun.

Slave Zero X did not grip me with the story, however, the simplistic game mechanics were a nice change of pace. You move along the area from left to right, you can hack and slash your way through the enemies, there are various enemy types each with its unique attack pattern and weapons. As you can see from the video above the graphics are very “retro” but the developers, Poppy Works have added camera shifts as you move along the levels. This gives this 2D game more visual depth. I personally found some bosses very tricky to beat, add the fact they have no health meter, some battles can be are very frustrating. I did find myself on more than one occasion stuck trying to manoeuvre to the next section. The above “issues” did not take away the fact I did have a blast playing Slave Zero X.

Slave Zero X is a game where there is a great dissonance between how it looks and how it plays. It's one of the most stylish games of the year, and it looks great. It sounds very good too. It does a good job of reviving a now-forgotten brand and establishing its own distinct and unique biopunk identity. However, in many ways it feels unfinished and unbalanced. The difficulty is very unbalanced, the controls could be more responsive and the gameplay could be better handled, especially mechanically.