Introduction:
Today’s game is a vertical space shooter called Galactic Invaders. As is normal for Hand Made Games, there’s no proper installer, so you’ll have to create your own desk top shortcuts. Keep an eye out for the location that the game is installed to once you unpack the zip file which is 18.4Mb in size. Once installed the game unpacks to 94.2Mb. The default location is:
C:\Games\IntergalacticInvaders
If you’re new to the giveaway project and are not sure how to create a shortcut, especially a start menu shortcut, check the forums. There’s a sticky thread in one of the sections that deals with creating shortcuts.
Here's what the author had to say about the game:
You are a space fighter pilot who must shoot wave after wave of aliens and protect the Earth. :)
The Game:
The main menu shows no help menu which would have been useful, if only to give some information on the limited power ups and the controls for a two player game. The second player uses the following keys – the cursor keys to move the space ship anywhere on the field, and either the left or right Ctrl for firing. For the single player game all movement and firing is done via the mouse and LMB.
I played the game for nearly half an hour expecting the end of a level. I was mistaken in thinking there was 49 levels because looking in the data folder that’s what was indicated. It seems this is just one endless level, with just a few different power ups. As for enemy space ships there seems to be only three, but maybe five if the data folder is to be believed.
There’s a save feature and you can select three levels of difficulty via the settings menu, where you can also adjust the volume of the sound effects and music. There’s a high score table as well.
If you're not impressed with the music you can replace the two files called Menu and Track one with some music of your choice, but you will need to convert to the ogg format by using a audio converter (you can download several of these via the giveawayoftheday freeware library). You will find the music files by following the path below:
C:\GAMES\IntergalacticInvaders\GData\Music
System Requirements:
O.S…………………………………………MS Windows 2000/XP/Vista
CPU………………………………………. Pentium 1Ghz or higher
RAM ………………………………………256MB
Video…………………………………… 64MB or above
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Images:
All on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/intergalactic%20invaders/?albumview=grid
As a slideshow:
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Conclusion:
I liked the colourful explosions and the bloom effects that were produced when enemy space ships exploded. The lasers also looked pretty cool at first, but apart from some variation in colour, frequency and length of the laser blasts, it became very monotonous once your ship had added all the power ups it could, (which weren’t many. Unfortunately when several ships were hit at the same time (every few seconds) the explosions seemed to meld together and everything became confused; (see images that is, you couldn’t see the power ups, or the enemy ships approaching. However this didn’t really seem to matter as all I had to do was move my hands left and right continually for nearly half an hour without losing one ship. You start with three lives and this increase's to a maximum of nine. I really couldn't tell any difference between the Easy setting and the Hardest with respect to game play; all three settings seemed to give similar results, though I neglected to see if you scored more for hitting an enemy ship when set to Hard. You can change the difficulty setting mid game if you wish by pressing Esc, then selecting options from the menu.
I must admit I was disappointed with the game. It's probably good for the odd 10 minutes here and there to fill in the time with some mindless shooting between other games or work, but there really is no skill involved.
There are loads of freeware alternatives that you can find via the two links I’ve provided below, with diverse game play and a lot more interesting. I really think this game despite some positives is only worth a 4 out of 10.
To the developer, you really need to add a wide variety of enemy ships as well as upgrade ships for the player. The power ups also need to be increased and maybe add some missiles. There was only one weapon provided that appeared to upgrade three or four times only. You could also add bombs and secondary satellite ships that follow you around. These should be standard fare on this type of shooter. The game does have a lot of potential. I love the colourful explosions, but they obscure everything when the waves of enemy space ships start to increase in numbers as you progress through the level. I think the scores that kept appearing and growing larger when you made a kill, (which was constantly) made the arena look really cluttered all the time. These should be toned down or removed all together. I’m sorry I’ve given this such a low score. I have too many of these games and most of them are much better than this game. As already mentioned the only thing I found interesting was the colourful explosions, but that isn’t enough to keep me interested and definitely doesn't justify the price of this game.
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Alternatives:
I started a Shmup's (short for space shoot ‘em up’s) thread over a year ago with loads of free space themed games, plus there are quite a lot to be found in the 'free games synopsis', both of which can be found in the giveaway forums (see links below). There’s a whole host of different types, from 3D space shooters to 360 degree shooters, vertical and horizontal shooters, asteroid type games, space invaders and even a Space RPG. A lot of them are as good if not better than some commercial, versions. There are also at least 10 good commercial quality games you can download from Gametop; (you can find download links via the shmup's and synopsis threads below). I could list at least a score of games from the two threads below that I still have in my games library and thoroughly enjoy playing when I have the time:
Shmup’s:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2724
Synopsis:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4534
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